Let's Do The Twist...er...

Sunday afternoon, sitting around with your family and enjoying some good food...not so much.

We were all together...huddled in the bathroom.

Yep, the five of us plus TacoHamster, PenelopeParakeet and ChiliDog, crammed into the kid's smelly bathroom. Me sitting in something wet...that for my mental health we are going to call water...

We had been under a tornado watch for hours when the WeatherGuy pointed out that a tornado was headed in our general direction. The kids gathered blankets and pets and we continued to watch the WeatherGuy to determine if retreat was really necessary.

How about a big yes.

It occurred to me that because our house is so out of the way that no one would know to come dig us out if we were actually hit. I called my Dad and asked him to call us back in 30 minutes...if we didn't answer he was going to call someone to come help us. I was still on the phone with him when it started.

The wind went from 0 to 60 in a matter of a single breath. We ran to the bathroom, slammed the door shut and pulled the blankets over us. The wind was howling and then the power went out. In a matter of minutes it was over and we were fine.

I found our little battery operated TV/radio and was stunned when the batteries actually still worked. I don't know about you but I don't generally have 12 C batteries lying around. I found our WeatherGuy just in time to hear him mention that a tornado had touched down in our area.

There were a few tree limbs down and our gate (about 8 feet wide and extremely heavy) had twisted to the point that the hinges tore from the post. That was the extent of the damage...we were very lucky. I didn't realize how lucky until later.

Between storms I rode up to check the barn and the horse, both fine. I decided to ride on up the road to check the old house and one of the other fields. It only took a moment to figure out exactly where the tornado had been. Had I walked out my back door into the woods 25 yards I would have been standing in its path.

Today I am adding some things to my grocery list, things to help us be more prepared for the next storm…batteries, something to nuke their bathroom with, and some GasX for ChiliDog…don’t want to survive a tornado only to succumb to methane poisoning.