Weather

When I was a child I had a strange fixation with weather. I would read encyclopedias about weather and all the different types of severe weather. I would study the warning signs and how to protect yourself. In hind sight this was probably the beginning of my control issues. I still don't know why I was so fixated, all I managed to do is completely freak myself out for the rest of my life. We rarely saw severe weather in upstate NY, the occasional severe thunderstorm was all. Our severe weather always came in the winter and usually produced a foot or more of snow. I was especially afraid of tornados and lightening. When a tornado watch was issued I would sit in the basement for the duration of the watch time frame. I would never watch TV or talk on the phone during a thunderstorm. I was even afraid of going to the bathroom for fear the lightening would strike be through the vent. To this day I have to go to the bathroom when I hear thunder, no I am not afraid of using the bathroom anymore.

When we left NY and moved to the coast of NC I was introduced to hurricanes. I was scared for my first hurricane, then I just got bored and realized they were really no big deal. It really is a downer once the power goes out and you can't make frozen margaritas anymore. We made it through 2 major and 2 minor hurricanes while we lived in NC and really they are more inconvenient than anything (we never had anything higher than a category 3). Its not like you could leave town anyhow with the traffic being so congested you would end up in your car riding out the hurricane. So I quickly got over my fear of hurricanes.

Now we live in the Midwest with a whole new set of worries...tornados. I have never been in a tornado or even seen one so of course they worry me. The big problem is the lack of warning time, I would have just enough time to grab the cats and head for the basement. Pete of course says he would grab the TV first so I hope I am home if one hits so I can grab the cats and see him struggle with the TV. I have seen Twister enough times to know that I just need to tie myself to a huge pipe in the middle of a field and everything will be okay. I don't think the cats would enjoy being tied to a pipe though.

So we are entering spring with all it's severe weather promises and I just hope and pray that all the really bad storms go around us, not that I wish bad things on other people.