The Texan and the Tornado

The Texan and the Tornado.

My daughter called quite frantic about the storm they were caught up in. They live in Texas and were under siege as this series of super cell storms cut a swath across our nation. Golf ball sized hale stones were hitting their SUV and the sky was turning a weird color and then the wind died down for a horrifying minute she described live as I chewed what was left of my last finger nail. Last year when I went home for our reunion I was shown the evidence of such a hale storm. As my son showed me where the beautiful metal awnings around his two story house had huge dents in them. His neighbor showed me the dents in his car. The windshield had been replaced but I could still see the hammer hits as if Carrie Underwood had taken a baseball bat to it.
I told her to get in the bath tub and she complied. The image of her huddling with my four grandkids was both humorous and haunting. Then I had an epiphany. Does any of your neighbors live in brick homes? I asked. Like the 3 pigs story, the only buildings left standing were made of brick in Joplin.
No she said as she began to lament the fact the wind speed was kicking up to over 60 mph and later the Texan said the rain was coming straight down. A bad sign evidently. I told her to put bicycle helmets on the kids and hunker down with food and water reserves. Get the family photos. I remembered people picking through the rubble in Joplin with only one thought. To retrieve their photos.
The hale stopped but left enough balls to make an igloo. My daughter said she was relieved but didn't know how she would be able to sleep. They put blankets over the windows to block out the lightening flashes. My grandson has seizures occasionally caused by flashes of light. I reassured her and we signed off.
The next day I texted her and asked if Toto was still there and If they were still in Kansas. She texted back with a withering LOL.
My week has been uneventful. Not much writing as my other half has been ill. Strep throat no less. Feigning a desire to skip the cuddling and smooching for a week may keep me from catching it. Hate being sick. But had to make a couple of trips down to the nearest town with an emergency room and later for a CPR class she had to take or loose her ability to work without it.
Not much writing or even editing with all the distraction. I did see the new Pirates of Caribbean movie while down there. Cracked up when Keith Richards made a cameo as Jack Sparrow's father.
Good times. Trying to light a fire under my muse this morning and get back to my WIP. I know this is not much of a post but any writing is better than no writing. I have been reading a lot. Also went to Barnes and Noble with the intent of ferrying out some of my Twitter and FB author friend's books. I couldn't find any. I believe the recession may be a factor as they only kept one copy of Stephen King's books on hand. Still fun to browse through the books and I did find some new books to read. Till the next time then.....