Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Tuesday-11:30am

Karma and I had a quiet day...
...glad to have the AC.
I was getting ready for bed when the tornado sirens went off at 1:30am. We don't hear them very often in town, let alone in the dead of night. I stepped out on the porch to check it out. The air was heavy and thick--and it was creepy still. So, since you can't see a tornado coming in the dark and I am on third floor, Karma and I headed for the bathroom...inside wall and no windows.
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Good thing the bathroom isn't any smaller--hehe! I rolled in a chair for me...
...and Karma in her stroller.
When it is a tornado siren---besides my purse with keys, phone, and camera that I usually take when it is a fire alarm and we have to leave the building--I can have coffee, water thermos, and my laptop! This was probably about the third time we've hidden in the bathroom during a tornado warning since I moved here.
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Funny--Karma doesn't cry and is very patient sitting in her stroller when we don't leave the apartment. The storm was moving very fast--55mph with over 70mph straight-line winds--so the worst of it had gone by within an hour. Apparently a couple of tornadoes were sighted in or near town, but I don't know if they touched down or not. Didn't sound like anyone was reporting damages.
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A pretty much slept thru the thunderstorm that came thru around 5am that was way noisier--rolling thunder that shook the building and bright lightning--but not tornado scary...and the next lesser version that came thru somewhere around 6:30, I think. Karma slept right next to me--hehe! I would have loved to stay awake to watch the morning storms, but I was too tired. I do love my thunderstorms--hehe!
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Rained like crazy when the last two storms rolled over us. The playground was flooded this morning.
Cloudy with scattered thunderstorms today--but cooler! 70's!! Nice!
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Caroline will be here this afternoon to clean. Dagan and Leah will be here after work. Dagan is going to set up the computerTV system and Leah and I are going to work on crafts.
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Hope your week is going really well. :) :)
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"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better."
Albert Einstein

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love your new page layout! And thank goodness a tornado didnt get close to you. I loved the pictures of Karma and I think it is so neat that she will sit and be nice in her stroller, I think my cats would sound like banshees if I put them in one of those LOL

Hope you are having a good week!!

akartisan said...

I went thru several tornadoes when I lived in Rapid City, SD in the 70's and in Kansas City in the 80's. They can be scary. I drove thru the corner of the one in KC because I didn't realize I was in it until too late.

The air always smells so clean after the thunderstorms. Glad you are alright.

Intense Guy said...

A little more rain and that children's play area will turn into a wading pool... and if it hangs in there.. a nice ice skating rink.

I'm giggling at the idea of you and Karma squeezed into the bathroom for an hour - not that a tornado is something to joke about.

Karma needs a small piece of 2x4 for a pillow when she sleeps in the middle of the floor... maybe a 2 x 4 x 3 or so... you could put it on her collar...

:) Hope the telebision workies soon.

Threads of Inspiration said...

Isn't the weather crazy? I live in Wisconsin and we are supposed to get some bad weather tonight. Good you and Karma have a safe place to be, but better still the storm just blew through.

AliceKay said...

I'm glad no tornadoes hit close to you. I was a bit surprised to read that it doesn't bother Karma sitting in her stroller as long as you're inside your apartment. (she must not like the bumpy stairs)

We don't have sirens here. We don't have any kind of warning system other than news reports on the TV. Tornadoes pop up over the mountains and suddenly there they are. They seem to be coming more often these days, too. :(

I hope everything gets hooked up and works like you want it to. Good luck!

Toriz said...

I'm glad it didn't get bad enough for serious damage to be caused. I like storms too. I didn't used to, but then I went camping during one, and learned they weren't so bad. No, not intentionally camping during one. I was away at a Girl Guides camp, and there was a nasty storm. Anyway, now I love listening to storms. Went swimming in a thunder storm too. That was intentional... We were on holiday, and we were bored, so Dad suggested swimming. Then a storm started up, and he said since we were going to get wet in the pool, why did the storm matter? So, we went swimming. Water is really warm in a storm.

Stephanie said...

Hey Rita, happy to hear you and Karma are safe and well and that you have some creative stuff planned! Hope the television stuff gets all sorted out. I also hope that the weather stays fresh and clean smelling for some time--I love how it smells after a good storm. cheers! Stephanie

Serena Lewis said...

Stay safe, Rita....those tornadoes sound downright scary.

When it says 'no signal', it usually means it can't find the apparatus you are trying to connect to, possibly because the apparatus/VCR is turned off...you will be fine once Dagan shows you the steps to access your VCR via the new TV....it's easy-peasy once you get the hang of it.

Rita said...

Lynn--Karma cries and cries as soon as we hit the hallway and all the way to the garage when we have the fire alarms. But she sits quietly and waits with little protest when we just hide in the bathroom--hehe! I got the stroller because of the fire alarms (easier for me to get her down three flights of stairs and move around with her once we are outside) and thought maybe we could actually go for walks as long as I had it, right? HA! She cried and howls the whole time it moves--ROFL! ;)

Sue--I experienced them first hand when I was a kid. Watched the roof blow off the junior high gymnasium in sections. Walked home inbetween tornadoes. You'd think that might make me more nervous about them, but it made me less nervous. If a tornado really wants you--it will get you. I just want to have some essentials (dressed/purse/cell phone/Karma) and rubber soled shoes on--but I seldom actually head for the bathroom. Maybe we have too many of them up here so that you don't believe the warnings when you maybe should. The weather coverage over the years has gotten so extreme that it is downright annoying, too. They break in every few minutes and say the same things over and over and over--no new information from what was already running across the bottom of the screen or in the corner anyways.

They never used to do that years ago unless something really big was going down--like when Kennedy was shot. Remember the days when they broke in and you ran to the TV to see what was happening? Now they do it sooooo much for every little thing that I don't even pay attention anymore. Sad, but true.

Rita said...

Iggy--you really gave me my chuckle for the day! Oh, and BTW--I was chuckling with Karma in the bathroom. She probably could use some hunks of 2 X 4s for pillows--hehe! I bet if I laid a hunk on the floor someplace she'd actually use it for a pillow--ROFL!! :):) We're still working on the TV system.

Welcome Threads! We've had a ridiculous number of bad storms and tornado warnings and hail and high winds this summer. You know we send them on to you, of course--ROFL!! ;)

AliceKay--Karma hates to leave the apartment, that's the biggest thing. I can roll her around inside the apartment for no reason whatsoever and she will put up little or no protest at all--but roll her out in the hallway and the crying begins--hehe! She cries as long as we are moving outside. And she HOWLS in the car! Absolutely howls! Karma is not a traveler--ROFL! ;)

Even when they have sirens--some human has to turn them on AFTER they have sighted a tornado. They are never of any help to the person/persons the tornado landed on first. They only help warn people in the near vicinity and keep them on the alert for more tornadoes. People get too dependent on hearing a siren when there will be no siren if the tornado picks you, so you are probably better off watching the sky and the weather report radar photos. ;)

Rita said...

Tori--I have always loved storms, too! Used to run around outside in the thunderstorms when I was a kid. Best place is under an eve where you can stay a little dry and yet be right out there and feel the electricity in the air and smell the freshness of the rain. I often go stand on my porch to feel the wind and the rain and watch the lightning. Swimming in a storm sounds awesome!! If I had been there I would have jumped right in the pool! ;)

Stephanie--Oh, I love the smell after the rain! Usually, I should say. When it has been so terribly humid here for so many weeks and we had storm after storm--the air didn't even really clear like normal. Was still thick and heavy and sticky right after the rain! Still--a little fresher, of course. I hope we have finally broken the heavy, relentless storm pattern since the humidity dropped. Time will tell. Hope you're having a great week and making some fun projects. :)

Rita said...

Serena--I know it will just take me a while to get used to all the new equipment. I know I will get the hang of it after while--hehe!

Tornadoes--once I was in one that was tearing apart a brick school building (no siren warning--was the first one) I kind of figured that odds are I won't be that close to one again and it made me feel safer. Not that people can't get hit by lightning twice, of course--but I think the odds are at least in my favor--hehe! I have seen several of them off in the distance, tho. And when it gets that smell to the silent air and that peculiar green tint to the sky that the big tornadoes seem to like--I do pay attention. ;)