Fun! and Scary! and Fun!
Dec. 27th, 2002 07:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
queenrileyFirst off, to all those whom offered support to me over the Christmas holiday, thank you very much. Things turned out alright in the end. Alex did not get sick, and neither did I. My parent's graciously moved their dinner to 4:00 on Christmas Eve. My grandmother-in-law invited us over for an early lunch so she could see Alex and told us not to stress over coming to the party that evening (though we made it and had a blast anyway). Christmas morning with my parents was fantastic and the afternoon with Jeff's parents was surprisingly wonderful. Alex got twice as many presents as everyone else and had a grand time of things. I got some pretty great stuff too. Like a crock pot! I've wanted one for so long, and now I have one all my own! Woohoo! It's a grown-up present! And a George Foreman grill... now I can have all the tastyness of a home-cooked hamburger without all the fat. ;)
Now, for the scary bit before I get to the really really fun bit. :) The weather forcast called for storms all day Monday. It was about 75 degrees F outside (really hot for the end of December) but the rain was supposed to bring a cold front with it. Well, it didn't rain all day, but it was cloudy and overcast. Round about 10:00 at night, as I'm finishing up watching my sister's copy of the extended Fellowship, it starts to rain very hard... just out of the blue it starts to pour so hard I couldn't see the end of the front yard. I turn off the movie and turn on the weather channel. The weather man is showing massive storms right in my area, and there is a message beeping and flashing across the screen on the red danger bar. All residents of Humble and Kingwood (I live in Humble) seek shelter in an interior room immediately. We're under a tornado warning. Right after this scrolls across the screen, the power cuts out. I get a flashlight and light some candles, this is not too big a deal as we have tornado warnings all the time, though usually not as late as December. Next thing I know the rain stops just as suddenly as it had started and without even the slightest tapering off. I'm thinking everything is fine and the power would be back on soon. I couldn't have been more wrong. 5 minutes later it starts to hail. Remember that it's 75 degrees outside... it isn't supposed to hail in 75 degree weather. I ran upstairs and grabbed Alex from her crib. By the time I made it back down the hail had stopped. I stood in the living room with my mother and sister asleep in the next room and my father and cousin standing there with me. I clutched Alex to my chest and watched the lightening flash. The sky was green. Everything was deadly still outside. The only sound was thunder... not even a bird or an insect. I didn't need the lightening to see that the clouds were swirling above me. I have never been so scared in my life. The three of us just stood there watching the clouds swirl faster and faster as the trees started to whip around and around... there came a loud noise, like a distant rumble growing louder, and I could feel the air pressure change almost like a vacuum. I held Alex as tight as I could, and she didn't even wiggle to get down. I prayed to whatever God might be out there to save my family. To anybody who lives in Oklahoma and Texas, or to anybody who has studied it, you know what hail in hot weather, deadly stillness followed by extreme action, and green skies mean. To those who don't and haven't studied, it means tornados are coming and there is nothing you can do to stop it and no way to escape from it. I was praying to live through this. Tear the house down, wreck the Christmas decorations and presents, but please save my family. Please let them live. And just like that... it was over. The sky stopped moving almost instantly. The colour changed back to murky grey. The trees righted themselves. The air pressure came back like a ton of bricks dropped on us. Within fifteen minutes the clouds had gone. A tornado almost formed right in front of my house, but the funnel never came. December is awfully late in the year to have tornado's, and all the conditions were right for it, I watched as one almost touched down, but it never did. I cannot begin to explain it, nor can I tell you how lucky we are. The paper Tuesday morning said the temperature dropped 14 degrees in one hour and it was the most freakish and unusual storm we've had in years.
Now that the scariest experiance of my life is over, the fun part! I spent an hour today talking with misspince on the telephone and it was the most fun! Her voice is just as I imagined it would be, and her accent... oh it's just lovely. I could listen to her talk for hours. :) It did take us awhile to say goodbye. Neither wanted off the phone! Oh, if only it didn't cost so much to call Iceland, I'd call her all the time. It was great to finally get to speak with her, one on one... maybe not face to face, but one day we'll meet in person. I just know it. I can feel it. I've been walking on air ever since. :D There isn't a smiley large enough to show you how happy that call made me.
Well now that I've written quite a long entry, I'm heading off to check others journals. Ta-ra!
Now, for the scary bit before I get to the really really fun bit. :) The weather forcast called for storms all day Monday. It was about 75 degrees F outside (really hot for the end of December) but the rain was supposed to bring a cold front with it. Well, it didn't rain all day, but it was cloudy and overcast. Round about 10:00 at night, as I'm finishing up watching my sister's copy of the extended Fellowship, it starts to rain very hard... just out of the blue it starts to pour so hard I couldn't see the end of the front yard. I turn off the movie and turn on the weather channel. The weather man is showing massive storms right in my area, and there is a message beeping and flashing across the screen on the red danger bar. All residents of Humble and Kingwood (I live in Humble) seek shelter in an interior room immediately. We're under a tornado warning. Right after this scrolls across the screen, the power cuts out. I get a flashlight and light some candles, this is not too big a deal as we have tornado warnings all the time, though usually not as late as December. Next thing I know the rain stops just as suddenly as it had started and without even the slightest tapering off. I'm thinking everything is fine and the power would be back on soon. I couldn't have been more wrong. 5 minutes later it starts to hail. Remember that it's 75 degrees outside... it isn't supposed to hail in 75 degree weather. I ran upstairs and grabbed Alex from her crib. By the time I made it back down the hail had stopped. I stood in the living room with my mother and sister asleep in the next room and my father and cousin standing there with me. I clutched Alex to my chest and watched the lightening flash. The sky was green. Everything was deadly still outside. The only sound was thunder... not even a bird or an insect. I didn't need the lightening to see that the clouds were swirling above me. I have never been so scared in my life. The three of us just stood there watching the clouds swirl faster and faster as the trees started to whip around and around... there came a loud noise, like a distant rumble growing louder, and I could feel the air pressure change almost like a vacuum. I held Alex as tight as I could, and she didn't even wiggle to get down. I prayed to whatever God might be out there to save my family. To anybody who lives in Oklahoma and Texas, or to anybody who has studied it, you know what hail in hot weather, deadly stillness followed by extreme action, and green skies mean. To those who don't and haven't studied, it means tornados are coming and there is nothing you can do to stop it and no way to escape from it. I was praying to live through this. Tear the house down, wreck the Christmas decorations and presents, but please save my family. Please let them live. And just like that... it was over. The sky stopped moving almost instantly. The colour changed back to murky grey. The trees righted themselves. The air pressure came back like a ton of bricks dropped on us. Within fifteen minutes the clouds had gone. A tornado almost formed right in front of my house, but the funnel never came. December is awfully late in the year to have tornado's, and all the conditions were right for it, I watched as one almost touched down, but it never did. I cannot begin to explain it, nor can I tell you how lucky we are. The paper Tuesday morning said the temperature dropped 14 degrees in one hour and it was the most freakish and unusual storm we've had in years.
Now that the scariest experiance of my life is over, the fun part! I spent an hour today talking with misspince on the telephone and it was the most fun! Her voice is just as I imagined it would be, and her accent... oh it's just lovely. I could listen to her talk for hours. :) It did take us awhile to say goodbye. Neither wanted off the phone! Oh, if only it didn't cost so much to call Iceland, I'd call her all the time. It was great to finally get to speak with her, one on one... maybe not face to face, but one day we'll meet in person. I just know it. I can feel it. I've been walking on air ever since. :D There isn't a smiley large enough to show you how happy that call made me.
Well now that I've written quite a long entry, I'm heading off to check others journals. Ta-ra!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2002-12-28 05:45 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2002-12-28 06:46 am (UTC)I'd really love to see weather like that someday, even if it does signal terrible danger. It just seems so powerful and gorgeous.
(no subject)
Date: 2002-12-28 05:45 pm (UTC)Phone calls! Yay! I also know from experience how luffly that can be :D