Snapshots of a Windy Wednesday

Yesterday started out well. The day was good, the weather a little iffy.

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It was really windy outside, but it usually is at our house, so we had all the windows open, letting in the warm evening breeze.

Things looked pretty good.

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We walked around the yard checking out all the things in bloom, washed our lunch dishes, and saw that the baseball game at the school near us was tied – 9 to 9 – in the 8th inning.

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We watched until the end of the game – which ended in a tie, sadly. I was hoping for an exciting and super long overtime! I guess they only play for so long in high school.

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Once the game was over, we had a normal night here: I made dinner (a tuna/olive/tomato pasta and broccoli with sizzled leeks) and then we took the laptop into the den and watched a few episodes of No Reservations and American Pickers on Netflix until it was time for the news.

And that’s when things got a little crazy.

The weather was showing some seriously strong storms headed our way. Storms that had already produced tornados and golf-sized ball hail. And two of the storms looked like they were headed right for us.

So at 11 pm last night, Nick and I were getting prepared for the worst. We gathered up candles and lanterns and put them in the basement. I grabbed our books, magazines, and some snacks along with a cooler full of ice, cups, and a jug of water. There were blankets, plans to grab our pillows, and (of course) the camera to get shots of whatever might end up staying in for the next few hours.

We stayed up until 12:30 last night, flipping between the weather updates and Office re-runs. This is late for us old folks ; ) We usually go to bed around 10 but I was so wired from watching all the updates that there was no way I could have slept earlier than that, anyway.

Thankfully, most of the storms coming from Tennessee lost their steam when they were coming over the mountains and, as far as I know, didn’t cause too much damage in our area. We’ve seen reports of hail and serious wind damage, but no tornado devastation.

We crawled into bed and left our bedroom window open to get some breeze and hear the storm in case things started getting out of hand.

I was almost asleep at one point when two huge claps of thunder hit, startling me awake. I thought my heart was going to pump right out of my chest. The rain started, stopped, started again, and fizzled out at some point.

It was an interesting night, for sure.

And I am tired. And extremely thankful. This string of storms caused major damage in other states and left hundreds dead in Alabama.

I am really happy we have a basement in our new house. It’s at least nice to know that we do have a a somerwhat-safe spot for when storms like this do come through.

11 comments

  1. Whoa that’s scary! I complain about living in the northeast because we get so much snow, which I HATE but fearing tornados is worse I think! It’s good that you have the basement though.

    • It was crazy! I’m definitely happy we have a basement. We didn’t have one in the old house, so it’s nice to know that it’s there if and when we need it!

  2. Storms are so scary. We were under tornado watch until 3am. :/ Right at 3am is when the severe weather hit us with 60mph winds. No tornadoes thankfully!

    Glad you all were safe and sound! Basements are the best things ever!

  3. I am so glad you are OK.
    I was watching the news and it is heart breaking.

    • It really is. I’m not sure how the storms ended up bypassing us – the radar showed it headed right over top so I was surprised to wake up and not see much damage.

      But a county just over from us got slammed by tornadoes a few weeks ago and is still recovering.

  4. Glad you are okay. And I’m glad you have a basement and were prepared.

    Have a good day. Hope you are not too tired! :)

  5. So glad you are OK. I’m in Western NY and we were under a tornado watch which is very unusual for this area. I was at Lacrosse with my 3 boys and it started to get darker by the minute. The coach waited till the very last minute to blow the whistle and cancel the rest of practice and just as he did, the heaven’s opened! My kids were all very frighten, the sky was a sight to be seen! We got home safely and watch the TV for updates. A few lost power and some branches are down but thankfully our area was fine. What a scary feeling!

  6. I’m so glad you’re okay—weather across the US has just been nuts lately! We need some boring sunshine already! :)

  7. These storms are scary. We’re under a tornado watch until 4 PM….yikes!

  8. I’m so glad you were spared the worst of the weather. The first year I bought my home, we had one of the stormiest seasons on record here in MN. Within the first week in my neighborhood, 100s of trees were blown over by straight line winds – It was so scary! I wondered if I’d done the right thing in buying my house, it was such a huge worry that something awful would happen in the middle of those storms! Hang in there – it gets easier after the first few bad storms! Not that bad things can’t happen (those poor people in Alabama!), but you get the routine down with the basement runs. Have a good day!

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