Tornado

The Saturday before last we had a rainy day. Nothing special, just nice soaking rain that we needed big time. I'm a weather geek. I'm one of those people that runs out in the front yard checking the clouds for spin when the sky looks stormy. This particular Saturday I was enjoying being in the house, listening to the rain and stitching. The middle son says, "Hey mom, the umbrella just blew off the table. HAHAHA. I get up I walk to the French doors, I look out, hmm, the wind is kind of strong. The doors start rattling, they've been kind of warped ever since Hurricane Ivan, I hold them closed. My metal patio furniture that is by no means lightweight, starts to blow across the back yard. The iron table flips over and moves across the yard a bit. The doors are being pelted with leaves and other debris, just as I'm thinking to myself, is that spinning, it stops. So you'd think the story would be over. About ten minutes later I wander outside to get my umbrella--this picture was taken the next day......but

From my backyard I can now see everyone's backyard all the way to the end of my road.

Yes, this picture uploaded twice---but you get the point....

I walk out front and all my neighbors are wandering around wondering what the heck just happened. We weren't even under a tornado watch, much less a warning. Oh wait, I run back in the house for the camera and the Emergency Alert System is telling us we're under a tornado warning, well golly gee, thanks for the timely heads up.

Trees and branches were down all over my road. Mailboxes were relocated. I fortunately, as stupid as I am, was lucky enough to not have anything fly through the window and I wasn't whisked away like Dorothy. It was a little too close for me though. It was a tornado, regardless of how small, and I was standing at the backdoors holding them closed as it passed through my backyard.

I'm a weather geek, I got served. Fortunately for us we lost no siding, no shingles, not one tree branch. Just one patio umbrella(that was really a beach umbrella). Compared to my neighbors we were so lucky. I started shaking about thirty minutes later when it really hit me that a tornado had come through my backyard and I was clueless.

Freakiest thing that happened: I'm wandering the backyard, something is missing. Hmmm, something's not right, the wicker chair under the tree, it's gone. Completely vanished. We look all over, we finally see it in the woods, I was carried up and over a dropped way behind a tree that kind of leans. Bizarre.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas or if you don't celebrate Christmas--a Happy Holiday.

Ours was good. My turkey completely cooked, as opposed to the Thanksgiving bird that refused to reach any thing resembling "done". To this day I don't know what happened with that bird. I redeemed myself with the Christmas meal.

Happy New Year to everyone and thanks for reading and stopping by "the Ranch".