Tuesday, March 06, 2012

The State of Things

I really don't know how any of you people who work full time have time to blog at all. I don't remember exactly how often I managed to do it that one semester that I worked but my guess is that I didn't get to it very often.

As tends to happen when I hit these blogging lulls, I have many ideas swirling around in my head and somehow lack the energy/motivation to get any of them down in this space.

Things are going on around here; a real job prospect, Michael's 4th birthday this week, minor home disasters, visitors, and lots of indulgent thinking about what I really want to do with my life.

Today, though, I'm going to talk about the weather.

As you undoubtedly know, last Friday brought a horrific storm outbreak to this part of the country.

We knew it was coming - the forecasts were so terrible that my stomach was in knots all morning. The PTO board decided to cancel the event we had scheduled for that evening; agreeing we'd rather make the mistake of canceling when nothing bad happened than the mistake of having hundreds of people at the school when a bad storm hit.

I've written here before about the intense anxiety I have about severe weather, especially since the children have been born.

While Michael napped Friday afternoon I spent an hour shuttling things down to the basement, anticipating that we'd be spending a lot of time there in the evening. By the time we had to leave to get Harper from school I'd had time to supply the basement with extra blankets, spare EpiPens, a first aid kit, water for all of us, non-perishable food items, a battery powered radio, flashlights, extra batteries, and the kids' inhalers.

You can laugh if you want, but the other thing I did Friday morning was look up the patron saint of protection against bad weather...Saint Medard, if you're curious, and I asked him to pray for us. And yes, I remembered to thank him when the most severe weather sort of fell apart before reaching us.

We've had this extremely mild winter, unlike anything I can remember, and I worry that it will somehow translate into a very stormy spring. Sigh.

*****

If you want to know how you can help the victims of last week's tornadoes, American Red Cross is a good place to start.

3 comments:

CARRIE said...

This storm was horrible. 20 miles north of us--utter destruction. It has made me determined to finish our home inventory (for insurance purposes) and purchase a crank weather radio and numerous flashlights (this week by g*d) so we are more prepared for tornadoes. I fear stuff like this is only going to become more frequent.

Pam said...

I was reading about that poor woman protecting her kids who lost her legs. She was in her basement and got squashed by her house imploding. My husband has convinced himself we need to build a strong room in ours now (of course he's also watching Doomsday Preppers which doesn't help!) It was a sad state of affairs. I'm the same as you - terrified of them.

Aunt Murry said...

You are not crazy and it is nothing to laugh about. I have lived in Oklahoma most of my life. I am freaked out by storms but only if I am alone. Being prepared especially with epipens and inhalers is not a bad idea at all. Good for you for being prepared.