Wednesday, May 22, 2024

That one time I actually listened to the tornado sirens

Anyone who has read this blog for a hot second knows that I am an anxious person. I just rescheduled a post about how our lack of a dance schedule for summer is making me twitchy, for example. I RUN ANXIOUS. (Acupuncture todaaaaaaaaaaay thank goodness).

Something I am not anxious about? Storms. 

Sure, I do not like to drive in them and would prefer not to have to take shelter in, say, a walk-in cooler in a Walgreen’s back room (which is something the weather man actually advised people who were out and about last night to do), but once my people and I are all at home, I am not worried. I never even go in my basement when the sirens go off. Instead, I watch the radar and reserve real storm prep for tornadoes that are actually in my neighborhood. And? Spoiler: THEY ARE NEVER IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD.

Except for last night.

I LOVED THAT TREE YOU GUYS.

This weather alert made me lol:

But Ben’s response was THE BEST:

The kids were CHAMPS. Except one kid  **cough cough** COOPER **cough cough** who was upstairs eating a snack just before we lost power for real (after 3 flickers that made us know power loss was imminent and wish we were the kind of people who had flashlights in the house) AND LEFT THE FRIDGE OPEN.

We introduced Minnie to Zingo, and she is a FAN
But then! We had to move from the random toy room part of the downstairs that has windows and sliding doors to an interior closet area because ACUTAL TORNADO IN OUR AREA, and Minnie decided she hated storms because it’s weird to be hanging out in a closet. With your whole family.

Still she Zingoed on.
Bedtime with no power was… like camping? No one washed themselves (quick hands, face, teeth), and everyone was eventually just super bored and fell asleep. Minnie kept telling me she could not sleep, but I played a lullaby playlist on my phone and gave her my book light (note to self: charge book light— and maybe get some flashlights? OR A GENERATOR), and she literally starting snoring as she was complaining about not being able to sleep. (She slept in Ben’s bed and snored all night long like a little white noise machine).

I woke up to power mostly on (had to reset some breakers) and this absolute bummer of an email
Also, I am very worried about my peonies underneath this portion of a different tree

Aaaaand I am not super stoked about going out to look at Harry’s car parked in the driveway durning massive hail or, you know, the roof.

But! Things could have been SO MUCH WORSE! These storms were terrible, and we were so lucky. We got local news through our CBS station via the Paramount+ app, and our newly ordered weather radio (besides making a terrible high pitched alert that sounded like a firework beginning to detonate and making everyone super duper tense) was a champ as well. Also, it arrived JUST AS the first severe weather alerts came rolling in— phew!!








10 comments:

  1. OMG SARAH! How terrifying! I'm glad everyone is safe and the power is back on (your poor trees and peonies though!)

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  2. That's a lot of adventure for one day! I'm glad you're all ok and the kids "camped" through the night. Like Nicole, I too am sorry for your beloved tree and peonies though.

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  3. Oh my goodness, Sarah! How terrifying.
    I'm so sorry about the loss of your tree; even though it could have been much worse, it's really sad (and annoying to deal with) ANY damage from a storm. Ugh.
    I loved the little story of Minnie conking out for the night <3
    Glad you're safe but YIKES! My anxiety would have been through the roof!

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  4. Can I relate, I wonder as I remember the time Eve and I and friends blithely drove around to Chapters and Starbucks and then went to the library two minutes away to return a book and found trees down and garbage everywhere? YES I CAN.
    Omg that text is GOLD. Save the Sausages!
    I was home with a toddler and a baby and no husband during the great blackout of... 2003? 4? And it kind of sucked, except for the kind of like camping part. Minnie is a champ. So glad you're all okay

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  5. OMG!! That is terrible! Your poor tree! But I am glad it did not land on your house. I know another blogger that lives in Charlotte and a tree landed on her house - but they were not home when it happened.

    I am also very steady she goes when it comes to severe weather. I don't think we've ever taken shelter in our basement. But I kind of let Phil decide when we need to be more concerned. He's more apt to watch weather aps and he's not an anxious person at all so if he thinks we should take cover, I will.

    But that text from Ben is HILARIOUS. I LOL'd and I do not generally LOL.

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  6. Okay I actually AM EXTREMELY weather anxious (and it's bad, south FL is not a great place to be in that particular case especially from around . . say, Now to December) and reading this post had my HR escalating. I'm so glad everyone is okay. ALSO, I wish we had a basement. ALSO ALSO, I'm ordering the weather radio.

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  7. The tornado watch made my phone freak out at about 10:45. I just went back to bed. Fortunately we didn't get hit anywhere near as bad as Madison.

    I do not get weather anxiety, obviously. Yay for me!

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  8. Ok, this is terrifying... we don't have actual tornados in California (or didn't use to at least) but when a massive tree fell over on our street during a storm last year, I wasn't so sure if they should be starting to use tornado sirens here as well. I am glad you were safe and made the best of it . RIP backyard tree.

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  9. Ack! I'm glad you guys were able to be in a safe place. I have massive weather anxiety, which like SHU and Jenny, makes it really fun to live in FL from now until November. Thankfully, there's a local meteorologist who keeps me sane and I just follow his updates to figure out what to do.

    We've had a few tornado scares around here, but nothing to get REALLY worried about yet!

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  10. I wrote a comment to this post several days ago, but my phone is still being a bastard and not letting me comment and I forgot about that issue and now. . . days later . . . I'm determined to comment from my home on all the posts.

    Minnie is the cutest. I love your camping is like having no power comparison. So true.

    We legit slept thru a tornado that destroyed so many mature trees and roofs in our neighborhood back in June 2021. Well, I had a good excuse. I got my allergy shots the day before and that knocks me out. Big time. It ripped shelves out of bedroom walls (but we didn't realize this for a week as it was a gradual ripping out). No one could believe that we slept in our 2nd floor bedrooms. My kids and Coach all heard the alerts on their phones (while I was playing dead) and they all ignored it. I do not recommend.

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