weather

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Twisters and More

Published February 28, 2011 by LS Murphy

I made my feelings about tornadoes pretty clear in my post The Fear of Twisters. Yeah, not a fan

Imagine my surprise when the wind woke me up last night. No, not a tornado siren, it was all wind.

Was it a twister? It felt like it , but probably not.

I was sound asleep when it all came down. At 11:44pm, the wind hit my house and started shaking it. Yes, I looked at the clock as I tried to untangle myself from my covers and grab my daughter at the same time.

Just as I snapped awake, my husband rushed into the room and shouted, “Get to the basement. NOW!”

Um, yeah. Got that when I thought I was going to become Dorothy and scoot on over to Oz. But that wasn’t the time for sarcasm.

After we were safely cowering in our basement, my hubby told me what had happened before the wind tried to carry me off.

He had stayed up to watch the radar online, on his phone, and on TV as the warnings grew closer. About ten minutes before the storm hit, the sirens in our little town hit their high note. For about twenty seconds. Then they wound down. So, no need to worry, right?

WRONG!! 

Until the house started doing the Funky Chicken.

We were lucky. There wasn’t any damage to our house or our cars. People down the street weren’t so fortunate. Plenty of houses had siding torn off, trees uprooted, and more substantial damages. Other towns in the area didn’t fare so well either as tornadoes and high winds ripped down signs, dropped trees on cars, and even shut down a highway by knocking some powerlines across it.

It’s too bad that the science in the movie Twister hasn’t caught up with reality yet. Good old Hollywood magic. Maybe I would’ve been in the basement long before the storm attacked had the sirens continued. Maybe I would’ve felt a teensy bit safer instead of racing down the steps with a two-year old asleep in my arms.

I just hope my luck holds up for next time.

Rockin’ Thursdays

Published February 3, 2011 by LS Murphy

Well, the clean up is underway from the Blizzard of 2011. It wasn’t much of a blizzard on my end, but my parents ended up with too much snow for their tastes. I did get a snow day out of it, and I did get a lot of work done. All in all, not a bad Blizzard.

Today’s Rockin’ Thursday is courtesy of America’s favorite food… Wait, I mean singer:

Sing along with Meatloaf! Here are the lyrics.

Rock on my friends.

Rockin’ Thursdays

Published January 20, 2011 by LS Murphy

Welcome to Rockin’ Thursday!

Today’s selection is running late due to the nice little snowfall we had overnight. Woke up to 9 inches of fluffy white stuff and it instantly put me in a good mood. I love snow. It makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

So, today, we go to a classic song that has never made a lick of sense to me. BUT that never stops me from singing along with it.

Elton John – Crocodile Rock

Again, here are the lyrics so you can sing along yourself.

Have a great Thursday.

Let It SNOW

Published January 10, 2011 by LS Murphy

There is a snowstorm on the way. It won’t produce a terrible amount, but it will drop enough of the white stuff to make the world look magical.

I love winter. It is my favorite time of year. Spring and Fall are nice too. Summer is too hot. Winter is just right for me. Curling up in a chair or on the coach with a blanket (or Snuggie) is heaven. Add a good book and a steaming cup of hot chocolate…Perfection.

When I was a child, a good snowstorm meant sledding and snow angels. If it was windy enough, my brothers and I would also build tunnels in the snow drifts that rose high in our driveway. We would have a blast. For some reason, we spent more time together in the winter. Probably because they weren’t taking off on their bikes to the neighbor’s house.

When Spring comes, I’ll miss watching the snow fall in big flakes and the trees glistening in the breaking dawn. I’ll miss the warmth of a good fire and the way hot chocolate warms you from the inside out.

Most of all, I’ll miss that feeling of family and togetherness that winter always brings. Summer is when we go our separate ways.

The Fear of Twisters

Published April 26, 2010 by LS Murphy

I’m not gonna lie. I’m a wuss when it comes to tornadoes. Whenever I hear the sirens, I’m halfway down the basement stairs in the blink of an eye. Most of my fear comes from the simpler days of life in the country.

I grew up on a farm ten miles from town. No warning sirens for us.  Whenever the weather would get hairy, Dad would go outside and stand on the porch. His eyes never left the sky. Even in the dark of night, he would watch the movement of the clouds.

Freaked. Me. Out.

My freshman year in high school there was a scary moment. Well, scary for me.  After one of the greatest days in my young life, our track team headed home from a nearby meet. It was only about a half an hour’s drive. The wind whipped around our bus. Just outside a small little burg, the radio squawked. We all listened. There was a tornado sighted just outside the little town we were driving through.

Freaked. Me. Out.

I sat in the bus, desperately trying to think about anything else. When we got back to the school, I ran to the pay phone to call my mom. I told her to stay on the farm. I’d go to a friend’s house. Naturally, she laughed at me. But she listened.

I’ll never get used to the sirens. Maybe someday the fear will diminish a little. But I doubt that will happen any time soon, especially since I have a daughter of my own now. At least, now I can claim to freak out because of her instead. Then I’ll look like a protective mother instead of a scaredy-cat.

My heart goes out to the people in Mississippi.