Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Safe & Sound


As most of you know already, there was some fairly severe weather in the Dallas/Fort Worth area yesterday including several tornadoes and large hail. Rest assured, The Queen, M&M and I are all in one piece. Castle Erickson weathered the storm with nary a dropped tree branch or lifted roof shingle (as far as I could tell when I finally got home late last night).

The Queen and M&M were not home when the storms arrived and were never in danger. I was at the office about 20 or 30 miles as the crow flies from where the tornadoes were touching down. We had a couple of warnings to go to the center of the building which made for a wholly unproductive day; but, to be truthful, the wind and rain never even got worrisome where we were.

It was interesting to watch the weather radar though. Lots and lots of red extending from around Hamilton (a ways southwest of Fort Worth) all the way up through Wichita Falls. At one point, I watched as the radar showed Castle Erickson situated in an oasis of clear skies surrounded by a sea of red severe weather. That was when all the tornadoes were touching down in Arlington and Lancaster along I-20. The Castle sits roughly midway between Lancaster and Arlington just south of I-20 for those who are interested. Needless to say, I had visions of coming home to no home.

You would think we would have learned by now. For the last several years, the I-20 corridor from Fort Worth to southeast Dallas and into the southeastern suburbs and rural towns has been a magnet for tornado activity. In fact, one of yesterday’s tornadoes touched down within a mile of the former Castle Erickson located just south of I-20 on Hwy. 287. Nothing like seeing the old neighborhood narrowly miss obliteration to make you thankful that you moved. I also have a fond memory of driving home from work to the former castle along I-20 one fine, stormy day to see a funnel cloud forming over my exit. Nice.

I think I’ll be taking this as a sign that the Royal Family needs to seek shelter further north.

While I’m thinking about it, yesterday’s events remind me of story.

Once upon a time when The Queen and I were still dating and yet to be betrothed to one another, we were sitting at the former Castle Erickson (which, at the time, was your humble Shepherd’s bachelor pad/den of iniquity…yeah, right…like that ever happened) whereupon The Lady Who Would Become The Queen announced that she desired that we (meaning us) should go jogging for healthful benefits and general getting out of the house activity. I (he who despises jogging and owns firearms for the sole purpose of avoiding the necessity of running for ones life…ever), hoping to sound as if I were the voice of reason, suggested that the weather was not conducive to jogging seeing as how it was, at that particular time, lightening and thundering overhead.

The Queen accused me of not wanting to get wet. I informed her that such was not the case, and that I merely had no desire to be struck by lightning while engaged in my least favorite activity on the planet (I’d rather argue with the IRS than go jogging). After much strident discussion on the subject, I suggested we travel to a nearby park to see just how lovely the conditions were for pounding one’s feet into oblivion on hard concrete. The strident conversation about my desires or lack thereof continued on the drive over to the park. Once parked in the park’s parking lot, the discussion continued a pace for a good 30 minutes or more (did I mention The Queen is a redhead…it’s a warning sign that really should not be ignored) until God Himself decided to settle the subject once and for all.

As we were in the midst of our discussions having not yet exited the vehicle due to the lightning and thunder and torrential downpour, the winds picked up. That, or someone parked a 747 directly behind my truck as a strong breeze lifted the back of my pickup off the ground probably a foot or so before it fell back to earth with a bounce.

I announced that the discussion was over, and that we were returning to the house. The Queen wisely chose not to contest that state of affairs.

Upon returning to the house, we discovered that downtown Fort Worth had been hit hard by a tornado(es) while other twisters had hopscotched their way down the I-20 corridor leaving destruction and mayhem in their wake. Unbeknownst to us, The Queen and I had been sideswiped by the very edge of a tornado.

Thank you Lord for thinking about us. We’re alive and doing fine. [with apologies to the band Tesla for paraphrasing their cover of the song Signs].

12 comments:

  1. Shepherd - so glad to hear that you are all ok! i have several "new" blogging friends who are in hurricane/tornado states and whenever i hear of a storm warning or whatnot, i always wonder if they are ok. so glad that you, the family and the castle made it through unscathed!

    when God picks up the back of my pick-up truck, i tend to pay attention too - bahahahah!

    your friend,
    kymber

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    1. Kymber, thanks. Yeah, that God feller sure can be subtle when He wants to be. Learning to listen carefully is the trick.

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  2. I'm glad you made it through unscathed. And, you know, Colorado's nice. Well, the part by the mountains where there are rarely tornados.

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    1. GunDiva, Colorado is nice. I wouldn't mind visiting more. Don't think I could live there though.

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  3. The films on the news were amazingly scary to say the least.

    It was unbelievable.

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    1. Pissed, yeah, it's not everyday that you see 18 Wheelers flying through the air.

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  4. My husband was thirteen when a tornado ripped through his tiny hometown (you can STILL see the path it took, and it was over 25 years ago now), and he and several of his buddies barely made it to the basement of his friend's house. He's pretty much lost his fear of tornado warnings since he's now lived through a couple. At one point, when he was working for a large company, I came to pick him up from work and he came out to get me and bring me inside. Tornado sirens had gone off and all the employees were gathered in the stairwells. Hubby kept going back out to his desk area in the office to look out the (huge) windows at the sky and to check the weather map. It freaked his boss and immediate co-workers out, but his boss wouldn't stop him...she'd already figured out it was pointless to try. After all, he knew what he was looking for and he'd be back in a minute or two. Until he got bored and had to go look again, of course. Gave his coworkers the heebies, though. I just stayed there and tried to explain that Hubby's a nut and they should really know that by now, and any time there's tornado warnings when we're at home, he goes outside to look, so they should consider themselves lucky that he's actually staying IN the building. (I got several nervous laughs for that one.)

    Innyhoo...all that to say, glad you guys are all okay. I love Texas; it's a beautiful place, but I think I'll stay up here, north of the Mason-Dixon.

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  5. Auntie J, sorry it has taken me so long to respond. Life happens and then it's gone. I know what you mean about your husband's lack of fear regarding tornados. Big storms don't bother me at all. I've been know to sleep right through them.

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  6. Missing you in the blogosphere...

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    1. GunDiva, still here lurking in the shadows. Been busy traveling, taking care of church obligations and trying to keep The Queen and I sane.

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