Tuesday, June 3, 2008

In a tornadic way

What do you bring with you when you take shelter during a tornado warning? Well, tonight when I heard the sirens go off, I set about grabbing what seemed to be the most important things. A bottle of water. A flashlight and radio. A candle and matches. My Burt’s Bees chapstick. Rob. My wallet and cell phone. And my laptop, which contains the life-blood of my dissertation. I became paranoid that if the tornado stripped off our upstairs (thus taking with it the hard drive to which my computer is backed up) and if it somehow also managed to pry my laptop out of my hands, I would be data-less and seriously up a creek. Rob, believing you can never be too careful about backing up your data, copied gigantic quantities of my files to his computer at work (which didn’t actually make me feel that safe, because I reasoned that if our house got demolished, so would his office), and also to his parents' computer (which didn’t make me feel too much safer, since D-ville seemed to be in the line of fire as well).

Now, where do Rob and I take shelter during a tornado? We don’t have a basement. On the day we were moving in, when we met our next door neighbors, they told us that we could come over to their basement during storms. Seriously, the day we met they told us that. But really… is that just one of those things you say? I wasn’t about to go knocking on their door at 10pm, when I’m already in my pajamas.

So our only option is our bathroom—its on the first floor and has no windows. When the sirens went off, we headed to the bathroom. Rob sat on the toilet seat, cooly copying my dissertation files to various computers around the state and also IM-ing Aimee (not in the state anymore). I sat on the edge of the tub and powered our hand-crank radio so we could listen to the static and the updates about the weather.

Finally at about 10:15, our local meteorologist announced: “This storm does not appear to be holding together, at least in a tornadic way,” and the tornado warnings thus expired. Rob and I looked at each other and said, “Tornadic?” then we gathered our things and ventured out of the bathroom.

The tornado warning may have expired, but its still one helluva storm raging out there. Hopefully everyone is safe. And Cathy, thanks for identifying the mystery flower in my yard. How are you with tropical plants? I could sure use some help with some of the unidentifiable things I saw monkeys eating in Nicaragua!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

MOM SCHO SAID...
WE'RE GLAD YOU"RE SAFE AND WERE ABLE TO HAVE AN ADVENTURE WHILE THE TORNADIC WEATHER WAS GOING ON. AT LEAST YOU GUYS HAD A LITTLE ONE on ONE TIME, THAT'S ALWAYS NICE!! And LEAVE IT TO ROB TO HAVE A PLAN WITH ALL YOUR BACK-UPS!!!!

LOVE YOU GUYS! : )

Anonymous said...

YIKES!!!!! What an experience ... i didn't find any new things on my computer and feel a little left out to not be included!!! ha Glad both of you and your house are safe!! The bathroom shelter is an interesting scene!
Hugs, auntie

Ragfield said...

Thanks so much for putting your chapstick before me :)

Melissa said...

The items were in no particular order.

Anonymous said...

O MY GOSH!!!!!! THANK GOODNESS YOU"RE SAFE and YOUR VERY IMPORTANT DATA ,too!!!!! Always be sure to INCLUDE ROBBY in your THINGS TO TAKE TO THE BATHROOM DURING TORNADIC EPISODES... as having a COOL guy doing COMPUTER TECHIE THINGS WHILE IN THE BATHROOM makes for SOME INTERESTING STORIES!!!!! AND most of all, I am VERY GLAD I DID NOT know all this was happening, or I would have been WILDED!!!!!!!! Let's pray that was the WORST and the LAST of the scary storms... but I fear it is only the first of JUNE!!!!!! Maybe you should build a SHELF in your bathroom and stock it with some SNACKS AS WELL< :) stay safe , luv you both, foxy mama

amypfan said...

We also told all our neighbors that they could shelter in our basement in case of a tornadic state. None of them have actually taken us up on it yet, but I am actually known around our neighborhood as "the lady with the basement," so perhaps we'll see. Our storm here was huge as well, but not tornadic. You can send me files if you need to. :)

Cathy said...

What is up with the weather? Dude, seriously. The sirens have gone off 3 times in the last 24 hours, and not a single tornado! And yes, I'm up for a further investigative plant challenge. I can't guarantee anything, as tropical trees aren't my specialty, but I'd LOVE to give it a whirl. Send me your details. cathy at willman dot com.