Yesterday afternoon, I was chitty-chatting with my pal, Jen on the phone, completely oblivious to the fact that we were under a thunderstorm watch. (I was also completely oblivious to the fact that my spaghetti was boiling over, but that’s another story.) When Phil got home, he flipped on the weather channel, and sure enough, this was about what the radar looked like…
We ended up getting marble sized and quarter sized hail… and LOTS of it. Some areas got absolutely nothing, while a few miles from us received golf-ball sized hail (while sitting in 5 o’clock traffic, no less!) dented cars and shattered windshields.
We ALSO ended up in the pantry… again.
To give you a little background, last May, we had one of those terrible Texas thunderstorms that can just come up out of the blue, and a tornado was spotted a few miles from our neighborhood. Our weatherman (you all know the fabulous Jim Spencer, right?!) was telling everyone that lived in the area to take cover in an interior room with no windows. It was seriously scary…
Well, for us, our large, walk-in pantry is about as ‘interior without windows’ as you can get on our first floor. Even our bathroom has an exterior door with panels of glass (I like to call it the ‘peek-a-boo potty’).
It was fairly late (around 11, maybe?), and after waking up the kids, and grabbing their sleeping bags and pillows, all five of us took cover, huddled in our pantry. We were a pretty tight fit, though. Especially when you consider that my husband is no small dude, we had a few pillows in there with us, and um…well,…all of my scrapbooks. And for those of you that know me well, that’s no small number of books. Like around 34. (and I know that sometimes I do exaggerate a bit for the purposes of my blog, but I truly have between 30 and 40 scrapbooks… it’s a serious problem. ;)
So there we sat in the pantry that night last May, and I had all my scrapbooks on the shelves around us. I wasn’t taking any chances. And I know for a fact that I wasn’t the only one that wanted to gather everything they loved around them for safekeeping. I have a good friend that made sure she took her daughter’s baby teeth with her… I won’t ‘out’ her on my blog by telling you her name. (Heeey there, HB! ;)
So last night, we weren't taking any chances, either. Thank the Lord that both nights, we escaped without serious damage. I know that all too often, that is not the case for many people. Especially if you’re at a Sonic Drive-In, according to my son.
When Davis heard that there were tornadoes in Mississippi yesterday, he pondered aloud… “I bet there was a squished Sonic.”
Me: “A what?”
Davis: “You know… a Sonic. That got squished. I was watching ‘StormChasers’ this one time with Daddy and I saw it on there. It was a Sonic.”
Me: “And it was squished?”
Davis: “Yup. Actually, I saw TWO!” (Hmm… I’m betting that he watched the same episode twice.)
So, yes, we feel very fortunate that we didn’t get any damage. I'm so grateful that Phil made it home before the storm hit. I’m thankful that we keep our garage clean so we can park both vehicles in there to avoid hail dents and dings.
And we’re sending good thoughts to our friends who DID have damage to their cars or homes.
AND… I’m thinking that I’ll be double-checking the sky for clouds the next time I pick up a Route 44 Cherry Lime-Ade.
5 comments:
We were in the closet too! Andrew thought it was a great opportunity to play with the flashlights. Unfortunately, our garage currently has 4 very large boxes in it (a playscape yet to be constructed) so we couldn't get the cars under cover. Some minor dings on the vehicles but nothing major.
Next time you tell me there is a storm, I will get off the phone right away!! Glad all were safe!! And happy that no Sonic's were squished in yesterday's storm:)
Jesse did have to work today, but they closed the office at 12:45. He got home at 2:45!!! Fun time for him. We are all hoping for another snow day tomorrow!!
Wow, I am just a few miles away and it was quite peaceful around 11:00 pm. It's funny how that works :o) I am glad to hear you guys are safe.
We did get some of that golf ball size hail you mentioned earlier that evening and plenty of hail damage to Danny's vehicle.
You are so funny! I love your titles! Yes, I love Jim Spencer. He is totally in his element under pressure. So cute! BTW, I want to see HB's teeth collection. My kids haven't lost any yet, but am I supposed to save them? For a necklace? Haha!
Over in CP, we had only 1 inch hail (but so much accumulation!), but over at the high school where oldest was waiting out the storm before coming home, the hail was golf ball to some BASEBALL...his car now looks like a golf ball.
We never bothered to take cover; we were out getting photos and getting pelted in the noggin!
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