A Few Things
A few things are on my mind this morning…
First -
Last night there were crazy storms all over the place in the Atlanta area. I’m sure you’re aware of the crazy storm system that has been beating up the country the past few days. We don’t have TV or a radio (except in the car – not where you want to be with tornado producing storms in your neighborhood), so I was stalking the weather on the internet all evening until things calmed down at midnight. There were reports of baseball and golfball sized hail, tight rotation and a few funnel clouds all around us. Thankfully, nothing major happened where we are.
My dear loving husband made fun of me all night for obsessing about the weather. He reminded me, like he does every time there is a major storm with a tornado threat, that he used to live in Oklahoma where tornadoes were the norm, and he remembers what it’s like when there actually IS a tornado. I don’t trust his memory, and his intuition and common sense isn’t always the best (but I still love him like mad), so I told him to back off. My friend, do you know what he did? We heard a few tiny pings of hail, and he freaked out that his car would get damaged. We had to jump up and rearranged the garage which we’ve been cleaning and organizing this week, so he could pull his car in (I don’t like attached garages, so we don’t put our cars in the garage) to protect it from the storm. By the time we got the car in th garage the hail was over. He was making fun of me for protecting our family from the storm, yet we had to go special ops at the sound of tiny hail to protect his car. Does anyone else find this hilarious?
Second -
Moanna hasn’t been feeling good for a few days. She went from throwing up to now having the poops. We’ve had a glamorous week. Most of the time she looks and acts like she’s feeling fine, and says she feels “great.” When it comes time to eating, she will put on a show saying she doesn’t feel good, her tummy hurts, she’s tired and she thinks her “mouth is going to throw up.” We don’t buy it because she will down her snacks and treats, and meals times have always been a bit of a circus act with her. She can be quite dramatic about everything. However, about an hour after she eats, a few times she’s taking a trip to the bathroom and it has not been pretty. I feel bad for pushing her to eat and telling her she’s putting on a show, but I seriously don’t think that at meal time she suddenly is struck with illness. What’s a Mommy to do? Plus what bug allows children to enjoy treats, snacks and desserts without causing any digestive casualties, but after a good nutritious meal causes children to erupt? This is so not a fair virus.
Third (and most important) -
Today is April 16, 2011. Today marks the four year anniversary of the shootings at Virginia Tech. There is so much to say, and so little to say all at the same time…
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Although far removed from all that action down your way, I went tornado chasing from my computer yesterday. It was interesting to zoom in on warned storms, looking for the “hook” on regular radar and then switching modes to see the actual indications of rotating wind. The other night we had a terrible storm up here during a tornado watch. Once it passed I pulled it up on radar and noticed it was rotating. I wondered why it wasn’t tornado warned. Sure enough a few minutes later it was. We don’t have sirens up our way. It’s up to us to decide when to duck for cover so I’ve made it a habit of “obsessing”, too. It helps us prepare for what’s coming at us and also relax when we know it’s going to miss us.
What weather site do you use? I was using weather.com and following their live updates. When we moved down here we didn’t realize that tornado watches would be a weekly event (although it is very rare for something to actually touch down). Steve has heard the sirens here before but in a different area .We’re not sure if we have sirens in our part of the suburbs or if we’re close enough to hear them if we do. We used to get alerts on our phone, but last week we got a message saying they couldn’t send them to our blackberries anymore, so we’re researching.
I use the National Weather Service for local weather but the radar I use is on Weather Underground…wunderground.com/radar. You can change radar types to look for wind direction within a storm. It’s color coded so if you see colors near one another from opposite ends of the chart…watch out! You can also tell if the wind is mostly rotating at upper levels as in meso storms or if it’s rotating near the ground as in…Uh-Oh! It’s a nerdy hobby of mine…but I did discover our storm up here was rotating before it got tornado warned! You might be able to get alerts from your local weather service NOAA on your phones. Type in National Weather Service Atlanta and you’ll find the site.