Tornado Watch

Well, it seems we have survived some more tornadoes around here, but it was pretty scary for a while there. We had about twelve extra people (friends, relations, neighbors) in our safe (?) and cozy basement. Some stayed the entire night and some stayed only until 2 or so in the morning when the storms were safely by us. There were many others though that weren't so lucky. The last I heard, the death toll was up to 55.

My mind was put at ease somewhat, however, knowing that I had backed up my computer recently and that the backups were safely in my bank vault. I made sure to retrieve and secure my key as I sure didn't want it blowing away. I wonder what kind of grief the bank would give you if your key was blown away in a tornado…

We actually were hit harder by whatever blew through last week. Dad's goat shelter somehow made the trek from the back of the field up to the front board fence and smashed it. There were pieces of metal on the road, and so Dad and I braved the strong winds to get it off. At one point, I felt like I was dancing with a piece of metal as it took on a life of its own and twirled me around. The electricity was out for about two hours, and so we had to revert back to our Amish roots and pull out the kerosene lanterns. Keeping our basement dry relies on our [electric] pumps to keep working, and so when the electricity failed to come back on, Dad and Martin started making some moves to go get the generator and hook the pumps back up.

And then the electricity came back on.