STORM!

Bailey and I were home alone Wednesday night. There was also a big storm that night. So, Bailey and I spent a lot of time looking at the radars on TV and listening to weather forecasts. When you live in Texas, you tend to pay attention to that kind of thing.

Early in the night it started looking like this outside:


Here's another shot - I don't think these pictures were too far apart. I would step outside for just a second, take a picture, then run back in. I know - it doesn't look that bad, but what you are missing is the lightening and thunder. We were seeing lightening all around us.



I had a goal Wednesday night when I got home from work. It was to finish up my Girl Scout financial reports and re-enrollment paperwork, then me and Bailey were going to go drop that off at someone's house, then we were going to pick up dinner on the way home. I had visions of having dinner at a decent hour. I had visions of finishing up the paperwork that I had once again waited until the last minute to complete.

My visions were wrong.

As I was frantically typing on the computer, Bailey was anxiously watching the weather reports begging me to come downstairs where it would be safer. I kept saying the big part of the storm isn't that close yet - I still have a bit of time to finish up my reports.

Then I got a call from our reverse 911 system saying that we were under a tornado warning.

Ok - that's fine. I can still work on my reports. The weather radars don't show anything definite yet.

Then the tornado siren's went off.

Allrighty then - I'll be heading downstairs NOW.

So, Bailey and I grabbed our cats and shoved them into our cat carrier (in case the house was blown to shreds, at least the cats would be together) and we piled into our downstairs powder room. It's the only interior room downstairs that has a door. Well, I guess our kitchen pantry has a door, but I don't want to be pelted by flying cans of food.

About a minute after the sirens went off, the wind kicked up several notches and the pressure in the house seemed to change. Bailey was in full panic mode. I will fully admit I was scared too. After a bit, I asked Bailey if she had shut the garage door, because it really sounded like it was open and all of the storm was coming right in. She said, "I think so." I gathered up my courage and ran and looked into the garage - the door was down. While I was there I grabbed Bailey's horse riding helmet and ran back. We sat huddled in the bathroom for a while longer and eventually things seemed to calm down.

After it had all passed, we reenacted the scene for your viewing pleasure.

The cats seemed to enjoy the forced close quarters. They had a good nap and weren't too eager to come out.

Zephyr (Orange) is the first to step out.

Twister (Cow) wanted to stay there the rest of the evening.

Luckily, there seemed to be only some fence portions down in our neighborhood - nothing else too serious that I could see.

I received a good bit of teasing from my coworkers today for telling them how I had made Bailey wear a helmet. Oh well - that's fine. I think I will keep it more handy for next time.