11:35 a.m. - 2005-01-13
Yet another tornado
Severe weather season starts early this year.
I had a late night and was sleeping in this morning. About 9 Bruce came up to say "bub bye" and I groggily remember him saying something about there being a possibility of severe weather today - something about the California storm system and cold air meeting hot air somewhere above our fine city.
I mumbled my condolences and went back to sleep.
About 20 minutes later I crawled out of bed and dragged my clothes on. As I was washing my face I heard the sound that never fails to put my teeth on edge.
The tornado siren. I hate the damn thing.
I searched my brain. It isn't Wednesday, so this wasn't a test. I looked out the window, and the air was ominously still. Time to shift into freak out mode.
I herded Burma into the closet, where I hoped she would be safe, and ran downstairs. I got Burroughs and Zesto in to the central area of the house, but couldn't find Athena. After a couple of minutes of searching I cleared my brain enough to turn on the weather radio. Maybe the danger was in another area of the county.
The danger was in my area of the county. The weather people kept mentioning the arsenal and the road that is about 1/2 mile from here.
So I proceeded on with my freak out.
I got all the foster bunnies into carriers. Napkin immediately started mounting Finny, even though they are best buddies, and in desperation I separated them and stuck her in a plastic storage bin. She seemed confused, but safe.
I went into the studio, where Mirage was thumping her feet off and when I picked her up, she panicked and peed on me. The remainder of the tornado prep was done with the back ground odor of bunny pee.
WIth just the cats left and short of carriers, I put Zesto and Burroughs into huge plastic storage bins we have for our disaster supplies. I keep them empty for just such cat storage emergencies. With the two safely stowed, I started looking for Athena.
She was nowhere.
I called Bruce, completely freaked out. He swore that she was around earlier and suggested I look in the dining room cabinet. Eureka! Somehow she had gotten in there and was curled in a corner. I dragged her out, and into the last carrier she went.
Animals safely in storage, I sat down on the kitchen floor with a foam rubber mattress pad over my head and watched the antics of our local TV weathermen. In severe weather they do everything but foam at the mouth. Meanwhile the sirens were still going, and didn't stop for about half an hour.
It's now finally over. The animals have been released, but the carriers are still in the kitchen as evidentally the threat is lasting all day. I feel battered. I feel like I'd like to go back to bed.
This is seriously the only thing I really hate about Alabama. Tornadoes. Damn.
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