too early for this!

 I am not the calmest person during storms

    Yes, that is true.

    When Jackie and I first moved to Rochelle, we lived in an apartment next to the root beer stand on IL 38.  It is long gone.  The root beer stand, the building with apartments is still there.

    I believe it was Palm Sunday.

    The winds picked up, the thunder started and we had a hell of a storm.

    We lived on the second floor and I had no idea where the basement was.

    The apartment across from us was vacant, but the apartment next to us was occupied by another young couple.

    As the wind howled, I got more and more nervous.  I told Jackie we should move into the hallway.  Meanwhile, I went down the stairs looking for a basement.  (If Jackie is telling the story, she will claim I abandoned her in a panic while I maintain I was looking for the basement.)

    I came back up the stairs and suddenly the wind gusted, tore off part of the carport on the root beeer stand and put it through a window in the vacant apartment.

    I heard the noise and was convinced we were having a tornado.

    So I pounded on the apartment of the other couple and  screamed, "We're all gonna die!  We're all gonna die!"

    The man answered and told me to calm down.  Then I heard his wife wailing in another part of the apartment.

    "Great," he said.  "I just got her calmed down and now you come pounding and yelling"  She wailed louder.

    "Where is the basement?"  I yelled.

    "There is no basement.  It's just a storm.  Calm down."

    Meanwhile Jackie is waiting patiently for me to return to normal, which is not easy.

    But they were right.  It was just a storm.  A normal, everyday windstorm with parts of roofs smashing through windows.

    Growing up in the city we didn't worry about those things.  Tornadoes never touched down in the city, except when they did, and I never really had any experience with them.

    That was a long time ago.  I have gotten older, and wiser, and calmer.

    But when I hear the word tornado, I get into a panic. ... and rightly so.  I do believe Emily shares the same feelings of angst, but at least she has a reason.

    So windy and stormy tonight?

    I'll probably be playing solitaire.

Peace and Love