Manicures & Tornados!!!

Tuesday was hot, humid... sultry is what it was.  You know the kind of day that your makeup is sliding off your face and when you try to peel off your clothes to take a cool shower they stick to you?  Yeah, that kinda day! The forecast was for late afternoon and evening thunderstorms.

Mema & I had 5:30 appointments for manicures, and it was getting a little cloudy before we left, but I was confident we'd be home in and hour - hour 1/2, tops - at least before the storm hit.   Randi's station is by the window, and as I am wont to do, I was watching the birds hopping around looking for bugs, and a young rabbit munching on grass.  It got hazier, then more cloudy, and as the final top coat was being applied, we hear a strange sound, "What is that?" I asked.  "Not sure," said Randi.  "It kinda sounds like a siren, but I'll go check and see."

She didn't come back... not a good sign!  So I got up & went to the reception area, where everyone was watching the TV.  "What is it?  A tornado?"  "Yes!  A funnel cloud has been spotted near Damon's!"  

OH CRAP!!!  We live about a 1/2 mile away from there!!!

Then the cell phones go off!  Randi's 12 year old daughter called her and told her she was at a friend's whose Dad was there, and they were in the basement.  Then her husband called and told her that she had ~10 minutes to get somewhere safe, as the storm was moving fast and was about 10 miles west of Midland.  YIKES!!!

She helped me get Mema's walker into the trunk; "Buckle up Mema!" and we zoomed outta there!  Luckily we were only 5 minutes from home.  As we were driving, we saw lightning strike in the same place, which looked like the mall and airport area, 7 different times!!!  One of the bolts looked like someone was flipping a light switch: on & off, on & off, on & off, SIX times!!!  Another bolt looked like a portion of it was missing, ~ 1/3 from the uppermost end!  Very strange!

We made it into the house with only 5 minutes to spare before the sky opened up!  Charlie, my Cocker Spaniel who was already in hiding, slunk out of the bedroom.  Where can we go?  Not the basement, as there's no WAY to get Mema down there by myself, much less back up!!!  I thought the best place will be in the shower in my bathroom as it is an interior room with no windows; however, there is a honking big mirror over the double sinks, and of course the shower door, but it is big enough that we could all fit and Mema's shower chair is in there too, so she could sit.

BOOM!!!  A torrential downpour gushed out of the sky!  Mema asked if I was going to close the curtains of the sliding glass door to the deck, but I told her, no, because otherwise I wouldn't know what's happening.  I'd rather know if it's coming so we could take cover!  TV 5's Storm Center interrupted programming, and showed video of the ominous cloud over Damon's.  Soon the rain let up and the storm passed; we heard no more sirens. Thank God!  That was a close one!!!