Sometime early last week, I realized it had been raining off and on for about four days. I wasn’t too concerned because it’s the rainy season here. You can almost set your watch to the afternoon thunderstorms that drench us. During one downpour, Mason (who is terrified of hurricanes and tropical storms) asked me to check the weather on my computer.
Now, just a few weeks ago, Mason was nervous during a thunderstorm so, at that time, I opened up two windows in my laptop. One showed a small storm over our town and another showed an old satellite photo of a hurricane over Florida. Side-by-side, the difference between the two was striking. I pointed, and said, “This is a tiny little storm on the right there and this big one on the left – that’s a hurricane. See? So, you don’t have anything to worry about.”
Anyway, so on that last week day when he asked me to check the weather, I opened up weather.com on my laptop to show him the little storm over us. I clicked on the satellite image for our town and, lo and behold, a big storm was in the gulf, and heading our way! Sure, I’d heard about that low pressure system near Mexico but I hadn’t really been tracking it. Once the tropical system popped up on my laptop, Mason said, “WE NEED TO LEAVE! NOW!!!”
Poor baby. I explained to him that it wasn’t a hurricane and that it wasn’t even a tropical storm. It was just a low pressures system and we weren’t in danger. That night, while we were eating dinner, the news announced, “Tropical Storm Andrea….” Mason eyes got as big as his dinner plate. We calmed him down, telling him we’d leave if it was supposed to get bad.
The next day, it rained and rained and rained but they still said it would be a minor storm so we were able to convince Mason that it was just a “baby tropical storm” and that we didn’t need to evacuate. It wasn’t anywhere near hurricane strength.
The night when it got really bad, our security alarm went nuts. I was asleep and dreaming that I kept hearing this beeping sound. In my dream, I couldn’t figure out how to turn it off. I finally woke up and it was our system telling us we were under a tornado warning. There was one on the ground a couple of towns over. Thank goodness Mason slept through that!
The alarm continued to beep so Richard had to get online to figure out how to override it. He did and, only half an hour later, it started up again. There was another tornado. By the next morning, there were warnings everywhere – all around us. I was sitting in the living room working while watching The Weather Channel. All the sudden, the rain started going sideways and the palm trees bent over. I jumped up, and hollered for Richard. I have NEVER seen wind like that in my life. It was like a movie. I grabbed the boys, and took them to the closet in the center of the house, which is made of cinderblock like most homes here. I already had their bike helmets ready. I snapped those on, handed them the iPad, and threw some pillows in before closing the door. By the time I got back to the living room, the rain were back to a steady torrent (not a sideways one!).
I went to check on the boys and they were having a great time in their new little fort! They ended up spending most of the afternoon in there. Very cute. It reminded me of the forts my brother and I used to build. Mason had so much fun that he forgot about the tornadoes roaming around and was no longer worried about the tropical storm!
Zach, who is about an hour south of here, got 12 inches of rain in about 4 days. We got several inches, too, but not that much. Zach said his backyard had turned into a pond and there were even ducks in it. Our garden took a beating but it survived. It was nice not needing to water for a whole week! Our neighbor’s wooden swingset blew over and another neighbor’s boat lift tarp ripped off. Aside from fallen branches all over the neighborhood, that was it for damage. We are so blessed! 🙂
This week’s Masonism:
When Mason had a toothache a few weeks ago, we used Orajel and it really saved the day while we were waiting to see the dentist. Later, while reading the news, I said, “The inventor of Orajel died. He was 103.”
Mason (age 6) replied, “Wow! 103? How tall was he?!?!”
Big hugs to all,
Angela
P.S. I want to “follow” you!
ANGELA ON TWITTER
@AngelaHoy
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WRITE YOUR MEMOIRS IN 2013! WE’LL SHOW YOU HOW!HOW TO REMEMBER, WRITE AND PUBLISH YOUR LIFE STORY! by Angela Hoy
Using Angela’s MEMORY TRIGGERS, recall memories that have been dormant for years, and record those memories in chronological order in your memory notebook. Using the memory notebook as your outline, write your autobiography! **Also works for biographies and memoirs.**