As long as there are sirens, Naomi and I will maintain an active friendship.
Last evening, while bumming at her apartment and watching a movie, the weather turned ugly and the sirens went off. We paused the movie, stood outside and looked at the clouds, hopped in my car, and headed to my place, which has easy access to a basement. We were there all of five minutes or so when we headed back to her place to finish the movie. It just didn’t seem like anything would happen.
That’s pretty typical.
Today, the sirens went off again, which caught me by surprise, since it was still somewhat sunny. Naomi showed up, and we, like everyone else up and down the street did the safe thing: we stood out on the sidewalk and watched the approaching storm. I watched its progress on radar on my cell phone. I took some photos.
“Do you think we’ll get struck by lightning?” Naomi asked as the lightning zipped across the sky, deep thunder rolling and crashing overhead.
I was busy trying to focus my cell phone camera. “Well, if we did, we wouldn’t have to worry about a tornado anymore.”
Silver linings, people, silver linings.
Shortly thereafter, the temperature dropped about 10 degrees and the rain and wind arrived, so we stood inside the door of my apartment, watching. I put my impatiens plant inside. I offered Naomi a Diet Coke.
No sense being rude when you have guests.
“It’s nice to have a beverage for watching entertainment,” I said. We stood and sipped our beverages while the rain picked up and hail sputtered about. When the parking lot across the street looked like a hurricane, I mentioned we could run about four feet down the sidewalk to the basement entrance and watch from there.
In less than ten seconds, the time from my door to the basement entrance, we were soaked. Literally soaked.
“Can you believe how hard the rain is coming down?” Naomi asked.
I was wiping my glasses off. “Yep. That was quite a shower. Better pressure than I’m used to in my apartment. Kind of a refreshing treat.”
This may become a regular thing. Sirens go off, and I get a social call from my friend. I’ll keep the fridge stocked in Diet Coke.
Naomi’s version:
1. Tornado sirens blare.
2. Julie sends a friendly invite via text to come and visit.
Yes, those tornado warnings are keeping our friendship alive and well!
I wish we had sirens here! I stepped outside earlier this summer, went back inside and asked if anyone else thought those might be funnel clouds overhead (they were indeed). On the plus side, I work in a basement.
Here at camp I have the best spot, when they had a storm last week, I told them I’d be o.k. and stayed in my room and went to sleep. The rest of the camp went to the chapel and watched a movie and was ready to go to the basement if needed.