Friday, August 21, 2009

Wow


Well, last night jolted me out of my back-at-home stupor. And I discovered that I don’t panic while under a tornado warning and during a raging, blustery, severe storm.

But I do yell.

At the TV weather station with its repeated advice to “Take All Safety Precautions.”

“What the hell are they??!!”

At my eldest who went outside to enjoy the storm before we knew of a possible tornado.

“Get the hell inside the house!!”

At my second eldest for even considering heading out to his scheduled hockey game.

“You’ll only go carrying me on your back!!”

I did not yell at my youngest. He called from the camp where he works up North to see if we were all okay. They were experiencing a severe thunder storm. The camp was without power and all the children had been herded into one building.

What an experience. Such weather conditions are rare for Toronto and while we remained relatively unscathed, parts of Southern Ontario did not.

I’m not liking the weather this summer.

And I do believe we have well and truly screwed up the planet.

17 comments:

rebecca said...

yet some people still don't believe. i remember reading an article a few years back that stated that with the erosion of the polar ice caps, a change of a few degrees in water temperature can set off catastrophic consequences for the planet. in my neck of the woods, we had no july. it was rain all month long with a september-like weather. i don't think i've ever lived thru a july such as that.

glad to see everyone was okay.

a mouthy irish woman? ridiculous! said...

i couldn't agree with you more. we have screwed up the planet and now she is exacting her revenge.

i yell too. and cuss.

Sherry said...

Do you know, I wasn't even aware that we were having tornado warnings?? I was upstairs happily reading and thinking, "wow, that's some storm!" :O I did wonder when I heard something "thunk" in the backyard, which turned out to be branches hitting my window and there I was still blissfully unaware!!

My husband and youngest were at the Dufferin and Bloor area for a soccer game which was cancelled as soon as the lightning hit and they had to wait out the rain in a change area before getting to the cars.

Oldest went to his hockey game out at York but by that time, the rain and storm had passed.

We most certainly have screwed up this planet and Mother Nature is NOT happy about it!!!

Deidra said...

When there is a tornado here, we are supposed to go to our storm shelter. I've never been in there, and I never plan to. It might quite literally be over my dead body. The shelter is a dirt crawl space under our family room and it freaks me out...more than the storms. And now I must knock on wood, because as surely as I have stated here that I will never go down to the storm cellar, my conviction will probably soon be put to the test, here in the stormy American midwest.

Have a calm and storm-free weekend!

Cid said...

I was clueless as to the severity of the storm. I was having a shower when I saw the lightning and yelled to the kids to turn off the computer. Later a neigbour told me that a bunch of houses lost their roofs about five minutes down the road. And although this is the first real storm of the summer the weather is definately getting wackier.

The Bodhi Chicklet said...

Oh yes indeed, we have done our damage and now are reaping the results. I was talking to my sister in Newmarket during the storms there, her happy ending is she stepped outside into a gigantic rainbow shortly after.

Sam said...

all is well up at the camp... we lost a transformer and are without power still though.

Lainey-Paney said...

glad you're okay.

we've had wet/stormy weather today. heard on the radio: "a cold is coming in, so today's highs will be 93-97 degrees."
{that's a Texas Cold Front for ya...}

Cipriano said...

Beth, I was out on my balcony last night, observing the totally totally crazy lightning here [Ottawa] too!
It was extremely electrical.
Some of the strikes seemed so close, the thunder almost simultaneous, like a huge SLAP/CRACK!

You know, thunder.... the word "thunder".... it should have gradations. Like several different words, describing the resultant sound, but varying, according to proximity.
I think I may write an essay on this!

Anonymous said...

Did you take that picture??? If so, wow!

The weather was certainly scary last night, even in Ottawa. The whole house was shaking under the thunder.

I'd had been scared... not much to do when a tornado in on its way, and it's not like it's a common thing in Canada!

Ed & Jeanne said...

The planet will be fine just as soon as we inhiliate ourselves through overpopulation. It'll start again.

Seraphine said...

i hate tornados. i was uncomfortably close to one last year on a visit to kansas. you can't believe the damage they do until you see it. it's scary.
you want to put as many doors and walls between yourself and the tornado as possible.

Maggie May said...

this made me smile

Bee said...

I didn't realize that Toronto got tornadoes, either. A bad sign, to be sure. My poor parents in Texas are on course for the HOTTEST SUMMER EVER -- and that's saying something in central Texas. I'm glad ya'll are okay.

Anonymous said...

The weather scares me. It is so unpredictable and storms seem to come without warning and they are so severe. I'm glad you are all okay.
I was in Cental Park, in NYC, on Tuesday, admiring all the beautiful, century old trees. That night, a storm hit and so many of those beautiful trees were gone by morning. They said it was the worse storm to hit Central Park, ever.

Mother Nature is not happy with the mess we have made with this planet. So sad.

Laura said...

Well, it's good to know that you have at least one child who can think in a storm.

We had quite the storm the night before last.

patricia said...

Wasn't that the freakiest storm ever??? Boy was that scary. And I totally agree about us screwing up the planet. I've lived in Toronto for 20yrs, and I don't recall EVER experiencing any storms like that.

You know, my adorable crazy husband has been ranting about climate change for years. Funny thing – a few months ago he was on another one of his rants, and he said something like this: "Mark my words, the weather is going to get so bizarre that you are going to see tornados in Toronto!"

He's also been ranting about an economic collapse for quite a few years, too. Hmmm. Maybe I should start, like, listening to him, huh?