It was the lack of worry about tornadoes that clued me into my Buckeye-ness. This past Thursday we were looking forward to some rain. This summer was very unBuckeye like in that it was hot and dry, so when rain was forecast for Thursday I was excited. The grass is so dry that it hurts to walk on, okay maybe the acorns have something to do with that, but the lawn is brown. There are parts of town, just up the road that have green lawns, they have gotten rain. Last Saturday it rained a little here and down the road at the Buckeye game(yep, watched that one too) it poured. So Thursday afternoon when CJ tells me that the tornado sirens are going off, I mention that when we first moved here I would go to the basement whenever the word tornado was mentioned! We turned on the TV to find that the county just a couple of miles south was under a tornado warning and then a few minutes later we were too. Still it seemed silly to go to the basement, it wasn't raining. OK, it was raining out front but not out back. Weird. Even when the rain made it to the backyard I still was totally calm and never considered the basement. The rain lasted about .5 hour and it got a little windy. It was wonderful to enjoy the smell of a summer rain, I have missed that this year. The weatherman on TV mentioned that of our high schools, just up the road, had roof damage. And a friend was at CJ's school, just across the road, and said that she had hail and the rain was coming down so hard she couldn't see. Still not worried, the weather at home was fine.
Today, I wonder if I should have been worried or if it's just that I am now a Midwesterner. We took the dogs, Pia is visiting again, to the mountain bike trail for a morning romp in the woods. As we headed down the trail there was this oak branch laying across the way. Because it had the largest acorns I had ever seen we gave it a closer look. Where did the branch come from? There were maple trees all around but no oaks. Curious. Later we saw more branches down. On the way home we took the road that the high school is on and saw lots of trees down. At the high school there was a crane beside the building and roofing supplies on the roof. That was quite a storm, I thought to myself. When we got home, I opened the newspaper and right there on the front page was a listing of the tornadoes from the storm and one was at the high school, just up the road! Maybe I should have been worried, maybe I will go to the basement next time! Or maybe I am a Buckeye.
Great writing, Mair! It was riveting to read. And as far as content goes-your seriously weird rain in front but not in back tops any of my summer of 10 experiences. I've begun to personalize rain. Ominously it approaches, notices my garden and just spits on it on its way to drench some other place. There was a time when I made preparations for forecasted severe wind driven storms. Now I don't bother. I don't even pull up my new awnings. Thanks for a great read. Now out on my bike to the river and the Russian Festival on yet another perfect bike day.
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