I drove into the eye of the storm

Photos from Lenox, Iowa 5/11/2011

At least the corner of the eye. About a half hour before I was going to leave work, we got the National Weather Service Announcement regarding a tornado watch. Over the Wallace Building's crappy tinny speaker system, the announcements always remind me of Cheech and Chong's Drive Inn Movie gig "Snack Bar Will Be Open Another 15 Minutes - After That It Will Be Closed For Everthang, Thank You (in nasal fashion).

Anyway...after all that, on my way outta Dodge, (I got to go home to Crestonia tonight, as I scheduled a meeting for here tomorrow), Pablo called to say there were tornadoes in the area. Yikes! Cheech and Chong were right! I kept heading southwest anyway. It sprinkled a little.

Thirty miles from home I decided to check out the Creston radio station - sho nuff, they were doing storm coverage. It's always fun listening to an excited Gary Bucklin. But the storm was quite bizarre - lucky for me, despite the torrential rain and wind south reported on the radio, I didn't run into it until I was half a block from home. Lucky gal!

So when I was in the tub for my ritual welcome home to me bath, I thought about storms when we were little. When they were really bad, Mom would wake us up and haul us down to the basement - I remember being parked in the corner of the playroom on blankets next to the piano. Mom would have the radio on for updates, and we'd have flashlights at the ready. It was quite exciting.

Tonight Lenox, Iowa took the brunt of the storm - we heard they had some storm damage to homes there. I suppose I should change my plans to visit Lenox tomorrow as the pics above are from there. I don't think they'll be too interested in speaking to us about recycling...they might have some other stuff on their minds...like the fact that their city park has been destroyed, and several homes are damaged in town. News tonight said the town has no power. This has been a tough weather spring - many storms. Mother Nature is a powerful force!