I was glued to my computer all afternoon watching the progress as it moved toward us. I was so glued that I completely forgot to prepare for dinner. Maeve had to remind me that maybe dinner would be good to have.
I guess it could have been worse. She could have made dinner for herself , ate and left me mesmerized by the swirling patterns of red, yellow and green.
I signed up for texts alerts from the weather stations. Daniel emailed me the tornado watch alert his company put out. I watched the tv forecast. I logged into NOAA for the latest storm track. I even watched the streaming video from the storm chasers cars.
By the time the storm hit the weatherman was ticking off the timetable. Minco 7:15 Yukon 7:20, metro by 7:30pm. They had it down to the minute where the storm would hit.
There were a few tornadoes sighted but nothing huge.
The thunder started at our house at about 8:15pm and lasted until about 1am.
It was LOUD.
Hilde asked to sleep in my bed. I said no. We have too many storms to let that precedent take hold.
I was trying to strike the right balance between preparation. (Knowing when to run for the closet) and calm. I didn't really want to scare my children. Again, we have too many storms for that to be a good idea.
I don't think I did a very good job at striking that balance. We all ended up too worried about a storm that turned out less threatening than predicted.
So, we weathered the storm but it wasn't my best moment in parenting. I ignored my children all day until the begged for food. I scared them with too much information about the storm and then I wouldn't let sleep in my bed to be comforted.
Maybe next storm I will do better. I'll have plenty of practice living in tornado alley.
P.S. I did get a quote for a storm shelter, mostly for peace of mind.
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