The Rain

Wow, the rain is really coming down! Now hail too! This is Espen's first REAL thunder storm. She's seen lightening from a distance and quite thunder but this is really close! So, I took her outside (the bottom of our apartment building stairs) and we watched it rain for a few minutes. The first lightening strike happened and I counted to 5 and explained to Espen what it meant. I told her that there was no reason to be scared of it, but that it was dangerous and I would keep her safe. She loved feeling the splashes of the rain blow onto her face, she laughed! After a couple minutes we went inside and watched it from our window. She was very facsinated with it. Now onto my tornado warning story:

I was living in Gillette and working for a photographer there: George Dunlap ((www.dunlapphoto.com) Thought I put that little plug in there for him. lol) Anyways, it was raining outside quite a bit and I had to make a run to the post office. While I was waiting in line it started to hail! The hail grew bigger and bigger! Then while the lady was weighing the mail, I had lots of pieces, the tornado warning sirens went off! I looked at her and her at me and I was thinking "Okay, I'm sure they have a place we can go to be safe." Ha! She looked at me and said "Well, you're going to have to pay for these we have done and leave." In my head I'm thinking she's crazy! I'm supposed to go back out into the rain and hail and find a safe place when you have a place you can go? Well, it's the USPS, of course I couldn't go behind the counters to where ever because that's the way they are! Security is everything!!! LOL!!! Anyways, the hail is bigger around than quarters! And as I was running to my car I'm thinking "What a day to wear a skirt!" and "I hope my car doesn't get dented" and "Well, this would certainly be an interesting way to die...one I never imagined!" So, drive as fast and safely as possible back to my work. I had to park behind the building and run to the front to enter. GAH!!! Stupid hail! I got knocked in the head and back a few times but, still kept running...well, walking fast, I had heels on. Well, I made it inside and down to the basement with my coworkers. And 10 minutes passed while we were listening to the rain and hail hit the roof and windows. We were all really worried about our cars. Lol...not our lives! Well, we lived. And there was a tornado a couple of miles out of town. It didn't do any damage but still, the thought of a tornado is kinda scary. I kinda wish I'd seen it! Our cars survived, though I was a little worried because I've seen what hail can do to a car! My friend, Jill, had her car damaged pretty severely by some hail. There were a few tornado warnings while I lived there but that was the most exciting one.