Bear with me. There will probably be nonsensical sentences , misused words, and random comments in this post, 'cause I'm running on very little sleep.
I've mentioned before that I'm a bit of a weather nerd - I can't remember a time when I wasn't somewhat obsessed with the weather. I think it stems from Arkansas getting about one decent snow a year when I was growing up - eventually, at some point during the winter, it would snow. In the meantime, every cold front would get major local news attention and every possibility at snow would get thrown out there, sending school aged children bouncing off the wall. Or maybe that was just me.
I've since revised some of my opinions about the glory that is a snow day out of school, but I digress.
So where was I...and where's my coffee.
So yeah. Somewhere in the midst of wishing for a snow day and sledding conditions, I got the bug for weather watching. And if you grew up in Little Rock, you remember the tornado sirens going off regularly in the spring and fall. Technology was a little different twenty years ago; the sirens went off near our house if there was a tornado anywhere in the county, let alone close enough to affect us. So it wasn't unusual to hear them, but they still made your heart skip a beat. And of course, you remember the city testing the sirens every Wednesday at noon, right? They still do that, in case you are wondering.
Last night we were supposed to get some pretty decent boomers, with tornados being possible. Unfortunately, the storms didn't come through our area until 2am. Even more unfortunately, I stayed up reading comments posted in a local weather chat room and watching the weather to our west (Mena, Dardanelle, Russelville) until after 1am, when it was supposed to be dying down. So when the storms actually rolled through our area at 2am? I had just drifted off to sleep. Ahhh, the Internet. Interrupting sleep since 1993. Or whenever.
So then came the wind. And the lightening. And the hail. And two little kiddos down the stairs, eyes big and voices excited. And I thought it might be worth checking the weather to make sure we didn't need to grab pillows and hit a closet or something.
When I actually checked the weather, there were four separate tornado warnings out in our area. This, from storms that were supposed to be "dying down". I couldn't hear any sirens close by (although I could hear them from the Little Rock area), but sleep was pushed back for another half hour at least as the kiddos and I watched the news. For what it's worth, we do have a siren about half a mile from our house, so if that sucker blares, we'll hear it. Still, I'd rather know what's going on as opposed to relying on a siren.
I suppose it was sometime after 3am before our house settled down again and the storms moved past us. The boy went back to his room and we didn't hear from him again, but the girl came down for chapstick, and to have her hair pulled back, and for something else that I can't remember right now. She has a hard time getting back to sleep sometimes...
I sorta worry that I'm turning the kiddos into weather watchers. I don't think I act worried or concerned about the weather, although I do pay attention to it. But both kiddos sat on the couch with me at 2:30 this morning and asked a million questions as we watched the weather maps and the line of storms come through.
They were concerned about tornados and bad weather, and I don't like to sugarcoat things for them, but I also try not to worry them unnecessarily. I don't want them to be frightened, but I do want them to have a healthy respect for mother nature. So when they ask questions, I answer as truthfully as I can, leaving out information if I think it's overly concerning. But that doesn't matter - they usually pick up on things anyway. And I suppose I'd rather them learn stuff from me, as opposed to having someone frighten them with bad information.
Now, if I can just keep that attitude when it comes time for The Talk.
Thinking about that makes me want to add something stronger to my coffee...this is gonna be a long day.
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