My life and the weather

Ever stop to consider the impact weather has had on your life? I just did.

As a tyke we often visited my Oklahoma grandparents who lived in “tornado alley.” We never experienced one but at the first sign of storm my Granny would have us all in the cellar with candles, spiders, and canned goods. I hated it.

Forward to mid 60’s I moved to Plainview Texas as assistant golf pro to help a friend get started at the country club. I rented a duplex on the South side and woke up one night from the sound of a train. There was no train but the little town of Hale Center about 6 miles away was destroyed by a tornado.

Late 70’s living in Dallas I worked in Arlington. One afternoon going home a tornado popped up in front of me (couple of miles) and since we were both going East I followed. Came time to turn North the tornado did too. When the atmosphere became deadly still and very, very dark green I knew from experience it was time to seek cover. I parked under an overpass and never knew how close I was to it.

In 2002 I moved to Sanibel Island, Florida. In ‘04 there was a mandatory evacuation of the island so I spent that Thursday night with my fiancé in Fort Myers. Next morning, Friday the 13th, I’m watching the news and hurricane Charley had swerved and was coming up the Caloosahatchee River and we (at 7 feet as I recall) should anticipate storm surge of 12-15 feet. Pretty easy math to do and everyone was happy it didn’t materialize. Over the coming years we had 6 major hurricanes but the only real damages, besides landscaping, was a two story pool cage.

Just two weeks ago the Lee County tornado directly hit our neighborhood but due to hurricane code construction of 49 homes only 25 have tarped roofs and minor landscape damage.

Now January and I’m in Kentucky with our historic house restoration and the devastating tornado goes through Bowling Green just over ten miles south.

I await my future with weather events but in no hurry to find out.