Oh, what a night!

It was an absolutely delightful breezy spring night. Dad and I sat on the porch, enjoying perfect temperature, having a glass of wine, watching the colorful crop of new spring birds and admiring the fountain in the rocked pond. Lots of new birds have been coming into the feeders just in the last couple of days.

For several years, the birds hit all the feeders in our yard and then take flight to my neighbor’s feeders next door, and go back and forth. We both love watching them and text each other frequently letting the other know “they are leaving to come back to you”!

We have had as many as 32 indigo buntings and as they go, sometimes we talk on the phone and say… they are on the way…5…12…22…all gone…and the other one counts as they land on her feeder! Silly and crazy, but it keeps us laughing as it’s quite predictable.

The hummingbirds are finally coming back and we’ve had the recent return of the rose breasted grosbeak and several pairs of blue grosbeaks as well.

The evening was so incredibly pleasurable, neither dad nor I wanted to go in for dinner, consequently it seemed an appropriate night to throw a pizza in the oven. With our little picnic over and the night setting in with a bit of a chill, it appeared as though it was time to retire to the warmer house.

Dad moseyed into bed early and I continued to catch up on a few informative videos until they put me to sleep in the recliner! About 8:30ish the annoying cell phone AMBER ALERT siren went off and woke me from a nice snooze saying there was a tornado in the area and take cover.

As we all do, you read the “alert” text and try to decide just how serious the “alert” seems to be and determine what you want to do! Flipping the channel over to the weather station it showed there was imminent danger heading our way and then the DISH went out and TV went off! Oh dear, maybe this time it’s serious.

Almost instantaneously a text came in from my friend, Jennifer, in Marshall saying “there is a tornado heading right to you”. I texted her there was no TV signal and to “KEEP TALKING TO ME”….

“It’s 4.5 miles from you…heading right towards you.”

In the meantime, I was texting the five other houses on the street telling them to take cover. They were responding to my text and asking what TV channel was coming into the house. “There is none…only a friend. TAKE COVER”. (They were sitting on their back porch watching the lightening.)

“It’s hailing.”

“That’s what they just said.”

“Big hail…baseball size.”

“I would take cover….70 mile wind.”

By that time, I had shaken dad out of bed, moved a large chair into his bathroom, gathered pillows, gotten him into the chair with pillows, grabbed a flash light, and a pistol ???? and sat down on the bathroom floor, bowed my head and began to pray.

Jennifer continued to text us saying she was still watching it as I told her our current circumstances and where we were located…just in case.

“They said strong damaging wind and large hail.”

“Keep telling me,”…..and finally,

“OK….rotation has moved through the area. It’s now straight-line wind…are y’all OK?”

Oh my gosh. Texts were flying trying to keep the neighbors informed and answer Jennifer. It was crazy as we sat on the bathroom floor trying to remain calm, take deep breaths, pray, text and answer texts!

Jennifer continued, ”winds were up to 90 mph, but just rain now.”

All of a sudden, the power went out and the generator kicked on. Then the next round of texts to the neighbors. “Are you all OK?” and everyone checked in saying “Thanks for the update. Does this mean we are clear now? We are out of power.”

Jennifer checked in one more time saying she had her TV on one station, iPad on another and was texting me on her phone! “Thank you, dear Lord for friends and the technology that saved us this night.”

As it appeared safe to leave the shelter of the bathroom, we returned to the outside world and the regained TV satellite news to watch as the weather moved through and into Louisiana and my cousin’s backyard. More texts as their TV went out and I was the messenger saying “TAKE COVER”.

Finally, all subsided and this weather gal informer could head off to bed!

This morning was another story as I surveyed the damage early. My worry was the chickens and the chicken coop. Can you possibly image how those girls felt with the baseball sized hail beating down on their metal roof and their umbrellas flying by?

Two beach umbrellas took off and landed in the back yard. Don’t you know those hens were huddled together and talking back and forth as the winds rocked their coop!

The property looked like a bombing run with tree branches down everywhere. The garden was a mess but could be straightened up in about an hour.

Thankfully the only thing lost was the experimental artichoke given to me by a master gardener last year. Sadly, it had a baby artichoke growing this year!

But we are safe and made it through with apparently not much hail damage…and with a little bit of clean up effort, life thankfully continues. Power is still out, the generator is still running, our neighbors are all safe and we live to see another day.

We were indeed lucky as the tornado skirted right by us and today fortunately we all are saying….“oh what a night!”