Just checking in to see if you're OK given that you live in tornado territory. Hope you and your family weren't in any of the tornado paths.

Hoping our friend, shatteredreams, didn't do a Dorothy on us! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for thinking of us...we live in Topeka, well away from the devastated city of Greensburg, home of the world's largest hand dug well!

We're in a tornado watch until 10:00 pm, but that's a pretty regular occurance here in the heart of "tornado alley" from May through June.

The Topeka tornado of 1966 is still the 3rd most expensive on record, although no scars remain. I came up as an Explorer Scout volunteer for two days, helping with clean up, and my 15 year old brain still has the images burned in pretty deeply. Street upon street of houses blown into splinters. I remember there were mudstained cars driving around for years after, the winds blew so hard it opened up the pores of the paint, and stained the paint. It was indelible. The last time I remember a whole town getting destroyed was much closer to us, a town called Udall, which was hit in the late 1950's. It was a town of around 200 citizens, and I don't think there are many left there today.

My heart goes out to those poor souls in Greensburg. I have watched coverage all day. How do you rebuild a town whose entire main street retail was devastated, and 90% of the residential dwellings were destroyed?

I'm in charge of the safety and security for a couple thousand fans for an indoor football league game tonight, so I'll be watching the radar closely all evening. Fortunately, most tornadoes drop into rural, sparsely popululated areas, and knock down a couple of out buildings, and little more. Greensburg is a glaring example of what can happen if one hits a populated area. Tornadoes are typically more powerful than hurricanes, just much smaller in the area they cover.

Thank you for caring and checking in. I prefer the tornadoes that mother nature throws our way over the tornado infidelity brings into ones life.

Hope all is well with you!
SD

Mel, I didn't pull a Dorothy, but I do look pretty good in Ruby Slippers <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />

SD, thanks for checking in. I was pretty sure you live in Topeka but my geography sucks and I was too lazy to look at a map. Much easier to just post on GQ.

When I was 19, and going to college in Cincinnati, the Zenia tornado hit. That was one of those huge tornadoes that don't bounce around cause they are so big. I think it was like 3 tornadoes in one and just stayed on the ground and leveled Zenia. The same day a bunch of tornadoes hit Cinci. So what do us college braniacs do during the warning or watch? Which one is more dangerous anyway, a warning or a watch? I always forget. We all stand outside our dorm trying to see the tornado. I'll never forget having to hang on to a pole because this wind literally almost took me off my feet. We all flew into the dorm and into the stairwells after that. A few days later we brought canned food to the hit areas. Houses which were once on top of hills were now splinters at the bottom of the hill. You don't forget those images. You wrote:

"Thank you for caring and checking in. I prefer the tornadoes that mother nature throws our way over the tornado infidelity brings into ones life."

I think because of my Cinci experience I have these Tornado dreams when my life is crazy. I swear I know what it's like to be in a Tornado because of these dreams. During H's A I had a dream with 3 Tornadoes and actually told him about it. I think he even said one of the tornados was him. Yey, this infidelity sucks doesn't it?

H and I have been having some ups and downs, but I think we are back on track. Every now and then I especially need to get clear on what my M vision is and ask him if he has the same vision or not. I think he does so on we go on the recovery journey. When those experts say it takes 2 to 5 yrs to recover from this they weren't lying. Hope you're doing well. Stay safe in Tornado Alley, OK?