Stormy Weather

One of my most popular blogs is Driving Into the Storm where I talk about driving into a tornado warned county and watching the storm brew and build.  And of course parallel it to life.  We are currently waiting for the first real round of spring storms to hit my hometown right now.  This system has been predicted to be worse than the 2009 outbreak of tornadoes.  They've already started hitting in Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Joplin.  The current line is two counties away where the 'dry line' (a term meteorologist like to throw around) is.  I'm fairly confident they won't make it here but as always there are no guarantees.  We didn't get all that warm today and right now it's pretty chilly here.  Always a bonus as these storms need that warm air to come to full intensity.  All my neighbors know to come to my place.  I'm ground level with concrete walls and a massive bathroom.  And I like them, call me crazy.

We've been hearing about these storms for days on end.  People have posted the outlooks on Facebook and the weather guys have reminded us at every news cast.  And just like everyone else, I've tried to ensure I'm prepared for every contingency.  Bathroom clean...check.  I mean there could possibly be people in there and I don't need them judging my bathroom floor.  Wine and milk...check.  OK, perhaps frivolous but still I have it.  I have food, the neighbors have several grills.  IF disaster strikes we could potentially eat.  I even changed my typically parking spot based on coverage and potential blocking of debris type issues.  I think I'm prepared.  I hope?

You can prepare for every congencincy that you can think of.  But there are millions more you can't think of.  It's that other million that concerns me.  I've been extremely lucky with near misses when it comes to severe weather.  I've seen it up close and personal but I've never been actually impacted.  So I don't really know what to expect if it happens or how I will react either.  Back in 2002 when Stockton was hit hard I was at work in the next town over.  And I watched as all our local boys set out with chainsaws and pickups to clear the roads so emergency crews could get in.  I watched in 2011 as Joplin was wiped by a EF5 tornado, the biggest the come by the way.  And I watched last year as Moore, Oklahoma was wiped by an equally strong tornado.  I've watched.  I've observed.  I've never experienced.

My Dad does not have a fear nor a respect for tornadoes.  I guess that goes with growing up in Southeast Oklahoma with a dad who was was terrified of them.  To hear Daddy tell it the sky got dark Pa would shuttle them to the cellar. (I always wondered as a kid if they slept there every night since it was dark...weird I know.)  And they never had a tornado.  So Daddy likes to watch the storms.  He likes to watch them come in and move across.  And if he happens to be out and about when the storm moves in and in the right position he follows behind it just watching.  Growing up with his mindset as an example and living in a pretty storm tornado prone area of the country I have mixed feelings about storms.  I respect them.  I have a huge respect for them.  I have first hand seen the damage they can do.  I have watched them take over the sky and seen the damage they leave on the ground below.  I am also in awe of them.  I have watched them take over the sky and seen the damage they leave on the ground below.  Given the opportunity I would watch each and every storm that moves through.  I don't know how many pictures I've taken through the years of the changing sky.  And how many blank pictures I have trying desperately to catch the distant lightning on film.  But, I also fear them.  I fear personally being in the center of that storm and dealing with the aftermath personally.

This round of storms fills me with awe, curiosity, and fear.  But, just like everything in life, I've done what I can to prepare.  I've tried to think of each contingency that could pop up and prepare for it.  Plans look great on paper (or in my head) but plans cannot be reality.  There's that million other things I didn't think of.  And of course I can't tell you a story without paralleling life somehow.  It's what I do.  So...here goes.  You can plan for life but that's not actually living life.  Life does not follow a plan.  Plans are great and provide amazing opportunities for growth, enlightenment and sheer enjoyment.  However, just likes storms there is still the need to live with spontaneity.  If things don't go as planned not all is lost.  It's a new opportunity to learn something or be amazed or grow.  It's an opportunity to start over.  That whole calm after the storm kind of thing.  Be prepared but also be open.  I respect storms and I'm awed by them.  I'm as prepared as I can be.  But I can't plan for everything, with the storms and with life. 

Driving into the Storm

A week ago the Oklahoma City area was getting hit, again, but severe weather and tornadoes.  Most anything that hits Oklahoma goes through here as well.  And as I left Bolivar to head to work in Stockton, Cedar County became warned.  Around here ‘warned’ only means one thing, tornado warning.  Severe Storm warnings don’t hold near the weight as the big T does.  I didn’t really have any choices; I had to go to Stockton.  And it’s not like that storm wouldn’t be in Bolivar soon enough anyway.  As I was driving I watched the sky, not for fear of a tornado dropping on my head out of now where ala ‘Twister’, but because it was so interesting.  On either side of storm the sky was dark and murky like you expect a storm to look like.  However, in the middle the sky was a robin’s egg blue.  Oddly enough, that is where the storm was, right over Stockton.  I hit the wind before I hit the wall.  Once I reached the storm edge it was as if I was driving into a wall of wind and rain, cutting my speed literally in half.  Did I have a choice about going that night?  I guess that depends on who you ask.  Working that night was my responsibility.  I know that the individual I was replacing at work believed it was my responsibility too, and was grateful to get to go home.  But, of course, that got me thinking.

How often do we drive ourselves into the storm when we don’t have to?  And I don’t mean a weather storm.  How often do we put ourselves into situations that blow up around us or spin out of control?  How often do we choose to be in those situations as opposed to not having a choice?  I don’t mean the drama queens of the world who are the ones that seem to always be the center of the storm.  Not every choice puts us into the storm, and not every storm is by choice.  They vary for simple rain storms to severe weather to the big T.  As I look back over the multitude of storms I’ve driven into throughout my life I see storms that I knew were brewing and I chose to go into them anyway.  Convincing myself it was just some rain, nothing major.  While in reality, they were major enough to change life gears for a while.  I remember storms that seemed to come out of now where, unexpected, unforecast.  They too changed the course of my life.  Some storms clear the skies and create a positive after impact, but most don’t.  I know for a fact I would not be sitting here right now, in the life I have today had it not been for the storms I drove into.  And while so many times I wish I could change things I have or have not done I don’t know that I would.  And sometimes I wonder if it would have made a difference at all. 

We end up where we are in life for a reason.  Our lives are based on our choices, the choices of others, and to some degree the storms we weather.  I firmly believe that while not everything is set, some things are meant to happen.  And if we avoid it once it will eventually catch up to us.  Once I drove into the storm last week the sky changed, my perception of my environment changed, and of course my mind was working overtime.  Everything was dark, murky gray.  There were no dark storm clouds or robin’s egg blue sky.  There was gray, rain slashed gray.  And slowly but surely I made it to my destination once the warning was over and the rain had slacked off.  I drove into the storm but the heart of the storm missed me.  We don’t always get so lucky.  And sometimes, when the timing falls perfectly, we miss the storm all together.