Mother Nature

Joplin which is in the news though is just 3 hours away from where we are and they were hit with a major tornado. We have a good bit of Ozark hills which seem to keep us fairly protected by the times storms come across from the Mid-West to our area. We did sleep downstairs last night though.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/us/24weather.html
We will have more thunderstorms coming through tonight and tomorrow. They remind me of a reunion when we were up on the "top" of the Colorado mountains and it thundered and boomed all night. The storms almost all seem like that—in your face—and if you didn't believe in God you better repent. They seem very powerful and are amazing, but a bit scary. I say a lot of prayers to get a pulse on our situation. I usually get an okay and so I don't worry. Yet, I always feel nervous, well nervous until I get the "you'll be alright". Then it is just a matter of getting through the feeling of helplessness during the power of the storm as the lightning cracks and the thunder booms.

The Queen doesn't take storms very well at all. However, it is what it is and we live with it.

What is amazing to me is that the area is used to all the water coming down in this area and so it moves on out and has a place to go. Then the sun comes out and it dries up quite a bit and you are "back to normal" minus a bit of your dirt road or drive way washed down the hill.

Old Time Music Ozark Heritage Festival

I have a fun, interesting, and varyied life. One part of that life is to be the creative director/editor of commercials which encourage the surrounding communities to come and participate in the signature festival of West Plains, Missouri, the Old Time Music Ozark Heritage Festival. Luckily we don't have to travel far to tape the festivities for the next year. It is lots of fun to be there and to edit video. =) (click on the title's link to get to the commercial)

The Heater Tornado

Last night those of us who normally sleep upstairs "camped" out in the basement with the rest of the crew because of the severe thunderstorm and the tornado Watch our county was under. I am thinking to myself as I hear the excessive wind outside that I really don't know what a tornado sounds like--although I have heard explanations that it sounds like a locomotive. Well, to me a lot of the thunder rumblings outside sounded strong and powerful enough to qualify for a "tornado". So amid all the whooshing of the wind and beating of the rain upon our metal roof, I fell asleep. Around 1:00 a.m. our heater's motor kicked on and I jumped with a start! "Honey! I think. . . . . Oh, never mind, it's just the heater." :P