Some poor woman who was just doing her job called me this evening. She was from Charter Communications and at first I was very excited to hear from her. Then I realized that she was trying to sell me on VOIP.
"This is a very bad time. You don't want to talk to me about this right now. See, my cable has been out for almost 4 days. I am absolutely not interested in any additional services from Charter at this time."
"Oh! I'm sorry. Have you tried to call-"
"I've tried to call everywhere. I can't get a live person. I can't get an estimate of when they expect the service to be restored. I feel sorry for you having to call people in this area tonight."
It turns out that the cable came back this evening before Lost, and Paul has had good luck finding the Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday shows we watch online. But this is April sweeps; a very bad time to be without TV with no warning. I would have been fine if it had been at the end of the week, but we typically record our favorite shows early in the week and stretch them out all week long. The third to last episode of The West Wing ever. Gray's Anatomy. 24. House. Good stuff.
What happened is this. On Sunday afternoon, after I awoke in a panic, I harried everyone out the door and into the car for an emergency trip to Target to pick up a present. It was beautiful outside: sunny and in the low 80's, with just enough breeze to keep things pleasant.
I knew exactly what I wanted in Target and we broke records getting into and out of the store. We exited into a strong wind from the west and an ominously black horizon. "Wow, that storm is coming up quickly," Paul said.
We drove a few blocks to Ellie's friend's house, and parked at the corner to sign the gift cards. Tree branches started whipping around and the first drops of rain started to fall. We pulled up to the house, where festive balloons danced gaily, tied to the picket fence. Then they fell. I looked at the car's thermometer and saw that the temperature had dropped 30 degrees, right along with the barometric pressure.
I ran to the house to drop off the present in a downpour and had a hard time opening and closing my car door. Moving boxes and new leaves were blowing everywhere.
When I got back into the car, we switched from toddler tunes to NPR, often a controversial move. We learned that a thunderstorm with "extremely strong rotation" was in Valley Park, the suburb just southwest of us, moving northeast at 55 mph.
We decided to drive into it and head on home. Home is only a 4 minute drive from Ellie's friend's house, or it should have been. Paul managed to run us into a couple of dead ends and strange meanders. He never quite approached the speed limit. I was about to push down the gas pedal myself with the wrapping paper roll.
When we got home, the sun was coming back out; the storm had passed us on the road. And we'd missed the worst of it.
If we'd been at home, we would have been down in the basement like sane people. We wouldn't have noticed right away that the wall on our neighbor's garage - just 15 feet or so from our carport (the only place where our house is close to a neighbor's) had pulled away from the rest of the structure.
The "strong rotation" had ripped the whole wall out a bit and strewn contents of their garage over our back yard. Amazing. We were very lucky. But somehow the weather announcer's suggestion that we hop out of our car - in the downpour and with tree branches flying all around - and lie in a ditch with our 2-year-old until the storm passed over us just didn't sound very appealing. I figured we had a better chance in the steel Passatt with its safety glass and 8 airbags.
I bet Paul doesn't groan at me so loudly the next time I wake everyone up to go downstairs when the sirens go off. I used to live in Kansas, where they take tornados very seriously. In Missouri they seem to like crying wolf with the sirens. Fortunately, we have a poofy couch and cable in our basement - most of the time, anyway.
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11 comments:
Well, as a native of Iowa I certainly understand the importance of storm warnings. I once watched a tornado in action.
Glad to hear that you are all safe and sound.
P.S. I just love NPR, my children feel as though it is a punishment when we are in the car, but it doesn't stop me when I don't feel like listening to all the stuff that they call music.
Remember, Paul is from Wyoming - wind is nothing to them. :o)
We have West Wing and Lost. We may have others that we could bring tomorrow if you want us to. Let me know!
RNP, you were up so late! ;-) I remember thinking that my parents were the most boring people on earth for listening to so much NPR. And then, of course, I grew up to be just like them.
Rob, when you're out there visiting, does the howling wind ever drive you just a little bit insane? It does to me, after a while. Occasionally I just like to hear the silence. I think Paul has downloaded and burned all the episodes we missed to CD, but thank you very much for the offer.
And - tomorrow! Yay!
Although I've grown up in MO, I take tornados very seriously because they scare the bejesus out of me....everytime the sirens go off, I snag the animals and demand that the family head to the basement. Scott is perpetually rolling his eyes at me - he thinks it's so ridiculous, "A tornado hasn't hit St. Louis in years", he'll say. "Well, then we're due", I always reply.
The funniest "Wyoming Wind" story I have is that when we went out there on December, Anny got a haircut and had her hair styled very nicely. In the midst of the walk from the door of the salon to the car door, MAYBE 20 feet, her hair was paralell to the ground!
Guess it was all of the hairspray in there that held it up even after we were in the car. :o)
Tomorrow is almost here!
Growing up in Nebraska, it took me a long time to get used to storms in MN. While there are tornadoes, the strong storms here generally (with some major exceptions) aren't comparable to those on the plains.
I used to be terrified of tornadoes. My mom kept saying, "Do you know anyone whose house has been hit? It almost NEVER happens." Then, when I was almost 9, the house of my father's aunt and uncle was destroyed by the Grand Island tornadoes of 1980. Point: Krupskaya.
Of course, Krup and Sarahlynn, you know why it's so windy in WY, right?
Cause Nebraska sucks.
Heh. That there's a little CO joke for ya.
PK, HAH HAH HAH!!! I can't wait to share that one with the in-laws. But perhaps they already know it. After all, when they were looking for a place to live between her family in Iowa and his in Colorado, they chose Wyoming because Nebraska was simply not an option.
Krupskaya, your mom must have been slapping herself in the forehead over that one. My mom always made tornadoes into adventures, so I still get a little excited when the sirens go off. We grab snacks and head for the basement like it's a special treat.
Jessica, good response!
Rob, see you in a few hours!!
St. Louis Countians tend to discount the tornado sirens because 1) the county is so damn large and the landscape quite often means you are a good 30 miles and two riverbeds from the tornado in question and 2) because the sirens go off if a tornado is announced in a neighboring county.
It's very annoying to roust an entire household and make your way to the basement only to find out after the fact that while you live in Florissant, the tornado was in freakin' Fenton, or that while you live in Eureka, the tornado was in Black Jack or worse yet, Winfield.
So yeah, the usual response of a StL County resident when the sirens go off is to turn on the telly and see just where TF that rotation really is.
I know! That's what I meant by crying wolf. I'm all serious about tornado safety, but even I feel foolish tromping down to the basement every time. It seems to me that they could be a little more selective about which sirens sound and when.
Can you believe that the tree that fell during the storm in K***w**d last Sunday was right outside my house? The dog and I were in the basement playing on the computer (a no-no) and not only didn't hear a tree land on a man and his dog, we didn't hear sirens (which my dog can hear from 4 miles away) or the news crew. What world am I living in?? My own obviously!
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