tornado weather

strange, strange, strange day.

Got to work quite late... 20 after 9 or so... just couldn't get my body out of bed and moving, and once I did, I just felt this weight. It wasn't necessarily sleepiness, but I really felt like I was dreading the day.

Odd, very ADHD-feeling morning... I just couldn't focus on work, and there was very, VERY strange tension with office bickering popping into my email every half hour or so.
Before lunch, Robin called to say there was a tornado watch in Niwot.
I laughed-- Niwot?! "I'm in Niwot, and the sun's out," I said, and we mused about how odd that seemed.

Little did I know, just then the tornado sirens were blaring just down the road in Longmont... someone (police?) was even going through neighborhoods in Old Town and telling people to get in their basements.
Meanwhile, there we all are in our office, bickering and snarking and looking out the window at the dramatic clouds to the North, and West, and East, and South...

I had no idea until after lunch that Windsor got *whomped* by a 3/4 to 1-mile-wide F3 tornado. I hope that Bryan and Beth are ok! The pictures are terrifying-- the footage of the tornado ripping across I-25 literally made me feel sick to my stomach. Real storms like that are just baffling-- like getting caught in a violent wave, it's a reminder of how small and out of control we are when the planet really *does* something like that. It's amazing that there was only one death, especially when seeing the demolished homes. Horses picked up and thrown-- I can't imagine seeing a horse or a car picked up and then dropped from the sky!

I got super maternal and angsty and called Fawn and Paul about a bazillion times... I figured they were safe and sound at their home in Greeley, but watching that footage really got to me... I tracked them down a few hours later, Fawn said she had to duck into the basement, and they lost power, but otherwise they're fine.

I really do get anxious about my friends when I hear scary stuff in the news like that. It doesn't speak well for my chances of being a sane, ulcer-free woman when I have kids to worry about someday... I can't help it. I'm a logical person as much as I can be, but I care too much about my people to not worry if they're happy and safe... well, here's the crazy test, I'm getting angsty just typing this. Stop! Be normal, for once in your life, Janie!


I got home a couple of hours ago, and for some reason, a very weird sense of nervous energy followed me home. I feel very angsty and deeply unsettled. I wonder if it's the weather? Or just weariness? I feel weird, agitated, a little queasy. I feel like I just want a little bit of company. Probably more bachelorette-dom than tornado weather... sometimes it's wonderful to be home alone, and sometimes it just makes for a too-quiet evening, trapped with your own thoughts.

I was dropping some things off at Brian's, and we went up to Flagstaff to take pictures of the storm and the clouds all across the plains. He sent them to me... I'll post them tomorrow if I have time.

Just as the sirens were going off in Longmont, I was staring out the window, watching a flock of birds flying in a V-formation. In a burst of chaos, they suddenly all disbanded and went flapping wildly all across a field. I've never seen birds act like that, and it really took me by surprise... animals really do pick up on these bizarre weather days so much better than people can. I remember seeing horses freak out during a heat lightening storm in Indiana, hours before a tornado ripped through where we were staying. And I definitely felt this strange, somewhat sick-to-my-stomach, unsettled, 'life isn't right' feeling then, too. In kind of a twisted way, today made me yearn to watch a huge thunderstorm (from afar) someplace with a good view.

Anyhow, those are just my scattered storm thoughts.
Tomorrow I get the pleasure of having lunch with Ms. Fawn, and then it's a busy afternoon... Robin's son is having a graduation party, Ms. Heidi's getting married in Longmont, and I have some precious brain space to squander on weather-caused-distraction and angst...

Dorothy: It really was no miracle. What happened was just this.
[singing]
Dorothy: The wind began to swish / The house, to pitch / And suddenly the hinges started to unhitch / Just then the Witch / To satisfy an itch / Was flying on her broomstick, thumbing for a hitch.
Munchkin: and, oh, what happened then was rich.
Munchkins: The house began to pitch / The kitchen took a slitch / It landed on the Wicked Witch in the middle of a ditch / Which was not a healthy situation for the Wicked Witch. . .

(I do believe in spooks! I do, I do, I do believe in spooks!)