Tornado

Steven started out thinking this storm thing was kind of cool. He voiced to me that he wanted to see a tornado firsthand once in his life.

I told him there is really no safe distance at which to watch a tornado.

After eating dinner and returning to our rooms for an hour and a half or so, the tornado alarms started up again and they announced a "tornado emergency" on the news. Time to return to the stairwell.

Some people showed up in their pajamas, Steven tried to take a nap, we made ourselves comfortable until the door from the stairwell to the outside started leaking and we had a rapidly developing flood.

Steven and I abandoned the stairwell and huddled in the preteen room. On the news we heard that eight people in Memphis were killed.

So now we think it's done. We're waiting for the promised 40-degree temperature drop and the accompanying golfball-sized hail.

Steven doesn't think it's cool any more. We got back to our room and he took off his Science Olympiad shirt, saying it was bad luck. His team was the Tornados, and there's a tornado on the back of the shirt.

Next thing he goes into the bathroom and doesn't return and I find him sleeping in the bathtub. I promised to keep vigil until the temperature drops and was eventually able to convince him to get in bed.

If it gets bad again tonight, I'm going to pack our rental car and drive it to the underground parking garage at the hospital and we'll sleep there.

I was kind of hoping that the wildfires in October were going to be the end of our adventures in natural disaster this year.

- Kathleen