August in the Midwest

For any of you that have never been here during that time of year, let me explain.

August is a special. You will never in life be more convinced that there is no deodarant on earth that works. You know exactly where to go to find the best sweet corn in town and eat until you’re ready to burst. And you’re pretty sure the orange construction cones are multiplying when you’re not looking.

Also about this time of year if it ever does rain, it usually involves thunder, lightning, and the occasional tornado warning.

So it’s mid-August. My mom had just gotten back in town after a week in Colorado. I decided to go to see her. We made a stop at the local bookstore to check for anything new that had come out that we “had” to have and then a stop for ice cream.

We noticed as we were out driving around that it was getting cloudy and starting to look a little weird outside. The clouds looked weird, they had a weird color. We decided we should go home right away and check the weather. Sometimes you just get a feeling when it could be a little rough outside. Like when the sky starts turning unnatural colors and the wind comes to a complete halt out of nowhere.

Three blocks from my mom’s house is a fire station that is home to 1 fire truck and 1 ambulance. As we go through the intersection that is just on the other side of it, towards my mom’s house, I noticed that the ambulance is pulled out but is stopped in the driveway. This naturally made me tense up. (The guys that work at the fire station have been known to turn on the sirens on just as someone is at the end of the driveway. They apparently think they are terribly funny. The people in the vehicle on the other hand have to immediately go home and clean themselves up when this happens.) We both looked over and notice that there is a car in the firehouse. This of course had us curious. We then realize that there are several cars parked sideways in the firehouse.

And then the lightbulb.

Pull the city vehicle, the emergency response vehicle, outside into the path of the oncoming storm. Save your own cars!

We then get in the house about two minutes of the thunder and lightning. We turned on the t.v. to one of the local stations to check any storm warnings and radar. We stopped on one station for a while. They of course have on different people who work for the station who are all over the city and are giving live phone reports of what’s going on. The main news anchors are on telling how they would like to see pictures of any damage or of the storm and clouds, including downed powerlines. The woman anchor then tells people how they can email in their pictures of any power outages.

Now maybe I just live in the wrong area. Or I’m not up on the latest technology. But if I don’t have any power, how exactly am I supposed to get my computer to turn on to email you pictures?