I was an odd morning here at chez Jimbo’s girlfriend. We were up early and were reading the paper and were hearing thunder off in the distance. I turned on the weather channel, but they were not showing anything to be concerned about in our area. I went outside a couple of times to look at the sky. It was breezy, cool and overcast, but nothing looked threatening, so we came back in and read the want ads and the Best Buy advertisement.
My girlfriend asked, “Do you hear that? It sounds like sirens.”
I heard it, so I went outside again. I could hear warning sirens in the distance. One of the neighbor’s was putting her car in her garage and told me she heard there had been a tornado just west of us. I came inside and called my son, whose domicile would have been near the path of the tornado and he told me they were having large hail at his place.
I went to the West side of the house and looked out the sliding glass doors in time to see a wall cloud coming in.
We frequently have severe storms in the springtime here in the Midwest, but usually the storms come in the afternoon of a warm day. The temperature this morning was only 45 degrees, Fahrenheit, and it is still winter—too early for spring storms.
As I watched, a couple of sheets of newspaper floated by overhead—Frisbee-style—and the trees in the back yard started to sway in the wind. Then, a large number of leaves on and under a pin oak next door began to spin into a small vortex and the vortex came up on to our deck. It rattled the charcoal grille and as it passed across the deck, one of the patio chairs moved six inches. It was as if some ghost at some surreal bar-b-cue had sat down in it and pushed his chair up to the table. The vortex dispersed, the leaves scattered and it was all over.
It looks as if winter may have passed us by this year, but I wonder what excitement spring has in store for us.
It may be a long tornado season here in Jimbo’s world.
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