Déjà Vu

It's a little more than a year after THE storm hit our house and, while I haven't given the anniversary too much thought (especially since the basement has been redone if we ever needed to take refuge in there again), I have had a few of my classic tornado dreams. In fact I had one tonight, no doubt inspired by the very dramatic sky and short burst of storm right at dinnertime. In this one, the kids were, oddly, asleep during the day and so Mama and I, plus a visisting friend, were watching the storm gather outside the window. When it turned green, I sent Mama and the friend to carry the kids to the basement but the tornado hit as they were doing that. It's never a rip-the-house-off-the-foundations kind of tornado, more like what we had (plus), with trees falling, wind, breaking glass, etc. Anyway, we all made it to the basement, which wasn't finished but cleared in preparation to be finished. Safe, but scary.

So, when I woke just after 4 a.m. to the sound of approaching thunder, I was sensitized by the nightmare to the storm. And promptly woke up Mama looking for the computer to check for any new storm warnings. Just a few flash flood alerts, which really isn't a problem near our house. No wind or tornado warnings (though, there was a warning north of here earlier tonight and a tornado touched down nearby a few weeks ago, the night of my bridal shower). The storm hit loud, bright, and strong, for about 20 minutes, without even waking the kids but seems to be passing now. We need the rain and I like storms, as long as there isn't any strong wind. Or hail. Or green sky.

Maybe with the storm's departure, sleep will return. But no more bad dreams.