Tornadoes

My community has survived the recent tornadoes in Connecticut relatively unscathed, but around us--very close--people have been hard hit.  Five tornadoes touched down in NY and CT on Tuesday late afternoon.  I had heard that we were getting weather and so was keeping an eye on alerts.  I was at my homecare patient's house, waiting to watch "Ellen" with her, when the weather interrupted.  There were tornado warnings in the NW corner.  I left soon after, but the skies were relatively clear.

Not long after I got home, it was that Texas pitch-black sky to our northwest.  We turned on the local news and I watched warnings roll in.  Pretty soon they were tracking a tornado.  Later, the weather guy said, "If you can hear my voice, get somewhere safe now."

I looked outside.  The sky had gone from dark black to a pale green, with darker gray bits.  Green.  No hail, but green was enough for me. 

The kids were ready. We'd pulled out the camping lantern which gives great light and we had the big box of cat treats to tempt the kitties into the basement.  The kids got the cats downstairs but, as I was following, Eris rushed back up.  I searched for her twice but couldn't find her; with the sky turning greener and the wind making the trees into whirling dervishes, I abandoned the search.

Nothing happened here, but I was reminded of that storm ten years ago (pictures and story), when a very similar sky dropped a tree on our house and car just as we headed to the then-unfinished basement.  It was because of that storm that we finished the basement.  And I respect a storm.  If the tree had been angled differently or even a bit taller, it would have blown out the window at the basement stairs landing where I was just then passing with two kids in my arms.  That would have been awful.

So, we waited in the basement, watched the warnings.  I even straightened up some.  But we emerged about 30 minutes later, just fine.  The sky was lightening, even though the thunder and rain continued.  We were lucky.

Since then, I've seen pictures of the storm looming over Sleeping Giant State Park, where it destroyed a beloved grove of pines.  I've heard of the injuries and deaths.  We still have friends without power.  We know people with downed trees.  I talking about the storm, I have been amazed at how little these Nutmeggers know about tornadoes. 

So I told them:  green and/or hail is bad, get inside, get low; if you're in your car, stay away from trees, head somewhere you can get inside, and, if you have to, park and get in the floor well, covered in something.  But it's better to be in a basement or in an interior bathroom (the pipes anchor the space and protect it) or closet, with no windows, or somewhere under stairs.  In CT, we're still only seeing F1s, not the disastrous stronger storms that rip houses off their foundations.  It is mainly our gorgeous New England trees that pose a threat to us--and they're everywhere. 

I have a sinking feeling we're going to see more of these storms.  I hope we are all safe.

More Weather . . .

What a storm!  We'd been getting the Accuweather updates for hours, warning of all sorts of lightning, wind, hail (which is often like crying wolf because oftentimes recently nothing has happened).  But the sky was clear when I had to head out to PT with Mama.  Thirty minutes or so later, however, when we were leaving the sky was blackish-purple long before sundown.  Rain hadn't started so we decided to go for it.  Mistake.  The storm hit a minute or so later--blinding rain, little branches coming down, constant lightning, and that ominous green hue.  Of course, all routes home were narrow, tree-lined roads, which were concerning if something crashed; we chose the fastest but there was no place to pull over as it go bad, so we opted to keep going home.  Some of the scariest moments I've ever had in a car.  Knock on wood.

We got home just fine and found the kids and babysitter in the basement.  The kids had gotten upset and panicky, never quite forgetting that other summer storm almost exactly four years ago.  But the lightning died down somewhat and eventually we let Babysitter leave (at least for once she hadn't biked!).  Then we watched some Claymation videos on YouTube to cheer everyone up before bed.

It worked.

Halloween Wrap-Up

Well, it sure wasn't the Halloween weekend we expected, what with snow pounding New England (a winter storm 55 days before the beginning of winter!), the loss of power by 3 million households, the cancellation of school all over, and then the postponement of the holiday in many places.  The damage was definitely worse than Hurricane Irene for many (1000 trees down in Central Park, eight times more than Irene). We were very fortunate to be below the heavy snow line--we still had power, school, and Halloween, with only one big branch down.  Pop called us "the Miami of Connecticut."  We are very lucky and grateful and stand ready to offer hot showers, laundry machines, and a warm place to visit to our friends.

Because of the storm, we couldn't attend two of our five celebrations.  One was postponed til next weekend; the other we missed (but Mommy Goose was very kind to bring us cupcakes and favors--thanks!!).  But we still got to go to two parties and then trick or treat.  As usual, Mama's office decorated for Halloween and had candy at every cubicle.  The kids wandered from department to department trick or treating.  Then we wolfed down fast food and headed to the school festival, which was held indoors this year.  The kids enjoyed the games, the fortune teller (just like Divination at Hogwarts!!!), the trick or treating, and the bake sale.  They made ghoulish popcorn hands with candy corn fingertips and spider rings.  And they chatted with their friends.  And then they crashed.

Saturday and Sunday were spent mostly at home just like on a regular snow day.

Monday dawned and they couldn't understand why they had to go to school on a holiday!  They got off the bus at 4 pm and wanted to change into their costumes right away.  But we had to do our homework (come on, teachers, really?  Homework on Halloween?  Frankly, that sucks.  I put up with homework on the principle that you have to do what teachers ask, even though I know from statistics that it is almost a completely useless and ineffective tool for learning.  I was tempted to ignore it, but that's not a good lesson either).  And then we had dinner, something healthy before the candy inundation.

Yep, I don't have too many issues with this yearly candy overload, even with the unfair cocoa labor practices, excess wrapper garbage, HFCS and unhealthy fats, and pop-culture laden costumes (ooh, feeling guilty about this now).  I figure the other 364 days outweigh the indulgences.  And we're not raisin people, either.  We give out candy (usually Dum-Dums, thereby avoiding the Hershey child-slave labor controversy) and we eat candy.  As much as they want on Halloween and then a few pieces everyday for a week, at which point we donate the remainders.

So at 5:30 they were fully dressed as Harry Potter, both of them--cloaks, ties, glasses, wands, and lightning-bolt scar--and took pictures outside.  But our group,headed by Neighbor Boy, wasn't ready to go out trick or treating.  We hopped in the car and headed to see Mrs. S, who generously invited us in and oohed and aahed (her grandkids were there, looking cute and ready to go), and then to Mama Teacher, who similarly welcomed trick or treaters early.  We got home just in time and headed out with our group.  Gone was any sign of shyness or reticence of Halloweens past.  Sis and Bud ran to each house and knew all their lines, carefully selecting their favorite, non-nut candies if given the chance to choose.  Kit Kats, Tootsie Rolls, Hershey Bars, and any chewy fruit things were the coveted candies this year.  Bud even got Swedish Fish!  And they both got a few full-sized bars.

They were done around 8 pm (I split my time with them and at home passing out candy), pouring their loot on the living room floor to sort out the unwanted treats and swap (treats unwanted by either child will go to Occupy New Haven), eating several pieces as they went and saving some like Smarties and Dots for Christmas gingerbread houses.  As 9 pm inched closer, Mama told them they could keep any candy they could keep in a box.  Can you guess whose box is whose?

Bud dumped his candy in and couldn't get it all to fit.  Sis sorted and organized hers, carefully layering the pieces so that there was space to spare (channeling Mama and Gong as she did it!).  When Bud was in tears that all his candy didn't fit, Sis then helped him with his box, managing to fit it all.  They left out two pieces for lunch today and headed, exhausted, to magical sweet dreams.

For those of you with the holiday still to come, have a wonderful and happy Halloween!

Snow Falling on Pumpkins

That big, long branch on the left, over the peach house, fell this afternoon, landing on the round bush and missing the neighbor's house.  Glad we weren't outside then.

SNOW!! SNOW!!! SNOW!!!!

It wasn't supposed to snow until late tonight and, even then, I didn't believe the forecast.

The snow started around noon, as we were checking out from the grocery store.  The rain that had been gently falling, thickened and started to fall in icy chunks.  By the time we got on the highway, it was snowing heavily.

"Mom, it's fall and winter all at once!" Bud marveled as we watched snow fall past gold and orange leaves.  It was beautiful, one of the more gorgeous  snowfalls I've ever seen.

Because of the snow, there was brief conversation of how it looked like Christmas, but they opted not to skip Halloween!

We got home and headed straight for the yard.  I kept marveling at the anomaly of snow on leafy trees, on Halloween decorations, on us in October!  The kids managed to scoop up the heavy snow into balls.  "You're toast!" they yelled, pummeling me with snowballs.  Neighbor Boy came over for a bit and had a snowball fight with them.  Mama and I tried to capture the beauty in photographs, but I'm not sure I could encapsulate it.

While we were inside drinking hot chocolate and decorating our Halloween gingerbread houses, we noticed that part of our lovely silver maple had succumbed to the heavy snow--a 25' limb missed hitting our neighbor's house by inches!  The kids were upset to see such a chunk of the tree broken; we hope the rest of it is okay.  Luckily, our squirrels' home is in a knot in another branch--they were scampering in and out later, probably not as surprised by the snow as we were (they've been running around for days but are not as chunky as they usually are by the first snow).

Now it's darkening and the snow is slowing, though the weather warnings say it will go well into the night, with lots of power outages and damages from fully-leafed trees covered in gloppy snow.  When the wind blows, huge chunks of wet snow, akin to Sis and Bud's snowballs, hit the house and deck with a thud.  Mama Teacher's cars barely escaped damage from a falling branch.  And we'll be lucky if we don't lose power (and thus heat--it's oil but the heater is electric).

But we probably got our Christmas card pictures of the kids in snow next to our pumpkins!

(Pictures soon!)