Monday, August 25, 2008

Ohh man. Late yesterday afternoon, Gil and I were just hanging out in the kitchen and on the back patio, having some beers, getting ready to light the grill, Sunday afternoon things. A warning came across the tv that a tornado had been seen near Parker, so we ran out front, wondering if we could see it. Ohhh yes.





Cat saw it out of her bedroom window and ran downstairs. Sam was in the playroom (in the basement) so we called him up to see it. It was about three miles away, supposedly heading northeast (towards us), but it didn't seem to really be getting any closer. After comforting Sam (poor guy was so scared at first), we got the animals down in the basement, with pillows and couch cushions and a couple of special oil paintings. It still didn't seem any closer, so we went back out to watch~ what else were we going to do? It was on the ground for at least 10 to 15 minutes. It bounced up and down a few times and zigzagged around a bit







and then it faded away.





I fell down on to the grass, shaking and laughing and thanking God that we were safe and that we had seen something so amazingly wild and powerful. And then a little later...



Now, I'm no stranger to tornado country. I grew up in the southeast and we lived for four years in Missouri and north Texas. We've had some close calls, but I've never seen one before. There wasn't much wind, no hail, no green-looking sky, but I heard there were in other parts of town. I was in a hurricane once, but that hit at night and we couldn't see what was happening or see the damage until morning. Tornadoes are pretty rare along the front range, but a lot more common not far east of us. Three(!) tornadoes touched down around town from this same storm, but fortunately, there was no major damage. I've had dreams of seeing one in that exact same spot, and it didn't even seem real. I'm sure I would have been a lot more scared if it had been closer. I'm a little surprised that the first words out of my mouth were~ Kids! Tornado! Where's the camera?!

It sure was exciting and made us all hug each other harder last night. There's no place like home... there's no place like home.

5 comments:

Heather said...

wow--- that is amazing! scary and beautiful all at once. One of my first childhood memories is standing on the front porch with my dad looking for an on-coming tornado. Its amazing you had such a perfect view! I would have freaked ;)

Kristina Layton said...

Truthfully, I was freaking quite a bit inside. It really was beautiful to see, but I know I would have been MUCH more scared if it had been closer.

Clouds of grasshoppers, wheels of fire... life on the prairie. ;)

Julia Guthrie said...

Hey Kristina...I have my blog!! *grins* I've linked to your blog here too. http://eastofthesunart.blogspot.com/

I still can't get over those tornado photos!!! :)

saffron said...

Wow those are pretty powerful photos! How scary and exciting! I'm so glad to hear all turned out well with beautiful rainbows for you!

Fantastic Figments said...

WOWWOWOWO scary stuff. Coming from the Northeast I have never seen eye whitness footage kinda thing so thank you. I am so happy that you and your family were fine and what an interesting thing to see. When I was in college I always wanted to be a storm chaser, but now I sit behind a desk. go figure.

Smooches,
Steph