post #8

Sometimes while working, I will scribble little notations to myself of interesting stories worth blogging. Then I accidentally throw away the scrap sheets.

I haven’t yet written about the tornadoes on January 07, I realized. I simply recall only hearing the warnings as I drove on my way to work. And upon reaching the desk, had the rustling of whispered voices of what would happen. Within 30 minutes, and WHILE I was reading the safety handbook, the sirens alarmed and of course, we had to shuffle the patrons to safe locations. The rise and fall of alarms left us to believe we ought to remain in the hallway, the patrons free to go on their own accord. Altogether I believe there were over 30 tornadoes in the surrounding area, over 70 warnings.

Surely it doesn’t sound like a suspense novel, and it really wasn’t. My only interesting moment was having to cradle the radio, for if I left it, the static would blare. It had separation issues.

After a while, Periodicals decided to keep us occupied by giving us an array of magazines to entertain ourselves, and the Meeting Room Coordinator set up a TV so we could watch the weather forecast, with whatever we could receive with simple rabbit-ear antennas.

I do recall, however, two separate foreign families, who took a while to explain the situation. They made me happy. I wanted to ask them about their lives.

Other than that, every other scare and warning was far from us. And the rest of the night was simple history. “Remember the tornadoes?” “Oh yeah. Remember the ice storm?”