The blustery day.

The Blustery day 2 WM completed (39 of 1)

I find myself wondering if birds get really chilly on winter, windy days.

I know their feathers keep them warm, but when the wind lifts them up and away from their bodies, the cold wind must send a chill through them.

I was trying to recreate their experience by walking up and down the driveway and flapping my coat open and shut and I definitely was colder than I would have normally been. If you live in a cold climate, you can try the same experiment. Make sure to wear clothes under your coat…we don’t want to read about you in the newspaper.

 

TO THE RESCUE

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I’ve never seen the big sycamore at the end of our driveway spotlighted like this before. Normally it’s pitch black along the road…it can creep a person out if the deer are moving through the woods.

At the top of this image you can see that there were clouds in the sky, they covered the moon and then revealed it, time and time again. What you can’t see is that the  clouds were screaming across the sky, moving at forty-one miles an hour.  The woods were howling and the power was out…where was the light coming from?

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The fire truck parked in the middle of the road.

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We had been listening to the wind, when almost simultaneously, we heard a  loud BOOM and saw a bright white light shoot way into the woods. We also found ourselves sitting in the dark.

Long story short, the branches of this huge tree brushed the power lines across the street and the circuit breakers on a telephone pole popped…or as I called it, “exploded.”

Prior to the fireman and police officers getting here, we grabbed our powerful flashlights and waved them madly whenever we saw headlights come over the hill from either direction.We also made sure we stayed out from under the trees, well I did…hubby needed a lot of vocal encouragement from me to, “MOVE OUT FROM UNDER THE TREES!”

Two cars were very lucky, they came over the hill JUST after the tree came down. A few seconds either way and we could have found a car under the tree when we got to the end of the driveway.

My hat is off to those firemen…they had the road cleared in no time…they cut and then lifted those HUGE sections of tree and then, shouldering their chainsaws, they marched back to their truck and went off to the next rescue.

(My apologies for the grainy images…I used my phone, didn’t have the right setting selected, my hands were freezing…the dog ate my homework.)

THE GANGS ALL…….where?

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“GET YOUR CELL PHONE OUT AND CALL THEM O.K.?  THEY’RE LOOKING EVERYWHERE EXCEPT AT US….I TOLD YOU NOT TO LET THEM WANDER OFF ON THEIR OWN…EVERY TIME THAT THEY DO, THEY CAN’T FIND US AND THEN WE WASTE ALL THIS TIME FLAPPING OUR WINGS AT THEM….YOU’D THINK AT LEAST ONE OF THEM WOULD NOTICE ME FLAPPING!  NEXT TIME WE’RE ALL GOING TO WEAR MATCHING PINK      T- SHIRTS…..”

 

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“WEREN’T WE SUPPOSED TO BE LOOKING FOR SOMEBODY??  YES, IT’S ME TALKING…THE ONE ON THE FAR LEFT…LOOKING AT THE CAMERA…WE WENT ON THAT FIRST BIG WIND RIDE AND THEN WE HAD A HOT DOG AND THEN WE HAD SOME COTTON CANDY AND THEN….I’M JUST SURE WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE LOOKING FOR SOMEONE.

LET’S SEE…HOW MANY OF US ARE THERE?   ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, …..ELEVEN, TWELVE…ELEVEN….FOURTEEN…DARN IT….LET ME START OVER….ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR…OH LOOK! THERE’S A KID WITH A HOT DOG STANDING NEXT TO THAT SEAGULL FLAPPING IT’S WINGS AT ME….….NOW WHERE WAS I?…FIFTEEN, SIXTEEN…OH! OH! IT’S BOB AND DORIS…WE WERE SUPPOSED TO CATCH UP TO BOB AND DORIS!!!

 

I DON’T KNOW WHY THEY DON’T WEAR MATCHING T-SHIRTS SO THAT WE CAN FIND THEM MORE EASILY. I NEED TO BRING THIS UP AT OUR NEXT MEETING…..BUT FIRST I NEED ANOTHER HOT DOG!”

TORNADO HELMETS CAN BE A FASHION STATEMENT…

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Now this is actually a bike helmet…but any helmet in a tornado warning is a tornado helmet to me.As you can see, I like a little “pizzazz” going on…especially when there’s a little electricity in the air.

I gave two of my kids helmets like this for their birthday, last year?..the year before?…..My other child lives in Montana and doesn’t experience a whole lot of tornado activity. When they were much younger, I’d have them put their bike helmets on and we’d all troop down into the basement when a tornado warning was issued…we had a large glass window at the end of the only room that comprised the basement..so I was worried about that for sure. Now, the weather channel has stolen my idea and is advising people to use their bike helmets, motorcycle helmets, whatever they can, to protect their heads.

(Do you remember the time a bunch of people were in a large store and a tornado was coming…the store manager had all the customers gather together in the toilet paper section and covered them all up with it…as long as that toilet paper didn’t get sucked up into the vortex, they should have been pretty protected….I personally would rather wear a helmet.)

If you live in tornado alley, or where I do, which I call “mini-tornado alley”…they also recommend that you keep your helmet in your car…wherever you spend the majority of your day…have it close by…maybe schools should have a special hanger underneath each school desk where a one size fits all helmet could be kept….I’m not kidding, actually..just during tornado season.

So people here’s the plan…you all go out and get yourself a helmet and then send me a picture of the style you picked…glue feathers to it, tape paper wings to it…stick a fake pony-tail on it…just get those noggins protected…especially the kiddies!

Yep, I’m silly…but you already knew that!

(Please know that I take a light-hearted tone with this post…but this is a very, very serious matter and I pray that all of those caught in this awful ongoing situation will be safe, along with all of their loved ones, two and four-footed alike.)

They are warning again…if you have a helmet…PUT IT ON…also…make sure that you have shoes on…there will be a lot of debris…you will need to protect your feet.