Storm's a-comin'

Nobody dies in Ireland from tornadoes, or earthquakes, or hurricanes. Nobody dies there because some guy decides to kill a bunch of people at the cinema and has an assualt rifle to do it with either. Ireland is a calm, if more often overcast, place to live.

Today here we are under a tornado watch until 7pm. That doesn't mean there is a tornado, or that there will be a tornado, but just that conditions will be conducive to tornadoes and we should pay attention in case it turns into a tornado warning, which is when you go down to the basement for as long as you can stand to keep the kids entertained in the room where broken and unwanted things go to be kept from the children.

We live on the Eastern Seaboard, as they call it, which is not really prone to tornadoes the way the mid-west is. Which is good, because they scare the bejaysus out of me, but in a way it would be nice because at least there they have sirens that go off all over town when there's a tornado warning. Here, you have to happen to tune into the TV or radio at the right time, or see an alert on your computer, or you might miss it altogether. There has been more than one day when I've been told after the fact that we were under a tornado warning for half the morning and I never even realised that I could have been swept up like Dorothy and deposited under a house like the Wicked Witch of the West.

There are big trees right behind our house, and though they've been inspected (a year ago, I think) to make sure none were in imminent danger of toppling, it's always a possibility. I know people who know people who were just missed by a huge branch coming through their roof in the middle of the night, who happened to have gone to the bathroom or they would have been skewered in their beds. Not everyone gets to be lucky.

I have an ominous feeling and I wish it would go away. I had a dream just before I woke up that someone I only know second-hand on the Internet had died. I'm pretty sure dreams are just random firings of synapses, but it wasn't a particularly pleasant way to start the day. I've spent all morning accomplishing nothing, and mooching.

I prefer Irish weather, is what I'm saying.