Take pictures!!!

And be safe, please!

ACK. Lower floor, inner room. Hang on!

don't listen to them. most tornadoes don't ever mmove faster than, what, fifty or sixty miles an hour? you just need a fast 4x4 and a good camera.

Dorothy scarred me for all time. I had a true tornado phobia when I was a kid. I'm pretty much over it now but will never live in Kansas.

(but ditto on the pictures!)

say hello to the midgets by the yellow highway for me.

Tornado warnings here, too! I shouldn't even have the computer on!

be careful...set up a video camera or something and find a basement.

Here's what the southern sky looks like in Kansas right now.

It was kinda green before, then purple. Here's a view to the north.

Pretty, huh?

Bah. I love to watch storms, even with a tornado alert on. Just hang out on the porch until you see trees blow past. Okay, well, empty plastic trash cans, then.

Come on, you can think of better reasons not to live in Kansas than THAT.

Um...ok...it's really flat?

Ironic but true fact: My parents didn't have color TV until 1985. Seriously. So I didn't know that Kansas was B&W and Oz was color for a really long time.

Kansas is in black and white in real life, too.

Nothing cooperated. What I was interested in weakened greatly - the real storms started firing to the south and formed a long line. Now there are tornado warnings near Little Rock and in several other parts of the state to the east. Although it was tempting, I have to work tomorrow and storm-chasing at night isn't a great idea anyway.

we got color very late too, mi--we used to beg to go to our cousins to watch it every year.

I think the 'rents did it to discourage us from watching too much TV, or something. Of course, these days, you can't pry the remote for the stereo jumbo-tron out of my dad's hands.

This storm completely fucked my plans...

my ex was driving from st louis to visit for the night before she flew back to LA, but the traffic was so bad that she turned around and isn't coming after all...

/blah

I used to stand outside in tornado warnings, watching the sky change and looking for the twister. Once I was doing that and a truck full of folk drove by, screaming, "get to the basement! Get to the basement!" The town had been ordered to shelter and they were heading for the church. I had been ignoring the fire siren. But me, I had a real sturdy hiding place with everything I needed and I could get there in 30 seconds, so I stayed outside and watched the storm. Once of my favorite memories.

Another time, in the dark, I apparently missed one but shouldn't have. I was driving a jeep and couldn't find a place for shelter, and it was raining sideways and the sky was totally lit up with lightening and the NOISE was like a screaming jet airplane. I had decided to get off the road and lie in the gulley when I realized I was a half mile for home so I made a run for it. So exciting. I turned on the weather and saw the storm path and by all rights I should have been hit. Woo-hoo, it still gets me tingly. Hot damn, but I love storms.

Tornados give me terrible headaches.