Too much bad weather can get a gal feeling kind of low. Today, I hid in what's known as the 'swimming pool' in the basement of the university library for about half an hour. Columbia turned on the sirens because there were swirling funnel clouds along a couple of main streets in town, and then the weather service put on a tornado warning for an hour or so. I kept checking my phone for JC radar because it seemed like JC was getting hit worse, but I don't have any damage at home and Iris seems not too terrified, so I think it must have been okay. I'm ready for these storms to stop. Just let summer get here already. I hate the heat, but I'll take it over this seasonal transition crap. It's tiring to constantly have to watch the skies, and people who don't live in the midwest and who don't have to deal with this as much are super lucky. I envy them a whole lot this time of year. This year seems just extra weird weather-wise around here though. First with all the snow and now with the seemingly constant severe thunderstorms. At work there are three of us who grew up in JC and the discussion today was about how we could remember when there were just rainfalls. Not severe thunderstorms, just rainfall. They are both older than me (although not by much), but I actually don't really remember that too much. I mean, I'm sure it happened occasionally, but I've always been super paranoid about tornadoes and severe weather, so when I think back on Springs of my childhood, it is memories of sitting scared in the basement with my map of Missouri counties, tracking the storms via the weather warnings on the tv or radio. Incidentally, I got the county map that I always used as a kid from the State Archives when I was about 8 or 9, never thinking I'd actually work there. Life is funny like that.
At any rate, hopefully once the severe storms are over today/tonight, we'll get a break for a while. We need one. Everything smells wet. I kind of like that smell right after a storm, but I'm getting tired of it now. A week or so ago on the radio, I heard a commercial that included the sound of seagulls and waves lapping on a shore and suddenly felt like I neeeeeeded to go to a beach. And I still kind of have that nagging feeling. I'm not a big beach person, so it's kind of a weird feeling, but it's pretty strong right now. I really love the call of seagulls. So, I'm going to pretend like I'm not in Missouri with tornado sirens, but rather on a beach with seagulls.
