Day 31 - A Vivid Memory

Wow!!  Can someone please explain to me how it's already May 31st?!?!?

The last prompt of the May challenge is a vivid memory.  I had thought long and hard about what kind of  memory I would pick to write about....and then yesterday happened.  You see, it's still Tornado Season here in Oklahoma, and it came all too close yesterday.

The first set of storms rolled through right before 5 (i.e. rush hour to get out of downtown Tulsa).  I decided to wait it out because 1) it was coming towards me faster than I could get to my car; 2) I didn't want to be stuck on the highway if it hailed; and lastly and possibly most important, 3) I had a pedicure scheduled at a nice spa in Utica Square and had a gift card that expired today.  So, I hung around the office for a while, went to grab a quick dinner at Panera and headed to the spa.

As I'm leaving, there's another set of storms rolling in.  It was hard to tell how bad they were from my phone, but it was a light rain and pretty windy.  So I just went on my merry way.  I got my usual greeting from the dogs and went to change out of my work clothes into something more comfortable. I happened to glance outside while I'm talking to J and noticed that the sky was considerably more green than when I'd gotten home just a few minutes before.

I didn't think much of it until I got a text from my friend about 15 minutes later that there was a wall cloud about a mile west of my house.  Now, growing up in Oklahoma, you know all about wall clouds and that somethings wrong with the sky turns green.  I turned on the tv and did what any normal Okie would do and went outside to look at the sky.

As I looked up, it took a minute to register what I was seeing.  There was a huge gray cloud above us, and it was rotating in a circle.  ROTATING IN A CIRCLE. The whole cloud.  In all my twenty something years, I have never seen the underside of a rotating cloud.  The combination of that ominous rotation, the green sky, the winds is something that has given me chills every time I've thought about it since last night.

 I grabbed socks and shoes, my iPad, and the dogs and headed for the pantry that's under the stairs.  J has two helmets for his racing hobby, and he grabbed those and joined us.  I had the local news channel streaming on my iPad so I could know what was going on outside, and they started mentioning a tornado just to the east of our house.  We were all huddled in the pantry, helmets and all, safe and sound.

I'm thankful that my friends and family have been safe through this spring's tornado season - the last couple weeks have been especially active.  Hopefully, we're nearing the end and I don't have to wear the helmet anymore :)