Severe Weather

This is the time of year I have a love hate relationship with. End of May, through much of June where I live is the most active time of year for massive thunder storms. Some of those storms were accompanied by an occasional tornado and often damaging winds.

Last night we had an extraordinary lightning storm. When the storm was the strongest, around Kankakee, IL, it did produce tornadic rotations, but as far as I know no serious touchdowns. By the time this got to where I am, it lost a lot of its power. When it was over Dock man at work, it was producing golf ball size hail. Behind this storm was an even bigger one, but it didn't seem to pack the punch of the first one. I had to take some pictures of what I was seeing. I got a couple good ones, but one in particular just awed me. It looks like it was taken during the day. The picture I took just after (the one I am going to post here) is pitch black. I will also post a video of some of what I got to see. At the end of the video, the sky lights up so bright, almost as bright as the picture - it's wicked! When it gets to the end, click the button on the progress bar it will show the last frame clearly.

It is late at night & pitch dark when this is taken. That's how bright the lightning was!

I am freaky frightened of loud thunder & the chance of a tornado. If we get a loud crack of thunder - I do my best not to flinch because of the kids. Dew is very afraid of a good thunder storm & if we happen to be in one, he obsesses about a tornado coming. Maybe this is in part my fault because I worry about that - often out loud. Kyle, on the other hand, wants to be a storm chaser as soon as he is old enough. He loves the storms & wants to get right out in them. I think the chasers are sometimes safer than those of us in the path, so that doesn't bother me as much as you may think it does.

On another note, I do apologize for my post yesterday. It was story I wanted to share & maybe it was a bit much for some of you. It's the type of thing kids do (my niece & nephew always like to hear Dew say all the things he's not supposed to & they are 14 & 16). I found it funny because it's not something that happens often. Even if we aren't careful about what we say around our kids (because the "bad" words are always used for emphasis around here), we don't allow them to speak that way. Dew was telling me that the kids he was around today - 2 older girls at his den meeting - were saying bad words like shut-up & be quiet. He thinks many words are bad & those include all derrogatory terms - i.e. stupid, dummy. I hope that it didn't offend anyone. I post about things that happen in my everyday life. That was just something I found funny.

I will be making my reading rounds a bit later. I have to get the Dew ready for bed. Ahhhhh, summer time! NO SCHOOL! I have to retrain my 2 youngest on how to be quiet while daddy sleeps. They bicker (and scream & squeal and fight like mad) when they have to spend the whole day together - drives me bananas. Speaking of that - not 2 minutes ago I hear a hollow swat & Maia is sobbing. Dew slapped her back because she took something away from him. I am talking to him about keeping his hands to himself & her about giving him something & swiping it out of his hands. At the end I say "Understand?" Chuckle boy grins & I ask him what's funny. He says "you forgot to say rubberband."