Tornado

Monday evening, we were winding down after N’s bath and I was letting him watch a bit of TV. (Ben 10 – he loves anything with monsters or watches that turn you into a monster). Anyway, Nick yells “mom, look what happen to the TV” and I come in to find a black screen alerting us of a tornado warning. I read it and it seemed to be hitting the burbs, so we just waited for it to go back to Ben 10. Five minutes later it comes on again. We ignore, but I read it more closely. Third time it comes on and is saying “Lincoln Park, Lincoln Square…” and naming the neighborhoods in alpha order, one of which was ours! So I calmly tell Nick “Hey bud, let’s take our popcorn/cell phone/flashlights and head to the basement for a while”. You know when you see the aftermath of disasters and everyone is wearing crazy clothes? Well, that would have been us. Nick insisted on walking around shirtless with his spiderman shorts on and a big, green fuzzy blanket. I won’t even tell you what I had on, but it wasn’t an attractive combo. Nick was such a trooper. He had the same calm outer persona that I was hoping to portray, but must have been scared bc he wouldn’t let go of my hand and insisted on coming with me the few feet to close the basement door or turn off the de-humidifier. So there we were eating popcorn, listening to the tornado sirens (didn’t even know we had those) and me explaining what a tornado is, why it’s dangerous and why the basement is safe. Chris was out with the guys, so some quick texting to find out everyone was safe. Then some more texting with a friend in the city (and hi-rise with lots of windows). Thirty minutes later we emerged, all was well (and dry-thanks to Chris’s rerouting expertise with the drain spouts!) and we headed up to bed. Phew.