Storm Patrol

A wondrous thunderstorm just moved through the area.  Flash after flash of lighting from all sides and loud boisterous thunder even had my even-tempered cat, Katie, on edge.  It probably dumped a few inches of rain in a few minutes.  A new problem with my eaves might have reared its ugly head (more on that later.)

I really do like and find the beauty in storms now that I am older.  However when I was younger, I was deathly afraid of storms and tornados.  There really is no reason why I should have feared them as much as I used to.  I think my grandmother Salser who was a worrier herself and whom I spent a great deal of time with in my formative years might have feed my fears.

Then when I was about 8 or so my family and I took one of our family vacations to Geauga Lake and Seaworld in here in Ohio.  While we were at Seaworld a horrible storm hit and I still remember seeing a tornado slowly make its way along the horizon.  My fears were cemented and for the next several years I was petrified by storms.

It was probably my collage days that began to change my outlook on storms.  Once I came out and began to take life a little less seriously so I could begin to enjoy my surroundings, I could begin to see the wonder in the storm.

There is still a few storms I remember from my college days.  One I wrote a poem about.  I spent the summers between my college years working for the school I attended.  A few friends of mine and I had gone hiking along a local river and was forced back to the dorm we were staying in by an approaching storm.  The sky was wild with color and the clouds were stacked like I had never seen before.  Somewhere nearby there must have been a tornado sighting as the alarm siren in the small town went off with the series of honks that indicated a tornado warning.

I survived and from then on I became a storm junky.  While deep inside I still tremble a bit when I see the skies darken, there is a larger part of me that can’t wait for the light show and noise.