Long Night

Sleep was elusive last night as wave after wave of storms plowed through our area starting about 7PM and continuing until about 2AM this morning.

While we had to twice move the whole family down to our bottom level 'storm room' (which is actually a closet in the basement), and the tears flowed from more than a couple of our girls, we have little to complain or moan about.

Some lost sleep is absolutely meaningless when compared to those that lost life and property in the surrounding counties.

The first trip to the storm room was quite precautionary. The news reports said severe thunderstorms were headed in our general direction and to seek cover.

After going back upstairs we watched the news again and were told our part of the county would probably be clear of storms for a few hours. That gave us time to tuck the girls in and watch an episode of Lost on DVD. We still wanted to keep an eye on the storm so I set the laptop on Michelle's night stand and pulled up Nashville Channel 2 live feed online.

We kept an eye on it while watching TV. Near midnight we decided to turn in, but kept the laptop running. Fortunately Michelle is a light sleeper and awoke around 2AM to see the radar showing a huge storm line headed right for us.

We watched and were thinking we probably didn't need to get the girls up when suddenly the meteorologist said "for those of you in Leipers Fork, you should seek shelter as radar is picking up a hook echo and rotation headed your way."

The radar image on the laptop showed 3 huge rotations bearing down exactly towards our house moving at 60mph in our direction.

We got the girls up and headed back downstairs. Tears and fears were served up again. Our cat Aslan was a bit freaked out too. He NEVER comes near me normally, but last night he curled up in my lap while I sat cross-legged in the basement closet.

I think that made the 9th or 10th time we have packed ourselves in a closet seeking protection from a possible tornado since moving to Tennessee 13 years ago. Of those 9 or 10 times we have had a tornado touch down within 2 miles of our house twice.

Its getting old.