Storms of the Night

Boy am I getting worse and worse at this whole blogging thing. I blame it on my lack of wanting to be on my computer when I get home from work. I don't even check (listen carefully) facebook once a day! AH(gasp) I know! Your saying, she who had it up constantly doesn't check it.. No, no I don't. Thus myspace and blogging doesn't get checked either. I'm getting worse. However, I'm on top of my e-mailing, so send me one of those, I'll get right back to ya.

Anywho, I had a long day, but it didn't seem so long, which was very nice. I started out my day in a constant moderate rain in Kearney, Nebraska, heading out at 9am for a 4.5 hour drive to Wichita, Kansas. I finally got out of the rain near the state line, and had a good drive to Wichita. I got home, unloaded my car. Which really consisted of bring everything in and putting it in the room that it would later be unpacked in. I made some lunch, well put together whatever I could find, since I have very very little to eat in my apt and headed to work for a 9 hour shift.

Within 15 minutes of being at work, storms erupted southeast of Wichita and moved at a pretty good clip east across southeastern Kansas. We consistently had reports of golf ball and tennis ball sized hail, which can damage your car or other belongings quite well. Just as the storms were about to leave our county warning area, we finally started getting a couple of funnel clouds to go with all of the rotation that we'd had throughout the event. Both storms that had funnel clouds did produce tornadoes, but nothing really in our area. One touched down on the state line and moved into Oklahoma where it became deadly and killed 5 people (known at this time) and damaged a 20 block area through town. I'm not sure how big the town is, but 20 blocks seems big in a small town . Tornadoes continued with that storm and moved into Missouri and killed more people. Last I saw, 10 people lost their lives to the weather today. It brings it all in to perspective. We were lucky, all of the storms initiated in our area and moved out, we could be doing damage surveys tomorrow, but instead Tulsa and Springfield among others are, we are lucky.

It's difficult to know that a tornado has a lead time for a warning of 15 minutes and still many people die. We do what we do to save lives, and it no doubt does, but it makes you sad when not everyone listens or is able to survive a weather tragedy. I'm not there yet, but someday I'll be issuing warnings and praying that everyone is listening and taking cover, it changes you to be apart of something so big like a weather event i.e. tornado, flood, hurricane. Just some of the more stressful times of the job. I do what I do because I want to help people. I do enjoy studying the weather, but never wish for people to be hurt, or there to be damage. I'm still learning what it's like to be present and working on an event. We were lucky today, but when will the next time be?

I'm loving my job and I still have a hard time believing that I'm actually here and this is what I get to do for the rest of my life. Today, which is still Saturday the 10th to me, marks my 5 month date for being in the Weather Service. Many more stormy nights and days ahead!

Love all!

What if....

A tag from my buddy Kristen a few days ago..I'm behind on blogging and blog reading, but here we are.

What Ifs:

What if I could meet someone in the art world to chat with?
Hmm the art world... Since my knowledge of the art world is small and I don't care to meet anyone historic... I'd just like to chat with my Artist...Kristen in the same room for more than 2 hours..it's been a long time since that's happened. I miss my friend.


What if I could have one wish granted for the benefit of all mankind?
That everyone has the chance to be educated and even more basic than that...has enough food to live, water to drink and each person is respected regardless of their race, religion, color, sex, etc...so that these stupid wars can be over.


What if I could travel anywhere in the world?
Well I'd go just about anywhere. Next I hope to go to the Mediterranean, but I'm always looking for my next trip. More of Eastern Europe, Lots of Asia, South Africa, other parts of Africa. If I had all the money in the world...I'd go everywhere I could. Until then, I'll go everywhere I can afford when I can afford it.


What if I could live in a period other than the present, for 24 hours?
Oh that changes based on the day. Do I get to do it multiple times for 24 hours each? I would love to go to the early 40's when my parents were younger. Or to the early 1920's to when my grandparents were younger. Or even to the 70's so that I could meet my grandma and grandpa that died before I was born. However, I am always wondering what it'd be like to live someplace for a while in the past, like in one of the palaces in St. Petersburg at the height of Peter the Great's reign. I love history and would love to go back in time.


What if I could become an animal for 24 hours?
I'd say I like the bird answer, I'm not terribly fond of birds...but I like the freedom that they have and the ability to travel long distances and see everything.

What if I could bring someone back to life for 24 hours?
Just one person, well I'm going to cheat and say two...my grandparents on my mom's side. As mentioned earlier, both passed away before I was born and I'd love to have met the people that made my hero (my mom) the wonderful, strong, woman she is today.

Susan, Laura, and Elin tag your it..

Love

Easter time and the last 2 weeks

Today's the first day in 2 weeks that I've been home for a day. I worked 2 and a half weeks straight and then two days off in Nebraska...then an easter weekend of working. Now!!! Time off!!!!! YEA! I hope you all enjoyed your Easter!

Note to those of us that aren't as young as we were...be careful jumping on a trampoline. I visited my wonderful nieces and her parents...and my 2 and a half year old niece Jocelyn wanted to jump on the trampoline with me. I thought, yeah, this will be great. I always wanted a trampoline when growing up (what child didn't). I figured this would be great fun. However, I'm tremendously out of shape and after "jumping high" as my niece told me, I got a little tired. It was all fun and games for 45 minutes. Afterward I was heading back to Wichita and my body was sore. I didn't realize though that my knee would be messed up. It still hurts sometimes, but it's getting better. I could hardly walk on Friday! Oh well....that will teach me to act like I'm 10 again. However, I did have a blast and enjoyed being able to play with my nieces, something I don't get to do often.

Now with my time off, it's Journal article time, catch up on tv time, clean up the apt time, and sleep in time!

Pumpkin's enjoying the window's being open. He's so cute!

Picture of the day.

This is why I love the Plains, this is the sun setting on Christmas day!

Love all!

My new toys

I got some new Toys!

So a couple weeks ago I got my new toys delivered! My very own washer and dryer! It's so great having a washer and dryer again. I had a washer and dryer in Raleigh, but they weren't mine. They worked, and saved me money from having to buy some. My apt in Wichita had hookups, but I needed to purchase my own. Which was fine because I was ready to own. I researched them a great deal and decided I wanted a Whirlpool front loader. I LOVE THEM! I love them so much I just want to find things around the apartment to wash. I can wash once a week or when needed instead of saving it up for 2 weeks and taking it to a laundry mat. They are great!

Washer

Dryer

Love

They've found me

The credit card companies have found me...it didn't take long. I usually make it a year or so, but today I got 2 credit card offers. I don't want them, so I have to send them to the shredder. Annoying! So I like this whole real world thing, but I'm getting annoyed with all the real world bills. Why all at once? Why can't they wait until I actually have the money? It always seems to come when I think I'll be ok. Newest annoyance is my Pet fee and deposit. $350 I mean seriously....only 100 of it is a deposit. To much I tell you! But I love Pumpkin and he's worth it. And that's my annoyance for today.

This is my sewing kitty. He's in my curtains as my mom was sewing the hems in. He loves to sit with me when I do some handwork and when mom's here!

Love

Stock rant

So each day at work we have a 30 min or 1 hour update on the stock market. Where it is, whether it's up or down. Oh my goodness, I'm not a big stock market person, it's just in the last few months that I even began to understand it, but I'm not a believer in day trading. I've watched and read and heard from people how you loose more if you day trade, so I'm a long termer. I'll leave my stuff in and alone, so I don't understand obsessing over how it's doing. I mean why beat yourself over the head each day about how it's doing if you can't do a thing about it. Just let it go! It's not doing so well now, who knows when it will get better...just ride it out! So that's my rant...why obsess when you can't change it! Just leave it alone or at the very least just check it once a day...each 30 min doesn't matter! AH!

Picture of the day

I forgot my camera on Thursday night at the Carrie and Keith Concert, so thanks to Amy for coming through! This is the concert crew! We had a blast!

Love all!

Crazy life

Well it's march and seeing as I only posted once in Feb, and it's already March 8th...I'm off to a fine start! I don't know why I'm having trouble posting, but I've been terrible at just about everything that has to do with the internet. Well that's not totally true, if it's in my e-mail (both home and work) or on CNN.com or various other sites I browse at work then I'm on top of it. Facebook and blog sites don't come in to play there and thus....I'm being such a slacker! I don't even check facebook everyday (and if you knew me 9 months ago, you'd think I was lying, I had it open constantly while at school) I guess somethings change when you get a job in the real world. Another difference is that I actually know what's going on in the world. I read CNN daily (when at work) especially on my morning shifts, I've read all the "news" by 7am and when people talk about it like it's new (it is to them) at 10am or later, I'm like I've already read that! It's crazy. A year ago or two I didn't know anything, ever. I told Adam that he needed to be my CNN so that I knew what was going on. Now I'm on top of it. I know all about the daily reports about the nation's economy...the heated political race (again a new thing for me is to watch and care about that)...top stories of the day. It's crazy really. Anywho that's life for me and the internet!

Last week I started working evening shifts, I wasn't sure how I'd like them because I like getting off at 3 and having the rest of the day for me, but I do like them. Things are a bit slower (because it's not "working" hours), and time goes by faster. I don't get tired during the shift which is great! I'm excited that evening shifts are in the works now. It's convective season scheduling so when storms break out, I'll be there, very exciting. I was extremely excited last weekend about the storms coming though OK and KS. People think I'm crazy, but I missed what I call "real" storms. Storms are just a different breed out in the east. I missed what I grew up with! I'm so thankful to be back in the plains! It was all I hoped for, a huge lighting show, great squall and some supercells with tornadoes. With the active pattern we've had thus far this winter I have a feeling this spring will be wild! I hope so, I'm looking forward to working it. Maybe some chasing as well!

Thursday night I got to see Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban in concert! It was great and I got to go with Sarah, Amy and Matt. Carrie was wonderful, but we were so far away it was really hard to see her. I sang (probably to everyone around me's annoyance) each song, because I love her songs! However, even though I don't like Keith as much, and didn't know all of his songs he is a better performer! He was crazy and got out in to the audience and people were attacking him and he just kept singing and smiling. I've never seen such a thing at a concert. His camera work was great too..the camera's that show him on the screen behind him, you can tell he's got some money. However I was disappointed that the two didn't sing a duet...you'd think they could have. It was great though! Next is Sugarland in May! If you have the chance see them!

I forgot my camera for this concert, but here is Carrie when I saw her in 2006, it was outside at night thus it's so dark!

Sending all my love!