the perks of being Little Man's driver...

i had the best of intentions to spend yesterday in boyworld celebrating mother's day with a jaunt into the city & return home to do a post with a shout-out to D.'s wonderful momma & my birth momma, J. but you know how it goes with the best-laid plans! we did make it into the city after Big Bro was through at work. we did have a grand time being silly together. but one of us got his best-day-ever wish...& one of us ended the evening hiding in our windowless hallway in fear! let me explain...

while enjoying a cold coffee-type drink in the brilliant sunshine, i noticed a cloud formation behind the boys that spoke to Little Man's meteorological heart.that was enough to put us on the move toward home with hopes of tracking some storms. en route shortly thereafter, the horizon was filled with an ominous, dark sky. we pulled into a store for an item needed for that night's dinner (ice cream...hey, it was mother's day!). boyworld made a run for the store, but i had the camera poised. the lightening was quite amazing a few miles from us & i decided to try for that elusive lightening bolt shot. well, i got it!& a whole lot more than i bargained for. i realized that while i was totally focused on bolts, the clouds had taken on a formation known as a shelf cloud, the type that proceeds tornadic activity. please understand, i have never had, nor will i likely ever have, a desire to be one of those storm chaser types. i am more like a storm run-away-from-er! & you might ask just how i knew about this cloud formation & could so aptly spot it...well, Little Man & i just completed 2 National Weather Service classes on things like this. he is an official weather spotter for our county & technically, so am i, but alas i am too wimpy-afraid to really desire to do it...but i am his official driver & i did indeed spot it! at that moment, while furiously clicking away with my camerai made a bolt for the store & dialed Little Man's cell with my free hand. he was at the door just in time to see the whole thing. we never saw the tornado on the ground but he did fulfill his official spotter duties with a call to the NWS to report the cloud formation. (this morning we did confirm a tornado touchdown just a short distance from us at that very time through the NWS website...mild damage & no injuries, thank God!) a short while later the storm clouds had passed & we were on our way home, again in brilliant sunshine.

but that was not to last...no, another ominous cloud formation was trailing us home!& last evening we ran the gambit of wild weather...supercell cloudstornadoes skirting our area, hail, & a total of 3 NWS reports filed by Little Man! what did i do? well, i spent a good chunk of the dangerous times hiding in the hallway on the cell phone with J. & praying furiously...taking an occasional jaunt to the window for a photo op all for the blog!we were very fortunate in our home & our area...minor damage, no lives lost. but much of the country did not fare so well. please keep the many mother's day tornado victims in your prayers. & to my brood of children who frequently take me out of my comfort zone: thank you!!!...but please leave me in peace with my ice cream tonight! ;-) & to all you mother's out there...a belated happy mother's day from piacere!