Ready to go

I packed yesterday evening. And I'm hoping for a little of what folks around here refer to as "traveling mercies," there are supposed to be severe storms moving into the area. If they follow what the local weather guy (who seems to be fairly good) predicts, they will move in AFTER I have left this area, and the biggest risk will be through Arkansas overnight when I am on the train. (What do trains do about tornado warnings? Ideally, they stop outside the area likely to have a warning, pull off on a siding, and wait. I've had that happen. I packed an extra book just in case....)

I don't like tornadoes. I don't like thunderstorms that bring high winds or hail, either. The house a couple houses to the north of me had their big old hackberry split during the last high wind. The local road crew came and cut off the parts of it that were blocking the street, but the homeowners (who probably is a landlord elsewhere, I think it's a rental house) have not had the rest of the tree removed.

I don't have a basement in my current house but I do have an interior room (the bathroom) that has multiple walls between it and the outside - on one side, there's a closet full of clothes, on the other, there are a couple walls blocking, on the third, a closet where I store my extra paper towels and stuff, and on the fourth, that's my sewing room and I think what is right up against the adjoining wall is a full bookshelf. So I'm probably fairly well protected from debris punching through a wall, but of course, if the whole house comes down....no. There are city storm shelters but good luck trying to get to one if the warning comes up fast. And then there's also the issue of the people wanting to be your new best friends....the last time I went to a shelter the conversation someone tried to involve me in made me think I'd rather take my chances in my own bathroom.

I'm in, planning to do my syllabi for this summer (I have a few days after I get back, but I just prefer to know they are ready to go.)

I have a compartment on the train again. This is one of the few luxuries in which I indulge myself. It's a lot cheaper to go coach, but taking coach is like Forrest Gump's proverbial box of chocolates....sometimes you wind up with a quiet seatmate, sometimes you wind up with someone interesting and cool, sometimes you wind up with someone who talks on their cell phone the whole time and is loud, sometimes you wind up with someone who asks you if you will send them your ponytail if you ever decide to cut it off. (Yes, I had that happen to me once, and I wound up sitting in the lounge car - under the watchful eye of the attendant - for the rest of the trip. Yes, with both the conductor and lounge attendant's blessing. Luckily it was only for a couple hours, but still - it's creepy to have someone keep talking to you about something you don't want to do and that makes you wonder what's going on inside their heads).

So I prefer not to chance it, seeing as I can afford a compartment. And that way I can kick off my shoes, put on slippers (I always travel with slippers now. Yes, they add a little weight but it is so nice to have them), and just read or look at the scenery. And not have to talk to people except over dinner. To read, I've got "The Disappearing Spoon" (which I started the other night), "Hons and Rebels" (a book by, I think it was Jessica Mitford? One of the Mitford sisters. About her growing-up years), a book on the 1812 New Madrid earthquakes, and I also tossed in a copy of "The Brontes go to Woolworth's" (One of those between-the-wars light British fiction novels that I enjoy).

And I got all my planned knitting packed.