hoping very hard

This is gonna be a bad day for weather in the Central Plains.

I have friends scattered around Oklahoma and some in North Texas, and I hope they all come through this okay. I hope if any tornadoes form, they do so out in rangeland where nobody gets hurt and nothing gets destroyed. (Or, at most, someone loses a shed).

Moore closed its schools for the day, out of an excess of caution, but it has me scratching my head ever so slightly because all the schools, I thought, were rebuilt with storm shelters, and I suspect not every family in Moore has a family shelter...it's gonna be chaos if bad weather comes in and people have to GET to shelters. (I hope they open the school shelters for people!)

I know I don't have a storm shelter, though I admit I've contemplated the idea. Maybe before I get the back fence replaced, I see how expensive it would be to have a smallish one put in the backyard. Or one of the aboveground ones put in in place of the useless potting shed on the back of my garage. Because in a bad tornado, hiding out in my bathtub under pillows would not do it. (And sometimes going to a public shelter is not a viable idea, not if you have only short notice, and to be quite honest? The one time I did go to a public shelter it was...unpleasant. I wound up being talked at by someone who wanted to tell people about a botched surgery she had. I mean, I'm already stressed if a tornado is threatening, I don't need the added stress of trying to interact with some stranger.

But also: I have to drive to Mineola this afternoon to catch a train. Yes, that will be east of the area of "most likely extreme severe weather" but still: it may be storming while I drive, and I do not like driving in storms. And if there are tornado warnings in the area the train is supposed to go through, they stop it and hold it....and delays tend to add up.

(Interestingly, The Weather Channel is sounding a LOT more Armageddon-y about the weather than the National Weather Service or Accuweather are, at least for central and north-central Oklahoma. I hope it's just The Weather Channel being The Weather Channel and wanting people to freak out a little. I hope no tornadoes form)

Also, I will probably be traveling through an area the heavy weather moves INTO overnight (Arkansas and Missouri). I hope everything goes OK.

I have to change out of my exercise gear, and put the last few things (make up, toothbrush, etc.) in my carry on, and I have a few things I need to do over at school....and I need to do stuff like put the lamps on a timer and all.

I've written a few time-embargoed posts; I will most likely be back around the 5th of June.