Don't like it

Well, the good news for today was I got my desk put together (easier than I feared it would be) and was able to maneuver it into the window space where I was planning on putting it, and I even did a little work at it. (Pictures tomorrow, maybe)

But, late in the day, the sky got very dark and my phone started blowing up with weather alerts. And then my landline rang - the local county disaster alert about tornado watches.

I put the semi-local news on and watched for a bit.....toted stuff (my purse, my important papers, sturdy shoes, pillows and blankets, Pfred and some other stuffed animals, my phone) into the bathroom. Watched more of the local news and then heard there was a tornado in Madill.

Madill is like 20 miles west of me.

At that point I went and sat in the bathroom with my laptop and watched the livestream of the local news for as long as it ran, and then put the news on the tv and turned it up very loud (I don't know why they just end the livestream at 5:30 when the weather is bad).

There was a tornado in Armstrong, which is literally less than 10 miles north of me.

It looked like we were going to get hit. I speculated "Well, maybe it's my 'time,' and maybe there just wouldn't have been anything worth coming back out to anyway after the pandemic" but of course even though the world is a bad place, a sad place, and a terrible place to live, I don't want to die.

I was as terrified as I've been in many, many years. Tornado in Caddo - less than 10 miles north of me.

I called my mom to let her know I loved her. I started crying on the phone.

I told a couple friends on Twitter whose phone numbers I had, that if I lost power and internet connectivity but was still alive, I'd text them so they knew.

Texted a friend in Caddo to make sure she and her husband were okay. (They were, she texted back very shortly. I'm pretty sure they have an underground storm shelter).

Heard the heavy rain on the roof (but apparently no hail, though I care less about that - my car is garaged and at some point I need a new roof anyway).

Lots and lots of VERY LOUD alerts on my phone reminding me it was a tornado warning. I did not like hearing them at such close range. I get why they are so loud but when you are within five feet of your phone, they are terrible to listen to.

Eventually it got quieter, and finally the guy on the tv said that my town was not going to be in the path.

I am kind of disbelieving it missed us, it came very, very close - lots of places all around us got hit. One person died in Madill. I hope most of the rest of the touchdowns were in fields, where maybe some hay got ripped up but that was all that happened, hay will grow back.

It seems to have passed by - it's clearing west of us and they're saying people west of route 377 (which is about 20 miles west of me) are totally in the clear, and western Bryan county (where I am) is most likely in the clear. The sun is coming back out so I think we'll be okay. I might step out back in a moment just to see if we DID get any hail I didn't hear.

But yeah. If I could have anything....well, the first thing I'd wish for would be for COVID-19 to never have happened, so no one died of it and we didn't have that disruption, but the second thing would be at least several months of just calm and nothing bad happening.