My Big Michael Bay Moment
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011 07:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
radiumgirl After work, I got pizza with Rooney. Sure, Western PA had been under a tornado warning since the middle of the afternoon, but hey, the pizza place is (kinda) close to home and we never actually get any tornadoes anyway. It's all hype. Yup. Hype.
I'll sit down now.
That picture is actually about ten or fifteen miles north of me. I have a friend whose parents live about a block up from this street. They're okay. Their yard is a mess, but this street appears to have gotten the brunt of it.
I didn't take this picture either. I'm stalking the local news websites. When this picture was taken, I was actually about six blocks up the street, sitting in my car going "Shit shit shit shit shit" as I watched the sky turn green and all the fire-whistles downtown went off at the same time. Rooney and I had just parted ways at the pizza place. We had ridden out the first wave of storms with beer and pizza and tv, and when the weatherman said there was a second wave coming, we realized that we were out of pizza and if we left right now maybe we'd make it to our destinations before Suck Zone II.
That's right. We ventured out of the relative safety of the squat, brick, pizza parlor and into our cars, which we then drove in known tornado-like conditions...because we were out of pizza and slightly bored.
We both hold MAs from accredited universities. America's best and brightest, right here.
I got about five minutes up the road when I looked at the sky, all green and dark and crazy like that and decided, "This might have been a bad idea." I was sitting at a red-light downtown when all the sirens went off and every traffic light instantaneously turned yellow. It could very well have been some electrical glitch...but I took this as a sign: shit's about to get real and you should probably take cover, traffic laws be damned.
I decided on Shop n'Save: brick building, one-level, wide-open parking lot. The wind and the hail was beating poor Lucy the Staypuft Marshmallow Car so badly. I kept wincing and waiting for my windshield to shatter. There are three stop signs on Lincoln Avenue, and I only remember stopping for one. Very very very briefly.
I flew into the parking lot and Shop n' Save's lights flickered, but didn't go out. There were people lined up along the front windows, and some were standing outside beneath the overhang right outside the door. I slammed the car into park, slammed my palm down on the lock button, and stood outside in the freezing wind, rain, and hail trying to open my umbrella like a dunce because, and I remember having this thought exactly, "I don't want to get a concussion from the hail."
Yeah. Your umbrella's totally gonna shield you from golf ball sized hail. Moron.
Needless to say, the umbrella blew away as soon as I ran around the back of the car. I flailed futilely after it, then watched a thick bolt of purple lightening flash across the sky. To my left, the last remnants of pitiful light were consumed by green swirls. To my right, the direction I had driven from, was a wall of black.
The sky roared.
My eyes went O.O
Fuck the umbrella.
I ran forward, watching the gawkers who had been outside quickly fall all over each other in an attempt to get inside. I slid on a puddle and hit the sidewalk with my arms stretched out in front of me and an old guy in a red hat and younger woman in yoga pants grabbed me and yanked me inside.
The Shop n' Save seemed eerily quiet in comparison to the insanity outside. The manager asked us to step away from the windows. I sat on the floor next to a candy rack. The old guy in the red hat said he saw a funnel. I didn't, but it got hard to see after a bit. We couldn't see the cars parked thirty feet away through the hail and the sideways rain. The lights flickered again, but didn't go out.
And then it cleared up, just like that.
I bought a can of coffee, went home, and took a shower because I was soaked through and freezing. There are trees down everywhere, but aside from the occasional siren going off, the world still seems overly quiet in the aftermath of it all.
Oh, hey, and my umbrella was saved from a storm drain at the end of the parking lot. Score!
I'll sit down now.
That picture is actually about ten or fifteen miles north of me. I have a friend whose parents live about a block up from this street. They're okay. Their yard is a mess, but this street appears to have gotten the brunt of it.
I didn't take this picture either. I'm stalking the local news websites. When this picture was taken, I was actually about six blocks up the street, sitting in my car going "Shit shit shit shit shit" as I watched the sky turn green and all the fire-whistles downtown went off at the same time. Rooney and I had just parted ways at the pizza place. We had ridden out the first wave of storms with beer and pizza and tv, and when the weatherman said there was a second wave coming, we realized that we were out of pizza and if we left right now maybe we'd make it to our destinations before Suck Zone II.
That's right. We ventured out of the relative safety of the squat, brick, pizza parlor and into our cars, which we then drove in known tornado-like conditions...because we were out of pizza and slightly bored.
We both hold MAs from accredited universities. America's best and brightest, right here.
I got about five minutes up the road when I looked at the sky, all green and dark and crazy like that and decided, "This might have been a bad idea." I was sitting at a red-light downtown when all the sirens went off and every traffic light instantaneously turned yellow. It could very well have been some electrical glitch...but I took this as a sign: shit's about to get real and you should probably take cover, traffic laws be damned.
I decided on Shop n'Save: brick building, one-level, wide-open parking lot. The wind and the hail was beating poor Lucy the Staypuft Marshmallow Car so badly. I kept wincing and waiting for my windshield to shatter. There are three stop signs on Lincoln Avenue, and I only remember stopping for one. Very very very briefly.
I flew into the parking lot and Shop n' Save's lights flickered, but didn't go out. There were people lined up along the front windows, and some were standing outside beneath the overhang right outside the door. I slammed the car into park, slammed my palm down on the lock button, and stood outside in the freezing wind, rain, and hail trying to open my umbrella like a dunce because, and I remember having this thought exactly, "I don't want to get a concussion from the hail."
Yeah. Your umbrella's totally gonna shield you from golf ball sized hail. Moron.
Needless to say, the umbrella blew away as soon as I ran around the back of the car. I flailed futilely after it, then watched a thick bolt of purple lightening flash across the sky. To my left, the last remnants of pitiful light were consumed by green swirls. To my right, the direction I had driven from, was a wall of black.
The sky roared.
My eyes went O.O
Fuck the umbrella.
I ran forward, watching the gawkers who had been outside quickly fall all over each other in an attempt to get inside. I slid on a puddle and hit the sidewalk with my arms stretched out in front of me and an old guy in a red hat and younger woman in yoga pants grabbed me and yanked me inside.
The Shop n' Save seemed eerily quiet in comparison to the insanity outside. The manager asked us to step away from the windows. I sat on the floor next to a candy rack. The old guy in the red hat said he saw a funnel. I didn't, but it got hard to see after a bit. We couldn't see the cars parked thirty feet away through the hail and the sideways rain. The lights flickered again, but didn't go out.
And then it cleared up, just like that.
I bought a can of coffee, went home, and took a shower because I was soaked through and freezing. There are trees down everywhere, but aside from the occasional siren going off, the world still seems overly quiet in the aftermath of it all.
Oh, hey, and my umbrella was saved from a storm drain at the end of the parking lot. Score!
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no subject
Date: March 24th, 2011 12:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: March 24th, 2011 10:15 am (UTC)It was pretty intense. Did you ever get your cheeseburger?
no subject
Date: March 24th, 2011 12:20 am (UTC)I went through a tornado once that picked up my neighbor's trailer and threw it 4 miles. However, I was about 18 months old at the time, so I don't remember it. But I've been told about it enough times to know that when you see the Green Sky ... hide.
no subject
Date: March 24th, 2011 10:19 am (UTC)O.O
This is my *thinks* third actual tornado. It was the first one that I was pretty much on my own for though. The other two happened when I was like, twelve, so there were ADULTS around who took charge and I don't remember the storms being anything more than REALLY BAD THUNDERSTORMS.
The green sky was SO not cool (except that it kinda totally was) though. I kept looking for it and looking for it and I was driving around like, "ok, this is crappy but there's no green, ok, we're all good, ok OH MY GOD WHAT THE FUCK WE'RE GONNA DIE."
no subject
Date: March 24th, 2011 12:23 am (UTC)Glad you're alright though I did enjoy reading about your adventures. Funny how you even got your umbrella back. :P
*hugs* Stay safe!
no subject
Date: March 24th, 2011 10:22 am (UTC)I'm so happy I got my umbrella back! It's a good umbrella! It's bright orange and has a blue sky inner-lining. I <3 it.
*hugs*
no subject
Date: March 24th, 2011 12:38 am (UTC)bitch?-mazing? Glad nothing blew off to Kansas. Tornadoes totally freak me out.no subject
Date: March 24th, 2011 10:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: March 24th, 2011 10:05 pm (UTC)passed overhead and everything just...rumbled.
Turns out a tornado passed right over the house but since it was by a large lake (apparently tornados rise over water), we were spared. I didn't find it fascinating at eight, but now? Maybe! Fascinating in a freaked-out, oh-my-God-we're-so-insignificant sorta way... :D
no subject
Date: March 24th, 2011 01:18 am (UTC)Icon twins - ka-pow!
no subject
Date: March 24th, 2011 10:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: March 24th, 2011 09:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: March 24th, 2011 10:23 am (UTC)