A week of Storms

This week can be summed up in three words: Busy, busy, busy..


Or, better yet, three letters: V.B.S.


Then a garage sale on Friday all day. I was up at 0600, putting signs around town and studying the clouds to see if I could roll things out onto the driveway or not.


We’re also still reeling from Detroit’s Game 7 loss to the Pens. Hockey Town is missing a friend this summer….but it was a great year. I loved some of the players Detroit acquired this year and I hope to see much of the same next season.


Hotmail has been acting up all week so I haven’t been able to check my email on a regular basis, which puts me behind in just about everything on the outside world.


Spent Saturday morning participating in Treasure Trek Nebraska, which is basically a time set aside for Western Nebraska to have craft sales/garage sales. The kids and I went out after breakfast with a $25 limit and came back with a full Ford of goodies, including a solid oak hand made high chair that I don’t need but really loved (it weighs 900 pounds, give or take), a stringed musical instrument from Italy that needs a good tuning and some strings, a graduation scrapbook, some Christmas bows, dress up clothes/jewelry & toddler clothes, most notably some well worn Levis for Eden for race night. The big purchase was a pack-n-play for Laura’s house and a toy tractor that Lars wouldn’t get off of, even after we put it in the Ford.


I taught EMT class on Monday night while Al had a sudden voter’s meeting. They are deciding on a chancel area and needed a quick meeting. Apparently, the meeting wasn’t so quick and the kids were tired so somebody else had to bring them home during the meeting. We really need to coordinate our schedules better.


Tuesday and Thursday afternoon was story hour at the library, which Eden really loves. It’s worked out that Laura can pick up Eden while Lars is still napping and then I am the neighborhood pick up Mom and, now that I have an 8 seat vehicle, pick up several kids and drop them off at home afterwards. They have so many kids this year that they are splitting the ages and doing each group once a week. So, now it will just be a Tuesday adventure.


This whole week has been cool & wet, tornado-y, thunder storm-y, and hail-y with flooding so I’ve got tall weeds to pull in the garden, but haven’t had to water.


At 2:30 Wednesday afternoon, the big storm came and warnings went out all over town. Several tornados had touched down in Eastern Wyoming and Western Nebraska. I even heard our county mentioned on the Weather Channel. The Vortex 2 team has been spotted all over our area, watching for tornados. They filmed a live 30 minute feed in Goshen County of a tornado that was pretty cool.


Thankfully, this area is so sparse of people and homes that they rarely cause damage to buildings or people, but more often spin across the plains into nowhere, which is what happened this time.


Our church is a community shelter, and the people from the gas station starting coming over mid afternoon. A family with two kids, a bike rider, attendants and others passing through came to hang out. Pastor gave the kids some toys and came home to check on his family, which was nice. When he went back up to church later, the bike rider was the only one left, so we had him over for beef stew & biscuits and had a nice visit. We got him a hotel room and drove him uptown when it was the kid’s bedtime. A nice fellow, young and bald, he was bicycling 800 miles from Denver, where he lives and works as a paramedic, to Fargo, ND, where his parents are worriedly waiting for him to show.


Naturally, EMT class was cancelled on Wednesday because of this and a flash flood that stranded several people out in the county when the crick overflowed, swelled the river, and closed several highways until it receeded. Hail was said to be 10 feet deep just west of here and the snow plows went out around supper time to plow the hail off Angora Hill, 12 miles north of town.


The whole event taxed our local emergency services and drew out hundreds of town folk to take pictures. We of course went out, but forgot the camera. So, I have borrowed some from friends.


As I write this on Saturday afternoon, the weather radio buzzer just informed me that a tornado is again on its way to my house. Hard to believe with all this blue sky and fluffy clouds. Pastor is out helping a rancher brand cattle. They were really short of help and he’s long on energy, I guess. I’m sure after a week of VBS, a day of garage sale, and now cattle branding, Sunday’s sermon is going to be short, sweet & to the point!