Friday August 21st and last night's frights

So I've stopped whining and kavetching (I think that's the same thing) about what I do and don't have to eat. I'll do the best I can with what i've got and that's the best I can do.
I am peparing a grocerly list of backup foods which I will present to JW when he goes shopping next month. This time I won't be running out.
My royalty check still isn't in but Im sure it'll be here soon.

Last night a complex of severe storms hit our area, ironically just as I was about to post my blog for the night. I heard what I thought was a car enging running. I went outside, thinking that someone was here and was startled by a very disturbing lightning display. The clouds were fairly low, and lightning arched overhead. All was silent with the exception of a low rumbling in the distance.

I ran inside the house and shut off the computers. I got JW up who grumbled that so what it was just a storm and not to worry about it. That's when the weather channel severe storm alert came on. And minutes later, the tornado horns blared.
JW went outside with the camera hoping to catch some shots of the lightning which was becoming more impressive and more frightening. The silence was startling, and every instinct in my body told me a tornado was somewhere nearby. It doesn't get like that, with heavy low hanging clouds, and extremelightning and utter silence without the 'long man' somewhere in the vicinity. It's an old Cherokee custom to grab a two bitted axe and slam it into the ground, hoping to cause the storm to split. Sometimes it actually works. I've seen it myself. But we don't have an axe and Iwas too scared to be outside. Even though JW dragged me out to show me patches of star filled sky between the clouds.

As far as I was concerned I was looking impermenence square in the face. Imperminence for the house should a twister trash our neighborhood, impermanence for us if we and our neighbors would subsequently get trashed as well.

I often joke with Lama about impermanence. Sometimes it can be a good thing, like when your week sucks like a low pressure system, and it finally ends, or when you run out of money knowing that later on you'll get some more. As Stephen King says, Everything's eventual.

But this wasn't a joke. It was damned scary. I felt like Tsuki our akita who wanted to hide under the computer desk and wait for the awful sight and heavy pressure and silence to end.

I came to my senses. JW wasn't scared. He was still taking pictures and marvelling at the storm. I began my dialogue with Chenrezig. Were we safe? Yes. Was there a tornado? Yes. Will it hit us? no. Will anyone get hurt? No.

We went back inside. I sat cross legged in my recliner while JW sat at his desk. We watched the local news station, showing us the doppler radar and indicating on the map that there were not one but two tornados in the area.

During this time I knew I had to get control of my fear. But all I could recall was my sutric questions, which I performed over and over again in my mind. My thoughts finally cleared. The tornado sirens went off. JW said, "There. I told you we wouldnt' get hit."


The storms didn't hit us. They passed us by, skirting us on the north and on the west. We got wind, a little rain, and fear, but that was all.

My son called. Asked if we were okay and then asked for 50 bucks to make his rent next month.

What a good son.

Peak flow 350
Breakfast Oatmeal
Dinner broiled beef and sweet potatoes.