This past week was an interesting one.First, as Maria mentioned, Monday was my birthday. Second, as I mentioned a few posts ago, I moved to a new office. Since I am employed by a gigantic company, there are people who's job is to move us. We are not allowed to move ourselves. So when it is time to move, whether ten feet away or to a completely different building, you must rely on the facilities people to do it all for you. Which means they come and take your stuff at some point during a specified date, and hopefully on or near that same date your stuff will get delivered to your new location. With no idea how long it would take for them to move my stuff, I figured I'd take the day off rather than sit around all day at an empty desk unable to do anything.
So Tuesday I stayed home to play with my birthday toys. It was a pretty gray and stormy looking day which made me glad I was home, since I now walk to work. I also wanted to go see a movie in the afternoon; by myself, since Maria was expecting to watch a neighbor boy after school. When I left just after lunch it had started raining and was still pouring fairly heavily once I reached the theater.
In the middle of the film, one of the employees came in and began yelling over the soundtrack that there was currently a tornado watch in effect (which means the current weather situation is favorable for a tornado) and if a tornado warning (meaning a tornado has been spotted) is issued, the film would stop until things calmed down. We watched around ten more minutes of the movie and then suddenly everything went black. The power had gone out in the theater and except for the battery powered "EXIT" signs, there was no other light at all.
We all sat in our seats for a while to see if it was just a temporary thing, but after a minute or two with no return of the film, everyone pulled out their cell phones to help illuminate their way as they stumbled out of the theater. As we exited, we learned that besides the loss of power, there was now a tornado warning in effect and we were not allowed to leave the building. Not only that, but we were not allowed to go to the foyer of the theater--the only place where there was any light--because it was next to a large glass entrance which could potentially shatter should a tornado blow through. So we were forced to stay back in the dark hallways, barely illuminated by the dozens of cell phones everyone was using to call friends and family to report and get information.
It was actually quite amusing seeing all the different reactions from people while this was going on. There were people balking at the theater employees telling them they couldn't leave; employees frantically searching for misplaced flashlights; and one guy pretending to be a dog running up and down the hall barking for some reason I couldn't figure out.
Eventually the warning ended and they allowed us to leave. The power never did come on so I didn't get to see the end of my movie. Luckily they handed out passes to see something again in the future.
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Later that night Maria and I were watching a show on DVR. It was recording and we were watching it about 20 minutes behind. Suddenly we heard the tornado sirens sound off in the neighborhood so we switched to live TV just in time to see a map of our neighborhood with a tornado symbol right smack over the top of it.
Maria jumped up and woke up the kids, who had gone to bed about a half hour before that, and moved them into the hallway. I continued to watch the news to monitor the storm. Luckily, despite the tornado graphic, there was no actual tornado, at least not in our neighborhood. There were some swirling clouds that looked like a tornado was going to form, but nothing ultimately developed. Eventually that storm passed.
I guess it's just that time of year for this type of weather in this part of Texas. As a Utah boy, I'm still not used to the concept that a tornado could possibly run right through my back yard at any time. Luckily it wasn't this time.
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