Babies, weather and wierdness...
Life is filled with weird moments, and last night one of them happened to me. It all started as my husband and I were leaving church with our baby girl Millie in arms. It had just started to rain and we needed to get her into the car quickly without getting her wet (or at least as little as possible). This was the first time we had brought her into church without her carrier/car seat. It would figure that we would want the little awning on that carrier the first day we decide to leave it in the car. :-) But, we made the best of it by covering her with Royce's suit jacket and bringing the car as close to the door as possible. This may seem simple enough, nothing to strange about taking a baby through the rain to the car.
But, it was only the beginning of a series of storms that would come through our area that day. The rain began to pour steadily throughout the day, ruling out the family walk we had planned. Then, suddenly, around 10 PM a forceful wind began to blow through our neighborhood. It was blowing hard against our front door and we scrambled to close the windows we had opened to cool off our apartment. I hoped that Millie's window was closed, but (being fairly sure it was) did not want to wake her unnecessarily. As I made the coffee for Royce to take on his night shift doing security for the seminary, the tornado sirens began to sound nearby. It was not in the immediate vicinity, but still it sent chills up and down my spine. Normally I can handle tornados (or potential tornados) just fine. But this time was different. This time I had a 5 month old baby to protect. Our power went out twice in the space of 15 minutes and I began to pack Millie's diaper bag for an emergency run to the tornado shelter in the basement of a building across the parking lot in our apartment complex. I wanted to be able to warm, feed and comfort her if I had to rouse her from her crib and run for shelter. My husband was distressed that he could not stay and make sure we were safe. But he had to go protect the lifes of those living and working on the seminary campus last night. With assurances that I knew what I needed to do and checking the local news station for information on the storms coming through, he left for campus. I was watching the weather reports for a little while as I contemplated which of our two cats I would attempt to take with myself and my baby girl if we needed to seek shelter. As I drifted off to sleep, flashlight and clothes beside me, I decided I would attempt to carry Millie in the Snuglie pack on my chest and the two cats in each arm (with or without their carriers) if they could be caught fast enough.
This morning it struck me as odd, why was I thinking about which cat to save? Is this sort of like who would you throw off a sinking boat? Why were my thoughts growing so morbid or certainly quite serious? Was the threat real? Probably not. Would I even think about the cats if there was a tornado headed our way? I'm really not sure. Would there be time to catch them if I did think of them? Good question. They would probably try to hide under furniture and be very difficult to catch. I'm not even sure I could get their carriers down from the high closet shelf very easily. Could I carrier two frightened and squirmy kitties along with having a frightened baby strapped to my chest and lug a diaper bag too? It seems so bazaar, so dramatic. Perhaps I am a drama queen, or perhaps I just enjoy the adrenaline rush that comes with the thought of rescuing or protecting someone or something. What is reassuring is that I was not thinking about all the stuff I wanted to save from a tornado, but the lives under my care. My need to purge hoarded stuff is a topic for another day...
But, it was only the beginning of a series of storms that would come through our area that day. The rain began to pour steadily throughout the day, ruling out the family walk we had planned. Then, suddenly, around 10 PM a forceful wind began to blow through our neighborhood. It was blowing hard against our front door and we scrambled to close the windows we had opened to cool off our apartment. I hoped that Millie's window was closed, but (being fairly sure it was) did not want to wake her unnecessarily. As I made the coffee for Royce to take on his night shift doing security for the seminary, the tornado sirens began to sound nearby. It was not in the immediate vicinity, but still it sent chills up and down my spine. Normally I can handle tornados (or potential tornados) just fine. But this time was different. This time I had a 5 month old baby to protect. Our power went out twice in the space of 15 minutes and I began to pack Millie's diaper bag for an emergency run to the tornado shelter in the basement of a building across the parking lot in our apartment complex. I wanted to be able to warm, feed and comfort her if I had to rouse her from her crib and run for shelter. My husband was distressed that he could not stay and make sure we were safe. But he had to go protect the lifes of those living and working on the seminary campus last night. With assurances that I knew what I needed to do and checking the local news station for information on the storms coming through, he left for campus. I was watching the weather reports for a little while as I contemplated which of our two cats I would attempt to take with myself and my baby girl if we needed to seek shelter. As I drifted off to sleep, flashlight and clothes beside me, I decided I would attempt to carry Millie in the Snuglie pack on my chest and the two cats in each arm (with or without their carriers) if they could be caught fast enough.
This morning it struck me as odd, why was I thinking about which cat to save? Is this sort of like who would you throw off a sinking boat? Why were my thoughts growing so morbid or certainly quite serious? Was the threat real? Probably not. Would I even think about the cats if there was a tornado headed our way? I'm really not sure. Would there be time to catch them if I did think of them? Good question. They would probably try to hide under furniture and be very difficult to catch. I'm not even sure I could get their carriers down from the high closet shelf very easily. Could I carrier two frightened and squirmy kitties along with having a frightened baby strapped to my chest and lug a diaper bag too? It seems so bazaar, so dramatic. Perhaps I am a drama queen, or perhaps I just enjoy the adrenaline rush that comes with the thought of rescuing or protecting someone or something. What is reassuring is that I was not thinking about all the stuff I wanted to save from a tornado, but the lives under my care. My need to purge hoarded stuff is a topic for another day...
posted by Sharyne @ 2:53 PM
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