So I had an adventure! We heard this beast before the sirens even went off, a low sort of roar that you recognize immediately when you grow up in tornado country.

We're a bit stupid, my papa and I, so we went outside. The trees on the property blocked the view to the west, but we knew it was in town and that it was close. And then, just like that, it was all over. 

I drove into town a bit later, to get some things before I headed home. Driving on the outskirts it didn't seem like much-- but there were trees down as close as a half-mile away. Our neighborhood didn't even lose any branches. One street was blocked by police, I figured it was a downed powerline and then I made the drive home quite peacefully.

This morning a friend who lives in North Dakota called me, fairly early. "I'm on my way to work," she said. "CNN was on this morning and they said there was a tornado and lots of damage and is everything ok?"

"Uh. Yeah," I said, half awake. "It wasn't that bad, at least not by us."

But when the conversation ended I got curious and went to the local paper's website. The above picture is what I found. (Yes, I stole it. Don't hate me, WC Trib.)

Yeah, that's a big tornado. And when I looked at the caption I realized the photo had been TAKEN BY MY NEIGHBORS. If the tornado had continued moving east, (moving right in the photo) it would have landed smack on my parent's house. Our neighborhood is just off the right side of the frame.

So that's the second in two weeks. Let's hope they're at an end, now.