Sometimes Life Just Ain't Funny

There's a past southern saying that runs, 'Don't like the weather conditions? Just hang around several minutes. It'll change. '
Anyone who's spent long in Alabama can correspond with that one. It's not uncommon to wake up to blue sky filled with the help of brilliant sunshine and bright white puffy clouds, then hit the sack that evening with a wind and rain busting against your window. Alabama weather talks about as predictable as looking at The Jerry Springer Reveal. You know something's gonna happen, you're just not sure what it is.
Given the unpredictability associated with Alabama weather, I sometimes wonder exactly why television stations bother employing weathermen in the slightest degree. Oh sure, they razzle-dazzle us utilizing color radars and weather trackers and incoherent weather-speak, and as the weather is popping we are able to count on them to prevent us well-informed, but on an average day you can get just as accurate some forecast by calling any Psychic Hotline.
I've got an eighty-year-old aunt who predicts the next thunderstorm with what she message or calls her 'magic bunion. ' Really, the magic bunion is just not as easy to visit as color radar (it's definitely pretty disgusting), but it's usually directly on the money concerning predicting rain or drought (it throbs when it'll rain and itches when it is not). Okay, it's not only a perfect science, but the magic bunion would never interrupt your favorite show simply tell you it's pouring down rain in Tokyo, as numerous TV weathermen would.
Most television stations frequently think that, when it involves predicting the weather, a magic bunion is not really enough. They all have a very meteorologist or two for staff, though they rarely bring meteors, and enough weather gizmos and gadgets to help make Mr. Wizard green along with Doppler envy. Some stations have taken things to another location level by reporting the weather from outside of most of places. It makes perception, I guess, since that's where a large number of weather occurs. And it's sure to lower the number of poor forecasts since all they need to do is look way up. It's hard to foresee sunshine when rain is falling onto your head.
While I help to make light of TV weathermen plus their toys, I do take the elements very seriously. North The state of alabama is my home. It might be the place my grampa known as, 'the ass end associated with tornado alley. ' Throughout modern weather-speak, that signifies that North Alabama is historically vulnerable to weather patterns that might possibly (and often do) spawn perilous storms and tornadoes. Most North Alabamians have got either lived through a real storm themselves or know a learner.
Myself, included.
April 7, 1974: a night when a lot of tornadoes ripped through N . Alabama, causing much damage and reduction in life. I remember sitting for the back porch of a Limestone County home having my old man, watching a spindly tornado pass by a very few miles to the n .. What were we doing outside in this particular storm, propped up on exploit crates like two yokels waiting with a bus to take the property to the big city? You'd need to find out my old man to appreciate the answer to you. You see, he was some men who would quite stand outside and have to deal with a storm head-on when compared to get caught hiding from them in a bathtub. When, I thought it has been pretty cool, sitting you can get with him in a rain, watching the butts regarding his cigarettes float away from the edge of the veranda. It was the quintessential father and son strengthening ritual: two brave souls valiantly facing Fate and all that. Exploring back now, I are able to see that we were not even heroes. We were one or two hours idiots who were too stupid to become scared.
Last week, Alabama was faced repeatedly with an onslaught of killer storms similar to those that hit around 1974. During the storm that passed over my house, it rained harder compared to I've ever seen them rain before. Powerful gusts of wind turbine blew my plastic porch furniture downtown and the night air was alive with big thunder and brilliant flashes of lightning. My TV weather buddies laughed and said that a severe thunderstorm seemed to be headed my way plus they encouraged me to request shelter. Hmm, maybe they weren't such crooks to have around, not surprisingly.
My wife and children were snugly bedded down inside bathtub. Heavy blankets, candle, a battery-powered radio, a box of Ding-Dongs together with a jug of Kool Ade were in the area. My wife, in your ex infinite wisdom, wanted to then come a power outage or even sudden case of typically the munchies.
And where was I throughout this potentially deadly storm? Most of the time, I was sitting in the toilet singing Barney audio with my girls. But there's a moment when As i stepped out onto front side porch to face any oncoming unknown. I stared up inside the black sky and waited for the flash of lightning towards illuminate the clouds, to reveal ideas presented hiding up there. Searching for minute, I decided there's nothing to see. I turned into go inside, but not before stealing one last look into the storm.
I briefly planned my old man.
I wondered if he was doing the exact same.
Tim Knox Entrepreneur, Novelist, Speaker, Radio Host Find out more about Tim's New Radio Exhibit! => http: //www. timknoxshow. com Preorder Tim’ erinarians New Book => Everything Actually, i know About Business I Acquired From My Mama http: //www. timknox. com/amazon/