What would happen if Meg died in a tornado? I didn’t entertain losing my other half for very long before I imagined myself turning into a crazy lady chasing tornados in an SUV to avenge the death of MERT or Mertle (say Mertle out loud, it’s fun).* Oh yeah, that’s a movie. Helen Hunt loses a loved one and I actually liked that bad movie… because it was about the weather.
I have outgrown my weather obsession (very likely due to the fact that I currently reside in a region of the country that defies predictability and this hurts my predictability dependent brain so I’m simply giving up).
But in a previous life – unbeknownst to most of you – those of you that know me as Kate not Katie – I was a science nerd who loved “meteorology.” I also quietly loved science fairs but perhaps more importantly the art of crafting an experiment. My most memorable experiments centered on two enduring interests – people and weather. Not much has changed. Now doesn’t THAT sound like a boring tangent?
In reality I imagined Mert and Eric listening to the tornado sirens filling the air at regular intervals while hunkered down in their basement with two less than thrilled cats, meowing obnoxiously. The storm approaching, the deafening sound created by a downpour more likely resembling a deluge, following by the percussive noise of enormous hail dinging, bonking and thumping down on the house, the cars, the wood pile, the trash cans.
I’ll stop telling the story. I wasn’t there. I was watching my computer screen and asking my Mom by phone if the television coverage offered any further detail. I was researching the meaning of TOR:CON (nope, not Star Trek… Weather Channel), the tornado condition index.
Megan emerged from the first storm cell to pass by and reported their safety. And that drew to a close my excitement for the day, unless you count going to Paseo’s for lunch or researching/polling coworkers about speed reading as exciting.
Thankfully, amidst all the tornado hoop-la we came to some much needed conclusions about our past lives (obviously we are traversing one life after another as a unit) and made the deal that I would not die in a massive earthquake if she dodged the tornado. Important matters are settled in scary moments.
* Megan has many names but several of them are meant to be delivered with speed, like a frog swiftly snatching up a bug or like a snap bracelet, you know, cartoon-like speed, a moment accelerated. “Mertle.”
Addendum: Waking up this morning and reading the NYT, I realize that others did not emerge safely. Horrible.
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