Not In Kansas Anymore

I was looking forward to getting away by myself for the weekend. No kids, no husband; just me and my thoughts. It would be a good time to catch up on some web work that I have drastically fallen behind on. Most importantly, it was a chance to get a much needed break away from everything. Such was the plan when I boarded the plane to Phoenix on Friday.


Robb & Marie asked me a couple of months ago to come out and help cover a show for them in Phoenix while they were away in Missouri at another show. I pretty much jump at every chance to help them do a show since I really do enjoy the work. It's hard physical work, but I love it. Anyway, the show was slated for Saturday...just a one day show. That gave me plenty of down time to work on their website and some of my pictures that I need to get ordered.

After I got settled in at Robb & Marie's house Friday afternoon, I tackled the website. I'd like to say that I got a lot done, but I didn't. This PHP language is not as straightforward as HTML. And I hate coming in and editing something that I didn't write myself. It's almost easier to just start from scratch, which is the idea that I'm toying with right now. Anyway, my intentions of knocking out a lot of work on the website didn't come to pass as I had hoped they would. I spent much of Friday afternoon and evening taking 1 step forward and 2 steps back. But hey, it was still productive considering the learning experience.


Saturday was the day of the show. Considering that I was in Phoenix, I was prepared for the heat. I knew it would be a scorcher. I had heard earlier that they were expecting triple digits. So I was very pleased to find that the pop up tents that we brought along provided much more shade than the flimsy tents that the show's promoter had offered. Score one for us....not only would we benefit personally by having extra shade, it would most likely bring in more customers as the heat drove them to find refuge.


After laboring for 3 short hours to get our store set up, DJ and I patted ourselves on the back for a job well done. It actually looked like we knew what we were doing. And so, right on time, the gates opened and the concert-goers began to populate the stadium. We were expecting about 3,500 people; a small show by some standards, but more than enough to hopefully clear out the inventory so as to make room for the new line.

Traffic into our booth seemed pretty steady. As DJ began airbrushing tatoos onto young kids, I manned the register and helped out on the floor. It appeared as though the day would be seamless...until.


One of our customers had mentioned that it looked like rain was heading our way. So, I poked my head out of the tent to take a look at what was behind us. I was not expecting what I saw.


It was almost as if there was a was a distinct line that seperated the blue sky from the black clouds that were heading our way. There was no transitional grey color....just blue sky and then black sky.


I pulled DJ out so that he could see what I was looking at and we both decided that the best thing to do would be to bring the outside gear inside the tents to protect them from the inevitable rain. Just as we got that completed, we glanced again at the sky only to find that the black color had turned to brown and we were in the direct path of a dust storm.


No sooner had that realization hit us when the actual dust storm did too.


Along with DJ and several customers, I grabbed a tent support pole hoping that the strength of the storm was not greater than ours. However, once the aluminum support poles on the roof began to twist and rip apart, I knew that we would lose the battle.

At one point, the torn aluminum poles came very close to impaling our customers. That was quickly followed by grid panel lined with clothes falling at the legs of another customer who was desperately trying to help us keep everything together. It was then that we told everyone to drop their poles and let the storm have its way. There was absolutely no sense in taking the risk of injury for articles of clothes.

Yet, those who helped us did not abandon us at all. Instead, everyone teamed up to pile the clothing in the center of what use to be our store while others broke down the remaining support poles and gathered the tent material. I was moved by the amount of help that we received. People were getting sand blasted by the 51 mph winds, yet still determined to not abandon us.

After the dust settled, no pun intended, I chuckled to myself at the thought of what it must have looked like from the outside. Here were several of us, basically holding onto a parachute hoping beyond hope that the wind would not move us or destroy anything. That obviously wasn't meant to be.

While other vendors packed up and went home, we decided to stick it out. We no longer had tents or anything that resembled a store front. But we made do with what we had.

I wish I could say that business wise, it was a good day....but I don't believe that to be true. Out of the 3,500 expected concert-goers, I'd be surprised if there were more than 500 total.

However, deep down I know that the gear that we sold is bound to speak volumes to people. And even if one person has their life altered even in the slightest after wearing or reading an article of clothing that we sold on Saturday, it will all have been worth it.

That was CLOSE!!!

I never knew what real weather was until we moved here to Texas. It rains BIG rain drops here. It hails BIG hail balls here. The wind blows HARD here. Heck, it has even snowed since I've been here. Tornados you ask? Yep, we got 'em!

I use to wonder how photographers were able to capture images of lightning. "How do they know where to aim their cameras?", I'd often wonder. Well, I now know that when a thunder and lightning storm comes through where there is real weather, it's not hard to find a lightning bolt. They're EVERYWHERE....and they strike OFTEN, which brings me to the reason that I post tonight.

Earlier today as Jason and Dallas played in the front room, I decided that I could no longer put off vacuuming the house. The dogs had been indoors all day due to the storms and their fur was shedding off onto the already disgusting carpet. So, I whipped out the Dyson and began the process.

As I neared the living room back door, I had the strangest experience that I still can't explain. At first, I thought that the vacuum had malfunctioned and that I was being electrocuted by it. Why else would my vision get blinded by shades of red, white, red and then white again? I could see nothing else...just red, white, red and white again; like I was looking at the back of my eyelids and had those colors flash before me. That experience lasted about 1/20th of a second. The next thing I know, the house is shaking and the deafening sounds of a lightning bolt making contact with earth rings in my ears.

If I had time to process what had just happened, I might have actually freaked out. Instead however, I found myself laughing out loud.

No sooner had I turned around when I saw Jason and Dallas running toward me from the other room. They are both wearing nothing but their underwear and are screaming at the top of their lungs with pure fright in their eyes. As Jason got closer, I realized that his speed was not decreasing! Next thing I know, he has Scooby-Doo jumped into my arms...literally.

I can't pry him off of me for anything. All the while, Dallas wears a mixed look of confusion and fear on his face. He looks to Jason for guidance as to how to react to what has just happened. As you can imagine, it wasn't long before they were both in need of some major reassurance from their dear ol' mommy.

When I finally was able to pry Jason off of my body, I saw that he had lost all color. No exaggeration; he was white as a sheet. Yes, even whiter than what he normally is. Once again, I broke into laughter, which was probably the best thing for everyone. Mind you, it was a nervous laugh, but we all laughed just the same.

I still don't know how close that lightning bolt actually came to us. I wouldn't be surprised if it was within 100 yards of our house if not right on top of us. It certainly was a sobering wake up call to the pure power of that energy and the even mightier, astounding, unfathomable power of whom it was created by.

Friday the 13th

We had quite the storm rip through the DFW area last night. This image is of the hail that was coming down in parts of the metroplex. (Hail on left, baseball for comparison on right.) Luckily, we escaped that lovely aspect of the storm.

We were actually in the storm's path last night. The boys had a baseball game in West Fort Worth as the storm began to roll into the Metroplex. Obviously, the game was called once the monsoon hit. I don't think anyone even waited for official word....once the downpour of rain came, everyone just scattered like roaches when the lights come on.

As we were heading home, tornado warnings began to surface. The weird thing was the fact that we had "rain-wraps" where apparently the rain swirling around in the storm clouds made it more difficult to determine what the circular movement in the clouds was. I don't know...sounds like the news doing their best to sensationalize everything once again.

At one point, we were only a couple of miles away from where a tornado touched down. Luckily, as the storm headed NW, we headed due north toward our home. All the while, I sat there dumbfounded at the fact that the new homebuilders out here don't include a basement option. I've learned that in fact, we are in Tornado Alley (wish I knew this before we decided to make the relocation). I suppose it's a matter of everyone's willingness to roll the dice and believe that the likes of yesterday's storm will be few and far between.

I suppose it could have been worse. One year ago....the very first weekend we officially called Texas our home, the tornado sirens were blaring and reports were coming in of softball sized hail heading toward us. Not quite the welcome to Texas I was hoping for.

All in all, the most we suffered is the boys game getting cancelled and our clothes getting drenched. It could have been much worse. Sadly, a police officer lost his life yesterday due to the storm. So, we count our blessings as a family and pray for better weather today.