No Locusts Detected

We had a storm last night that scared the poop out of me. If you knew me, you would know that I love love love storms and will sit up at night just to watch them. But this one was a little different.

It was so weird because it came out of the south west and it hailed, rumbled, blew and knocked trees down. Our neighbor's lost part of their boat launch, dock and their jetski's! I missed the initial blast that knocked power out to most of Mid-Michigan (Consumer's Energy estimates a Friday turn on date...good bye groceries!) because I was on my way home from work.

As I got closer to home, things became wetter and wetter, then I started seeing branches in the road and when I passed the Almy Cemetery, there were BIG pines down everywhere. When I pulled in my drive way, I could see the neighbor's out in the yard looking at the mess before them. Mostly it just looked like a junk heap around their dock area. They were all shook up because apparently, the storm came on quick and they were all at the Island hanging around when it came. They were pelted by hail and rain and when they got back to the boat launch, half of them were getting off the boat and half of them were on shore when the big tree came down in between them. Luckily no one got hurt, but it literally brushed past them as it fell, smashing one of the guy's watches on it's way and tearing it off of his arm.

Things quieted down, but it was still rumbling and sprinkling like it always does after a bad storm...kind of like the world has a hang over or something... My friend Scott was standing outside smoking when he poked his head back in and said "I do believe that storm is coming back toward us." My dad, who is an arm chair meteorologist, didn't believe him. I went outside and took a look and sure enough, the wind had changed directions completely and the sky was black with swirling clouds. The storm had pivoted and come back at us from the North West! We watched in awe as the clouds formed scary funnel like shapes and the wind picked up and the rain came in sheets with chain lightening and thunder rolling every few seconds. The second storm lasted for a few hours! We had downed electrical wires and no cell phone signals.

As it got darker, the storm began to wind down. We watched the whole thing sitting in chairs in front of the sliders in the living room. It was just too good to not watch! We still don't have power or water...this should be an interesting week.

My dad kept saying things like "Doesn't it seem like we're in Burma?" He always compares where we are to somewhere else...I just want to say "No, it seems like we're in boring Howard City! You need to get out more, dad." lol.

It's weird because a couple of years ago, we were in such a severe drought, that our pontoon boat was sitting in the mud and now the water is a good 3 or 4 feet ahead of the boat on the dock. It's nice to see the lake at a normal level!

I thought a lot while I was watching this storm about how I wished that Wile could be there with me oohing and ahhhing over the fantastic light show. He doesn't know how much he's cared fore. I can't wait to tell him.

My Dad and I joked that it must be the apocolypse. I told my dad that if he saw locusts to let me know.