Tornado Watch Night

Tornado season is upon us, and I'm remembering how I used to go outside our house, stand on the driveway, watch the sky, feel the wind and smell the rain. I never feared tornadoes; I thought they were kind of cool. Their destruction was just something I read about until the tornado of '66. Our next-door neighbor had a storm shelter (none of the ranch-style houses in our neighborhood had basements), but I don't remember spending a lot of time underground. The night of the'66 tornado, my brother and I were eating with our dad at the China Inn on the North side of town, far from a tornado shelter. Where I live now is right in the path of the June 8, 1966 tornado that swept through this town causing the neighborhood I live in now to become a mass of splinters and toothpicks sticking out of the ground. It was shocking to see the destruction that tornado brought. In the exact location where I currently reside, three apartment complexes were leveled, and today there are about four apartment complexes here. I live in one. It's just a watch, not a warning, so far. They have said the risk of hail is greater than the tornado risk tonight, but it's still a watch. No rain yet, either. Usually, on nights like this, it is already pouring down rain. The watch is supposed to go on until about midnight; well, I will be asleep by then. Stronger storms after midnight, they're saying. Well, I'm not going to worry about it. On nights like this, when my estranged brother and I were speaking, we used to call and check on each other, but usually not until there was at least a warning (that's when one has been sighted). I've been thinking about him a lot lately, and I'd like to try to connect with him, but I think it might be premature. There was just a lot of junk that never got sorted out, and that is the reason for the estrangement. I just don't know where to start. My other brother and I speak sort of, that is we were speaking until after the election. I'll just leave that right there. These last three and a half weeks of school feel like a long, dark tunnel over a bridge. I may have gotten a second wind over the weekend, but this is the longest school year ending in my memory. There are just a lot of things going on, and I am going to make my retreat right now. Maybe the storm will wake me up tonight at midnight, so I need to get a little sleep before that happens. Meanwhile, I don't want to think about anything more tonight, because I don't want to feel anything like sadness, and if I keep on in this direction I will get sad, and there is a time for sadness, but this is not it. Still no tornado sighted. I'm going to bed. Goodnight.