Sometimes you have to take your happiness where you can find it.*
Afternoon update: Hmm… Slower moving than they thought:
Oh, and Carlyn, be careful tonight. You’re in for some rough weather.
Morning update: Sheesh. It seems that every time we move, tornadoes are attracted to the place we left. Yet again, a tornado (around 4:15 CST) produced a damage path about a half-mile from our old house. We only had rain here, of course.
[*Allow me to put my usual footnote to storm stories: I am, needless to say, sorry for the people who lost their homes and businesses (and it appears that two people have died), but I have loved storms my whole life. Other than seeing a few wall clouds and some weak rotation aloft, I’ve never actually seen a tornado (waterspouts don’t count). We used to joke that wherever we lived there was a big umbrella over the house because storms would inexplicably miss us or dissipate before reaching us. My brother is the only storm-lover in the family who is actually doing something about it by getting a degree in meteorology. The rest of us just run outside and look up hopefully when the sirens go off. I even love a good rip-roaring thunderstorm but they have been rather thin the last few years (at least at our house – see umbrella bit). I think you will find this sentiment common to all storm-chasers and storm-lovers: while we hate that anyone would be hurt or killed, if storms are going to happen anyway, we want to be there.]
Praying With My Feet 
I will admit to not understanding the “we want to be there” when it comes to storms. Maybe it's because my mother had a nearly debilitating fear of tornados; it's rather difficult to maintain perspective in that environment.
Do your children share your fascination with severe weather?
(another) Elizabeth
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My father dreams of taking my brother and I tornado chasing in the plains states. His father was a meteorologist and was the first to capture a tornado on Doppler radar – he testified in congressional hearings in an effort to get federal funding for Doppler radars across the country. All of my brothers and sisters (4) love storms as do their children. We grew up in Florida with the hurricanes and lightning. When the sirens go off our children are very excited, look out the windows and beg for us to get online to check the radar.
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It would be wonderful fun for you and William and Papa to take just one trip to tornado chase! Papa is so frustrated with the trees here. He loved the Whigham property.
William should be about finished with his meteorology certificate-
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