Literally blowing over.

This morning I got to work in the Jeff City office and noticed that my dad had texted me "hope you are ok and stayed safe, love ya."  I will admit I was still in a slight morning haze, part of which entailed me not realizing I had one of my pant legs tucked into my sock.  Fortunately I noticed this myself before anyone could further ponder how I've done relatively well in life and can't even get dressed properly at age 27.  Needless to say, in reading the text, I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.  I sat there thinking hope I'm ok?  Well, I mean I slept pretty well last night and I was safe driving here. That Chuck.  So dramatic.  Then I opened the interwebs and saw that storms and tornadoes blazed a trail of destruction through several mid-western states last night.  I'm honestly glad that it just rained in Columbia for the obvious reasons, but also because I had no idea tornadoes were an option so I was ill-prepared to handle anything more than a few rain drops on my clothes.  Among the places hit was Paducah, KY, a little town on the Ohio River that I've grown particularly familiar with over the last few months, and Branson.  In all seriousness, I think people learned from Joplin, and take those warnings seriously.  Still, it's amazing to see how quickly so much damage can happen. 

Speaking of Joplin, I'm sitting in a Drury Inn here right now.  The Drury is in the same parking lot as the Hampton Inn my parents and I stayed at when we moved to Texas.  Memories!  In the wake of last night's storms, today was windy as hell.  I'm not exaggerating when I say that I almost blew over in the parking lot of my office.  Then, while getting gas before leaving for Joplin, a gust of wind blew my car door closed onto my leg.  I yelped, almost like a dog, and then muttered a series of expletives that drew a look of concern from a homeless guy walking in front of my car.  The wind also whipped a strand of my hair directly into my eyeball before I could blink.  Quite a battle I had with this moving air.  And the whole drive to Joplin was a two hands on the wheel affair so I didn't drive off the highway.  But, here I am!

And now, it's bedtime.  Long day tomorrow. Toodles friends.