Yet again...

Good morning, friends (even if it is only myself who reads this.  I’m still a pretty decent friend to myself, I must say… ;)

It’s been a bit of a crazy past two weeks in Oklahomaland.  I am constantly amazed at what this weather does.  For example, the early afternoon, was sweet and nice, like this:

 

Now, exactly one week ago, it was not.  It didn’t look too ominous heading from our new home in the grasslands to our old home in the city:

 

The nice lady at the tollbooth asked us where we were going.  When we said “Oklahoma City” she replied “do you kids realize what’s about to happen there?”  While we had our weather radio on and were aware, I didn’t honestly think things would hit close to us.  Surely it would dissipate before it got to Oklahoma City, right?  But as we were driving into capital city, we realized otherwise.  We rolled into downtown OKC with tornado sirens going off and meteorologists screaming on the radio to “Get down now!  Take shelter now!”  We were on our way to a hockey game, but in the underground garage we encountered not just other hockey fans, but families, pets, anyone who realized that this was a safe place to be.  Needless to say, we spent quite a bit of time in an underground parking garage hiding from tornadoes, high winds, and huge floods. 

 

 When it was all over, we saw quite a bit of damage and flooding.  We went up to the arena for hockey, only to find this, and many similar scenes:

 

The arena had flooded, and everything postponed.  No matter.  As long as we were all safe, right?  Because of the flooding, we decided to stick around a bit and wait.  Then, the long, long drive home.

 

 

The following picture was taken at a main intersection downtown.  Note the building behind the fallen light:  underneath that building was where we were.

It took us a couple of hours to drive the few miles to our home.  There was so much water on the road and so much flooding, my husband and I had to turn around several times and find alternate routes.   When we reached the road just north of our addition, I was so sure we would get stuck in the water.  I begged for my husband to turn back.  He was very determined to get to our home and investigate any damage from the storms. When we finally arrived, we were shocked at what we found.  Luckily, only an EF0 tornado came around our area.  We had almost no damage, no flooding, and electricity!  It was fairly amazing, considering that there have been 20 reported deaths due to this storm, and over 70,000 homes in the area without any power.  This storm system produced multiple tornadoes that merged into one huge 2.6 mile wide tornado, the largest ever recorded.

Some of my friends did not fare as well as I.  Just a few miles north of us lives my oldest friend (note:  she’s not old, I’ve just known her for a long time!).  I finally got in touch with her the next day.  She showed me a picture of what her front yard looked like:

 

I am so glad she is safe, and so blessed that there are people out there who lend a hand and help others.  Once again, I am proud to be an Okie.  However, I’d have to say to dear Mother Nature:  please stop.  No more. 

 

I am not a meteorologist.  I’m tired of posting about the weather!  Simply put, it has been devastating, and I’d wager to say it’s the worst May ever recorded in Oklahoma, weather-wise.  I need something a little bit lighter, please.  Something that hopefully gives a bit of happiness and color to the world.  I want to post about pretty stuff.  So let’s leave this weather disaster behind if we can.  I want to talk about a couple of projects I’ve been working on.  Let’s lighten it up, yes?

 

My husband started a new job as a web coordinator at a nearby university.  I thought I would make something super quirky and weird for him to give to his office staff his first day on the job (no sense in hiding the fact that we’re a little bit off, right?).  So I start thinking:  University.  Education.  Wisdom.  Ta-dah!  I came up with a rough sketching:

 

And then they came to life.

 

Gosh, I love these little owls!  Once again, they are from Jacquie’s blog.  These guys are so deary.  They are just darling, and they are easy to make. 

 

 

After 8 of these were completed, I’ve turned my attention to another daunting project: an epic project for my husband.  Details to come!  Hopefully I don’t go insane before I complete it.  This project will have no fewer than 113 large hexagonal grannys.  I realize that I tend to revel in long, drawn-out, insane crochet dreams, and then trying to make them realities.  Even as I’m knuckles deep in the yarn for this, I’m still dreaming and planning for my next 184 huge hooky projects.  Ah, the problems of having an over active spinning mind and only TWO HANDS.   Oh, I am so in love with crochet. 

I promise I won’t post anymore about ridiculous storms.  They should all be past now.  I’m going to focus on the positive, and the beautiful.  Until next time,