>>>>If not for the Tornado Warnings and sightings at my summer baseball games, it would be a pretty damn boring summer. For the 2nd time in 4 nights I was left driving the back roads home, looking out all windows for the great funnel clouds in the sky.
Sam was scheduled to be at Convoy Crestview, same spot we were Friday when the first of our tornado adventures started.....I was to be at Delphos for a game between cross town rivals St. Johns and Jefferson. I head out out early after checking the radar, the red spots on the screen were popping up, and I knew this was going to be "iffy" at best. At 4:45 Sam called on his cell phone, his game at Crestview Schools had been washed...as I looked north and west out the car windows, I could tell why...it was as black as night towards the Convoy area. Towards the east, Delphos is about 25 miles from Convoy, the county seat of Van Wert lies in between those 2. Delphos had sun and some clouds. By the time I arrived at Jefferson High School, the storm that had hit Convoy and the north edge of Van Wert had skirted the city of Delphos, and the sun came out.
I was getting dressed to do the home plate as my younger partner showed up....we went over our concerns and traded notes as we had not worked together. By the time we had the umpire meeting with the coaches, the sky to the south and west had turned an ugly dark color, with rumbles of thunder coming from those clouds....we started anyway...1 ball, then a strike, I heard a sound I didn't like coming from the area behind home plate...calling time, I tell the players and coaches..."We are shutting this down, it's going to get ugly" No sooner had I spoken those words, and Dan the St. Johns varsity coach says..."Pat, we've got a tornado warning for eastern Van Wert County"(half of Delphos is on the Van Wert County side, the east side of course, the rest of town is in Allen County)...within 10 seconds the weather sirens began to blast....without bothering to cover the plate and pitching mound...we hauled ass out of the field into the parking lots.....I aimed the Intrepid towards the center of town...because the 35 mile drive to Celina was right in the path of the storm, to the southwest.
By the time I reached the Speedway Gas shop, the rain was coming down in buckets....I jumped into the storm, the lights went out and the generator kicked in....to dark to tell is we had a tornado or not...but 15 minutes or so later, the rain slackened, and I headed out to the car. I decided to take the Lincoln Highway(Old U.S. 30) to Van Wert...as I headed west toward Middle Point, Patricia calls and says there is another Tornado sighted..this one near, where else?, Middle Point....I see no twister activity in the air, but plenty of trees and large limbs down between Middle Point and Van Wert.....I escape another one, hit the south end of Van Wert and head home.
Rained hard last night...with storms throughout the night...but by the time I headed for Greenville at 6 this morning...it was just a steady rain, and now sunshine and less humid weather has arrived. This is supposed to last for a couple of days, before more storms this weekend...ONE HELL OF A LATE SPRING!
Inbetween storms I sat out on the front porch and listened to the Reds win over the Marlins, topped off by Ken Griffy Junior's 600 career home run.....Then about an hour before dark, I heard this wierd bird call and watched as a dove like bird flew onto the wires across the street....after a closer look, I can tell it's a Cockatiel....obivously someone had set it free or it escaped from it's cage.
Patricia and I managed to talk it down to the roof and gutters above the front porch, but even with my sister Kelly(who owns many tropical birds in Naples, FL) and her husband, Denmark Mike helping...the bird eventually few into our Maple tree, where it spent the night, despite the heavy rain and storms...it was still there when I left this morning, and for about an hour after I returned...but finally headed on it's way......nice looking bird, no doubt somebody's pet, but for now enjoying it's freedom...even though, for a domestic bird, that might not last long.
No games for me tonight...Sam is home for a local game.
Back Later>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>Photos at top....a generic Tornado with rainbow, kind of like last Friday outside Van Wert....a generic yellow fancy Cockatiel, looking like the one on our wires and finally trees last night.....as shown in my personal photos below the generic ones.
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7 comments:
Holee molee, Pat - you might no have umped the game but you sure called the weather right!
You always wonder about the fate of those domestic birds you see every once in a while. And usually all you can do is wish 'em luck.
My goodness Pat, I lead such a sheltered life over here, I'll never complain about our weather again. I can't imagine being out chased by a hurricane, yet you seem to so matter of factly take it in your stride. Shrug.
Thanks Lin/Shrinky...I hate/love tornadoes....something about them, you don't want any part of em', but if they are near, you are kind of like the moth to the flames.....but I am smart/scared enough to not get too close.
Thanks for dropping by...busy time of the year, and "blogging" has slowed down for all.
Close call, Pat. Glad you're safe.
I'll bet NOAA would LOVE to get their hands on that "tornado-bow" picture!
Never seen one like that before. All of ours have been a dark yellowish-green, and shaped more like a giant turd than a funnel!
And, oh---let's not forget the HAIL...!
I am glad the twisters missed you.
I thought Oklahoma was supposed to be tornado central, but the upper midwest has gotten hammered this year. We had golfball sized hail this weekend. It left wonderful markings on my car.
Closest call I had with a twister was Jerrel in 97. Was under an overpass on I-35 at the time. It was cool, a fascinating experience, until insulation from someones house started to fall out of the sky. Then the tragedy of it dawned on me. Take these things a lot more seriously now.
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