Tornado Sirens and Easter Bunnies

It was another volatile weather weekend here in Georgia. Friday afternoon/night was a field day for Glen Burns and the Channel 2 weather crew. The prognostications for bad weather having begun mid-week, they were foaming at the mouth by early evening. I can act brave all I want to, but by the time I returned home from my errands, the house was empty and the Doppler radar was showing lots of bright red blips. I gathered my laptop and accessories, and headed over to spend some quality time with Mom and Dad. The fact that they have a basement didn't factor in at all, mind you. It was pretty quiet around town for a while, but shortly after I arrived, the tornado sirens started blaring, as Glen's crew advised us that our county was under a tornado warning. Now here's something I don't understand: when I was a kid, a tornado warning meant that a funnel cloud had been sited and you'd best head for the root cellar. Nowadays, a tornado warning can be issued even when there has been no confirmed siting, and even when the suspicious storm is two counties away. I suppose they have done studies to show that this helps save lives, and if that's the case, then I'm all for it. We have the standard sirens.. the ones that can wake the dead, but in addition we have our old trusty fire siren that they will turn on for good measure. Back in the olden days, before pagers and scanners, our volunteer fire department consisted of dedicated men who lived here in town. Their summons to a fire was a siren mounted on top of our water tower, that surely must have come from WWII Europe. You've seen the movies... those hand-turned sirens that they used to warn of incoming bombs. Yep, that's the sound that notified everyone for miles around that there was a fire somewhere, and for the firemen to get downtown immediately. That was a sound that always stilled my heart and took my breath. I was terrified every time I heard it. It always sounded like The End Of The World. For some of my childhood years, my daddy was a volunteer fireman, and I was always afraid when he had to go out on a call. (How ironic that I would marry a man who would become a volunteer fireman and spend many of his waking hours at the station!) Every Saturday at high noon they would *test* the siren for a couple of minutes. And even though I knew it was a test, I would still get that awful feeling in the pit of my stomach. Many years later, pagers and scanners call the men to action, and the siren has been put to rest- at least as a fire-call summons. The only occasion that warrants cranking up the siren is... you guessed it... tornado warnings. While an eerie enough sound in the daytime, it is all the more chilling in the dark of night. I remember the last time we had warnings, it was after midnight, and I had finally convinced Whitney we were okay to just ride it out here at home. Then Dustin heard that ominous sound in the night, and he decided we needed to go to Gigi and Pop's basement. That was all it took for Whitney, so off we dashed in the torrential rain, expecting to see a funnel cloud with every flash of lightning. Thankfully, we escaped damage on that night as well. At any rate, this past Friday night, I enjoyed the visit with mom and dad, and even though the sirens were wailing, we could see the storm on Channel 2's radar, and didn't even bother going to the basement. Unfortunately, there were some twisters in the southeast , with severe damage and a few fatalities. Mother Nature in all her fury can be a formidable force. And those sirens, that make me think the end of the world has come, are just doing their jobs of trying to notify us. The tornado season is in full swing, so everybody keep your eyes and ears open... and if you're ever in doubt, just turn to Channel 2, and if there's a storm within 500 miles, they'll tell you all about it!!!! :-D

Fortunately, Saturday morning dawned fairly clear for our annual Easter Egg Hunt at the church. Miss Elaine H. always does such a fabulous job of coordinating the fun. There were lots of kiddies there, and they had a really good time searching for the hundreds and hundreds of candy-laden eggs that were strewn about the church campus. Miss Leyland was more interested in swinging than she was egg-hunting. Oh well, she didn't need the candy anyway, and she was happy on the playground, so I guess that's what matters. She was fascinated by the puppet show, and Corey thought he was a big kid too, sitting on the floor, taking it all in. Click any picture to enlarge.

Because mornings are so hectic around here we consulted with the Easter Bunny, and he agreed to pay us a visit on Saturday morning rather than Sunday morning. That worked well for us! The grandbabies got some new clothes and PJs, and some cute little bunny ears. Only a tiny bit of candy for Leyland, and none for Corey. We don't need anything else to hype them up!!

We were sad this year that Mary wasn't able to spend Easter weekend with us. She loves to go to church with me, and she has always enjoyed the Easter egg hunt, getting all dressed up and posing for pictures. She was so cute, the first time she went to church with me, when Brother Gordon was saying a prayer before the kids went to Children's Church, as soon as he said "amen", Mary asked out loud "Are you God?" Everyone in church just died laughing, and Brother Gordon has loved her to pieces since then. Every time she comes to visit and is able to go to church, she has to draw him a picture, make him a card, and she always tries to take him some candy. Mary was sick this year and unable to spend the weekend with us. We have lots of pictures to show her, and some Easter surprises waiting for her here. I hope she is feeling better and can come for a visit soon.

I got a few nice shots of the cross in front of my church, but forgot to take one this morning with the white garment. Be sure to click and enlarge this photo. It's a really nice shot of the cross that some of our guys built. Maybe I'll get by there for a picture before they take the white drape off. The white one is, of course, my favorite!I hope you all had a blessed Easter!!