Living in Wisconsin for the month of June. What a treat spending time with my family before my niece's wedding. I met my high school friend Ardyth for lunch on Saturday and we sat out on a patio and chatted most of the afternoon away. As we were getting up to leave, it looked very overcast. I continued on with my errands to Ace Hardware. I was bent on getting my brother's kitchen in order. I guess I have some of my sister Carol's genes. She recently started a home cleaning service.

On Monday I received a note from Ardyth. "Apparently I was right about it looking like rain when we left the restaurant! I had a message from Todd asking me to call him before leaving. Of course I was almost to the Interstate, but something in his tone told me to call right away.  So for the first time ever I pulled off the road to make a call.  He told me not to come home - stay put.  Tornados were spotted and I would have run into them head-on.  Since the mall was convenient I decided to get some shopping in while waiting out the storm.

"Just as I was ready to leave the store, a voice came over the load speaker telling us that the area was in a tornado watch and to, 'Follow your sales associate to our designated safe area.  If you need to leave the store, do it now.'  The designated safe area included the shoe department, so those chairs were available for folks. Others were sitting on clothing displays, leaning against any available wall space, and sitting on the floor.  I mainly wandered, sometimes venturing too close to the door where I was told by a very strict and authoritative woman to, 'Please back away from the door. It's for your own safety.'"

"Several announcements were made over the next hour. When my incarceration was finally over I drove through some torrential downpours on the way home. During a walk on Sunday between storms, other than a few limbs down and small debris on the sidewalks everything seemed to be OK.  I walk on a boardwalk over a local wetlands for several hundred yards and that water had risen quite a bit; bubbling up through the planks."

My question to my friend was, "was your shopping successful?" Then I told her how I spent my Saturday night putting new shelf paper all over my brother's kitchen. She replied that she was successful in her shopping. Then she said, "Can you come clean my kitchen or should I call Carol!"