Tornado Alley.  We get over 1,000 tornadoes a year ... and that is average for ou state.  Any time of the year, any day, any hour: nature doesn't choose.  If she decides that she is gonna drop a twister down, there is no stopping her.  And we can get some wooly storms!!  I mean NASTY!!!!

I have always been scared of storms, ever sine I was a little girl.  I can distinctly remember Mama screaming: "Everybody, get into the storm shelter!! Tornado comin'!", and we kids would hightail it quick-quick to the shelter and pray to God that he wouldn't take the house.

That was in Amarillo.  Now I live in Burleson, which is just south of Fort Worth, and ... there are NO shelters to speak of.  NONE!  So where does a stormphobic like me hide?  Either in my tiny cluatrophobic half-bath downstairs or I go to a local hospital about five/six/seven miles up the road from me to seek shelter!

Turns out I'm not the only one: there's this set of twin sisters who do the exact same thing.  Turns out that they lost their apartment once due to a tornado (tornado done ripped the roof slap off; peeled it back like a banana) ... and you know what? The stupid tornado hit in the middle of WINTER, on January 17, 1996, the one lady tells me!  (The other one was in Ohio at the time; she lived there.  Twin sister moved her down 12 years ago; the other one keeps asking her the same question time and time again: "WHY??"  LOL)

There is also an older gentleman who waits with us too.  Must be in his eighties.  Awful skinny little man: looks a little like Santa: he has a beard.  Very quiet in nature.  He doesn't like storms either.   He waits with the sisters, usually in the emergency room.  

All three do this because "there's more walls between them and the storms".  And the staff doesn't mind, which is a great comfort to all three people.

And to me.

Even if they mention hail, high winds, or (God forbid!) tornadoes, I'm out the door, headed to this particular hospital.  Not because I have someone who is in there, but to get away from the damn storm! I'm there long before the storms migrate this way!  If I see lightning or hear thunder, I can feel my blood pressure soaring through the roof, I break out in a cold sweat, and I'm shaking like a leaf!  Storms absolutely undo me, and I blame my move to Burleson for that one because there's NO shelter AT all!!

I moved to Burleson because of my job.  Now I'm wishing I hadn't.  

I should have stayed in Amarillo where at least I had a chance to get to safety!

I don't like stormy weather.  I don't like clouds.  Period!  Even when there's no threat of severe storms mentioned, every time it "comes up a cloud", I'm on storm-watch, and I'm ready to jump in my car (and bring my cat with me!) and head to the hospital to hide from the big, bad storms that might come!  You never know when storms may form or approach; living here all my life has only heightened my fear, especially since I came to Burleson!!

Maybe I need to quit my job and move it to Alaska, where the ONLY storms they get are the northern lights!!!!