This time of year is one of the worst for me. I live in Texas with my twin sister, and we live in one of the areas of the country that is very well known for its ferocious storms.

We live in the Southern Plains, and here, storms can come in a hurry, often with little or no warning. Storms here can get very vicious in a few moments, and here in the northcentral part of Texas (we live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area), there are very few places with basements or shelters.

We live in an apartment complex in Burleson (south of Fort Worth), and there isn't very much room for the storm to do its dirty work (if that is its will, if it is God's will). Karla is especially terrified of storms because on January 17, 1996, she was in a tornado that blew off her roof of the complex we still live at. (She wasn't hurt, thank goodness, but she was displaced for several months. She stayed with a friend until repairs could be made.) I was in my first tornado two years ago, and it struck just up the street from us. We heard it, and when the power died, I didn't know WHAT to think. I was beyond terrified. I was petrified.

We are under threat again for storms (we have been under storm threats for the past week or so), and this is no way to live. We have had only bursts of sleep, and we are beyond exhausted. We both work, and when we get up in the morning we are so tired it's a wonder we can function. When we are under threats of severe storms we are doing all we can to find shelter--just as long as we are not at our apartment. It doesn't matter if we are up in the middle of the night: as long as we are not at our apartment, then we somehow feel a bit safer. I don't know why, but this is how we operate.

All I can do is pray that God squashes the storms before they meander this way (He has done this plenty of times, the latest time being early, early this morning) and pray that we don't lose power (or worse, get any damage from the storms when they DO come). It has gotten to the point to where whenever we hear thunder/see lightning, we are both in a dither, and we lose control of our emotions. We argue constantly, and Karla is glued to either the television (so she can see the latest radar imagery of the storms) or has the NOAA weather radio glued to her ear--anything to stay informed while I want to ignore the mess that is going on.

It doesn't help when the storms in question contain possible rotation (or tornadoes), large hail, damaging downburst winds, or flooding rains or when they just poke along instead of just moving on and getting out of the area. No, that doesn't happen here. Often the storms will slow down or sit there and dump their troubles on an unsuspecting town, and then there is a mess for people to deal with. It also doesn't help when the tornado sirens sound off or when the rain/hail is fallign so fast and hard it wakes us up from deep slumber. When it is storming here (or fixin' to), we both get very little sleep, and we are not at our best.

Just pray that we get through tomorrow and early Saturday morning when the storms are finally slated to leave here. We both hate storms with a purple passion, and we find our fears only getting worse as we continue to live here in Texas.

God, I HATE storms! O, how I pray we get through the next few days without any damage or problems! Lord, be with us right now, and calm those storms down if it is Your Will! Thanks for listening to Karla and myself--again!!