Howdy from Fort Worth, Texas!

It's your friend, Tank Griswald, writing.  Hope this finds you well.  I'm doing okay, all things considering.  School continues to be a challenge; Bible Theory is so difficult to master!  Seems I always have my nose in a book, trying to figure out the events of the Bible!  GAHH!! 

I sometimes wonder if I did the right thing in studying to be a minister/pastor!!  Maybe I ought to have joined a rock'n'roll band instead!  LOL

In just a little while, I am going to go to the skate park with some of my friends; we want to get some serious skateboard time in.  The weather may get ugly tomorrow; we may have a chance of supercell storms here, including the possibility of severe weather (tornadoes, large hail, flooding rains, severe lightning, damaging downburst winds).

I hope not; I don't really do severe weather all that well.  I was in downtown Fort Worth on March 28, 2000, when that tornado went through; it scared the living hell out of me.  I didn't get hurt, but I did hear the unnerving sound of shattering glass and the howl of the tornadic winds, plus the sirens were going off; boy, talk about your own built-in chill factor! 

Ever since, I don't sleep very well during severe weather, particularly if it's occurring in the middle of the night. When there's any chance of severe weather here, I am stocking up on batteries for my NOAA-approved weather radio, so I can be informed of the latest weather events as they are unfolding.

Maybe that's not a good idea, as storm-phobic as I am, but hey, I gotta be informed, and I have to know where to go if the weather decides to turn nasty!

Steffi doesn't let the storms bother her; she just lets it happen, and nothing fazes her.  I don't see how black skies with roiling, undulating clouds, brisk winds, the wails of sirens, the sight of a tornado funnel snaking down from a lowering cloud, or the sound of baseball hail bouncing off cars can keep her calm! 

I'm wigging out big time, and she's like, "Eh, so it's storming out again.  Big deal!"

She's crazier than a June bedbug!!

I wish I were in Tennessee with her family:  they have a basement at their house, PLUS a storm shelter inside.  They have a basement within a basement; when weather gets hairy, they go there, wait it out.  Meanwhile, I'm in my teeny tiny claustrophobic half bathroom on the lower floor, thinking, Man, I wish I had a basement....

I don't like severe weather, especially since I was indirectly in that tornado that hit downtown Fort Worth.  Made a mess of some buildings, plus four people were killed; and several dozens injured, some seriously.  I saw that funnel; still have nightmares even now, nearly nine years later!

I wish I could move to Alaska, where the only storms there are magnetic (i.e., the northern lights)!!

Well, my friends are knocking on my door, so I'd best scoot!  Just say a prayer for me tomorrow, pray we get through the stormy weather that's "forecasted"!  I'd appreciate it more than you know!  Thanks!  So long, and God bless!

~Tank Griswald.  :(