Take Cover In Your Nearest Panera!
Ok, so I am driving back from Champaign, IL this afternoon and listening to Chicago news radio and I am hearing all sorts of reports of a terrible storm that blew threw earlier in the afternoon. Power is out all over the place, trees are down roads are flooded and people are being told to stay at work or home because the roads are so bad that traffic is backed up for hours. On top of this there is another bad storm blowing into the area. I was about 45 minutes from the south suburbs when I decided to pull into the last rest stop before the city. I had the first inclining's that I had to go to the rest room and didn't want to be stuck in grid lock having to go! While I was there I made some calls and found out that things were worse than I had feared. Even Kelly was telling me I might be better off getting a hotel room instead of trying to get through tonight. What to do what to do? As I am contemplating my options I notice that an ominously dark line of clouds are bearing down on my location. I decide to go up the road a bit to Highway 30 to find a place to hunker down. I make it to a Panera Bread restaurant just as the local tornado sirens are going off. I duck inside just as the rain starts and purchase a cinnamon roll and iced green tea and settle in next to a window with my laptop to watch the show. As the storm blows in one of the employees comes by and asks if I really want to be sitting by the window. Of course I do! Not a lot of people (other than close family maybe) know that I am absolutely fascinated with big storms. I love it when a big scary one blows in and I can watch it for hours. When I was a kid, I even thought it would be neat to be a storm chaser when I grew up! Ok, I still do, but it doesn't really pay the bills! So, I am now sitting here in the Panera, watching Mother Nature's laser light show as the lights dim and flicker with each lightning strike. I love this stuff.Hopefully things will clear up in the next hour or so, so I can get back home tonight. Anyway, I hope all of you are fairing well through the storm.
Labels: nature, panera, storms
posted by Heath @ 7:30 PM
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