We were hit hard.

The photo to the left is of an area less than a mile from my house.  Everywhere around here looks like that.  None of my family and friends, nor even their property, were harmed.  We were very lucky.

I'll admit, growing up around here, I don't always take severe weather as seriously as I should.  I've been through major hurricanes, tornadoes, and once lost power for two weeks during an ice storm (we showered at the gym).

So, when I heard that thunderstorms were being predicted for this past Saturday, my only real concern was how much it would affect the church Easter Egg Hunt.

I was volunteering, so I got to the egg hunt early.  We had a bouncy house set up, tents for candy, food, and hid eggs everywhere outside.  Our contigency plan was that, if it rained, we'd just move inside.

The sky darkened, but there wasn't any rain, so we were go.  We had our first group of egg hunters, no problem.  Then the wind started to pick up.

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It's not the bars that are the watering holes anymore.

I originally had a different post prepared for today, detailing the danger and drama of this past weekend.  (Long story short:  we were besieged by tornadoes.)

But today has taken an unexpected turn, one that finds me sitting at home, rather than at my office.

When I woke up this morning, it was supposed to be a relatively normal Monday, particularly in comparison to the events of the weekend.  I got up, got dressed, kissed my boys goodbye, and got in the car to get to work.

It is my custom to arrive a few minutes early and do my Bible reading sitting in the parking lot.  It seemed there were fewer cars than usual, but arriving around quarter after 7:00 always puts me as one of the first people in the building, and I thought perhaps a few people stayed home to work on their damaged property and deal with insurance agents and whatnot.

However, one of my coworkers was wandering around the parking lot on a cell phone.  I caught bits of his conversation as he approached me.  "No, you turn around and go on back home...No point coming here...Sure, I'll stay to tell everyone...Can't believe they didn't have something on the news to tell us."

I'd pieced together what he had to tell me before he hung up and said it.  Power out all over campus.  No way to even get in the building (electronic keycards), much less do any work.  See you tomorrow, maybe.

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