Tornadoes and More (God is So Good)

 If you know anyone from "Tornado Alley," you may know someone close to God. You see when we pray out this way, we don't do it with all the hype and rituals associated with the prim and proper pious people. Oh no! We pray straight to God and close our prayers with "In Jesus' name" because we know who we're talking to, and we know we don't get to the Father unless we go through His Son!

    Oklahoma has long been associated with being one of the major hubs for tornadoes. We don't call them "twisters," no matter how many movies they make about them. They are all called tornadoes, not even cyclones. Nope, they are called tornadoes, and we know them. We are well acquainted in these parts. 

    When we see them (when we have warning), we watch them until they get really too close, and we head to the lower part of our homes, or to what we affectionately call our "Gary England space,"; giving homage to our all-time favorite weatherman, Gary England, who was actually in the first "Twister" movie -- he's a rockstar! We love the man. All the other great meteorologists living in our fair state are top-notch! They'd have to be if they wanted to show up on our television sets or be heard on our radios. We don't mess around with the weather here in the Sooner State, ma'am or sir!

    So, this weekend, right after we all turned our clocks back, God decided to twist things up in the skies above us. We didn't have that extra hour of sleep in our state, nope, we were jerked right out of bed by KOCO Channel 5's alert, followed by KWTV-9 weather alerts and three minutes later, we heard the sirens. Talk about being ill-prepared. First, I'm in bed, not awake. I'm thrown into reality, but the real part of that word didn't have a chance to catch up before we had to gather the dogs and cram ourselves into the tiny closets that we never got around to fully clearing out because tornadoes don't happen in November...well, apparently, they do!

    I found myself wearing the "wrong" bra, one I never would have chosen, but it was where my hands landed. I had on a pair of sweatpants backward because I had just put my two legs into them. This was followed by me not remembering my glasses, my keys, my purse, or my shoes! Thank God (and I do mean that) I had a pair of slippers in the dang closet. I did turn my sweatpants around in the closet, but I had to stand on top of a chair that I had stashed in it - while my dog lay under the chair in somewhat blissful ignorance of what was happening around her. 

    I darted out of the closet for what probably took fifteen seconds; I found my glasses, my purse, and my keys and checked on my daughter to be sure she had what she needed. We both found the bike helmets we stashed in the closets for these reasons and began praying. We couldn't catch one of the dogs, so we prayed over her as well. The cats never get taken into safety for obvious reasons; they'd kill us while we were trying to save their lives. They fend for themselves. If that sounds incredibly rude or mean, I apologize, but having been torn up by a tabby once, I made that decision long ago.

    The tornadoes passed us, of course, as they do. Then, out of NOWHERE this morning, just 28 hours later, it was time to rinse and repeat! WHAT? That's right - another wave of tornadic weather was beating down on us, and this time, it was beating directly down on our area. More prayers!! This time, and I say that loosely, this time I took three or four seconds to breathe. My alarm had gone off at 6:10, and the alerts hit two minutes later. I was up, found the right clothes, grabbed my glasses, my cell, my purse, and my keys, and I very quietly approached the dog we couldn't catch the day before.

    With everyone in place, we actually never had to take cover. God lifted the storm up to the north, then the other one went south, and we breathed again. We continued praying because there were still lots of folks these things were going to visit. That's another thing we do in America; we pray for others. We know the hardships; we've lived through a few ourselves. When we turn the television on in our house, because we're so busy with our lives, it's either to watch the weather or maybe catch the end of a good game that we remember was being played.

    In Oklahoma we have four seasons; hot, cold, storm, and football -- funny how we can also have all four in one day -- even in November!

PHOTO CREDIT: KOCO - Channel 5 Oklahoma City 11/3/24

STRATFORD -- The Book is Being Written (Chapters 1&2)

     Chapters one and two of Stratford are written, and I think I saw there are about 4600 words, so that's not bad. I think the entire thing will be the same as all of my books; it will be about 30-32 chapters, about 86000-90000 words, and a 5 x 8 book. I've already designed the cover, so I'm at least that far into it.

    Chapters one and two focus on our good friend Eoghan (pronounced Owen) MacRae of Edinburgh, Scotland. He is leaving Edinburgh, leaving Scotland entirely, and moving overseas alone. His wife of less than a full year, has decided to move back to her homeland of the Orkney islands in the far north of the country after suffering a dramatic miscarriage of their child. She was not expecting to lose the child, and doing so completely devastated her to the point she could no longer live around people she felt were uncaring and harsh. This, of course, wasn't how she felt about her husband or his family, but nearly everyone else she had encountered for years left her wanting to return.

    Because Eoghan is such a city dweller, and he had never been comfortable in the country or small towns without the hubbub and bustling of a live surrounding, Alice Ann knew he would be better off remaining where he lived. Theirs was a swift and indeed intense relationship, but it was over, and she was able to make that statement. When his children were carted off to be educated in London, and his mother followed, having sold their house, he lived virtually at the police station where he worked at the front desk. When the police chief let him know that the new budget wouldn't allow for him to be employed by them any longer, he was forced to make a decision to go where he knew he would be loved and welcomed and where he could sustain gainful employment; he moved to Oklahoma to be with Nick Posh and his family.

    Because the remaining Posh novels will contain a good amount of Eoghan MacRae and his experiences, I had to find a way to bring the two men together again so that it made sense to the readers. It really sucks right now for Eoghan, but through the book, he'll begin to understand that family and true friends are deeply rooted, and neither time nor space can separate them from loving one another. It works out. I promise.

    That's chapters one and two. Tomorrow, I'll likely write at least three or maybe four chapters. I'll also likely only write on the weekends, except in November, when I'll be off on my birthday, a Friday, and we're off Thanksgiving. The day after, I'll have a bit more time to finish the book around the end of November and/or the first weekend of December. I'll tweak and fluff it a week or two later, and it will be up for grabs around Christmas, but it won't be the one you want to start with! No, it's number 5 in the Posh series. You can't just pick up #5 and go on!  There are rules, you know!

Photo Credit: Me