Forgive me for the rather disjointed thoughts. 

There are a few things I’ve been storing up in this crowded head of mine to share here, so although they may seem pretty randomly thrown together, I need to get them out to make space for new stuff.

Better start with Friday night.

STORMS

WOW. Quite a few people have stopped me in the past few days to ask why I “drew the short straw.”  Actually, I stuck my hand up and volunteered to go storm chasing. 

First of all, I really don’t mind getting my hands dirty and feet wet for an interesting story. (More on the feet part a little later) 

   Second, it’s honestly LESS stressful to be out in a vicious storm or running through a tornado-ravaged neighborhood than it is to be in a newsroom during breaking news.  (If you could only have seen all that was going on with my colleagues in the newsroom that night you’d have been right out there in the washout with me given the same choice)

      Once the decision was made, I grabbed my rain coat (which it turns out isn’t quite waterproof) and my jeans, then - whoops - glanced down at my heels.  The rain boots were at home.  Photographer Doug Weathers (appropriately named for the occasion) was nice enough to run me past Walgreens to go “croc-shopping” on our way out to chase the storm.

       We headed west, making it all the way to Crawfordsville and back, seeing nothing worse than lots of lightning and heavy rain.  (Here’s Doug shooting lightning from a Walmart parking lot there) It wasn’t until after 10:30 that we got word about the east side tornado, and headed straight to 38th and Mithoeffer. 

   Doug and I walked, ran, and waded past some pretty unbelievable stuff, as I described in my out-of-breath phone reports, with rain pounding us head on.  Gas pumps yanked out and knocked over, siding wrapped around poles, the roof and side walls completely torn off the apartments, enormous trees down, power lines across the street, and what looked like a mile of flashing lights from fire trucks, ambulances, and law enforcement vehicles. 

    Then, the toughest part - the people.  Some were in tears describing the horror of their roof being ripped off while they huddled in a bathroom.  We saw the shock of the near-death experience on their faces, followed by the shock of the material loss.  I am hopeful that Hoosier hospitality and generosity will help provide necessities for these survivors because they certainly need a ton of support right now. (See our links section on the homepage for how to help.)

At the end of the very long night (even longer for some co-workers like Kevin Gregory and the producers who put together the special newscast Saturday morning) I was incredibly proud to work with such a dedicated, talented, and experienced news team.  If I were sitting at home watching, I’d certainly trust them to give me the right information and not leave me in the dark or confused!

SWORDS

     My 5-year-old son Calvin has had a fascination with Peter Pan for a few years now.  He especially loves to swordfight with his foam sword.  While I’ve explained to him about a million times why it would not be okay if this was a REAL sword, he loves to imagine the scenarios where maybe even squeamish and nervous Mom would be okay with his brandishing a real weapon.  So his favorite fantasy of late has been that he somehow has to bravely use his sword to come to the rescue of our family, fighting off “bad guys.”

       When I saw that the musical was coming to Beef and Boards dinner theatre, I jumped at the chance to take the kids to see Peter Pan on stage!  Ian and I brought the kids, Cal in his Peter Pan costume, Clara in her too-small Tinkerbell dress.  (Here they are posing by Captain Hook’s poster).  They LOVED the show.  And so did I - but actually it was intermission that provided the biggest highlight.

      Clara spent 10 minutes ”flying” like Tinkerbell back and forth across the lobby, hands straight up in the air, fingers spread, little legs pumping clumsily beneath her while all the other guests grinned.

    Cal practiced swordfighting with another little guy. 

Then it happened. 

Just as the lights blinked to tell us to get back to our seats, A REAL PIRATE from the show walked right past us.  Spotting Cal in his Peter Pan getup, the actor jumped into character.

“AARRRGGGHHH!!” He growled, showing Calvin his shiny sword.

Stone faced, my Peter whipped out his foam sword and bravely braced his feet for battle.

I think he could’ve taken him.

SUMMERTIME

    Summer (or at least kids’ summer, which starts whenever school ends) really made a dramatic entrance this year.  Friday we had Cal’s last day of preschool picnic, then a rousing round of nasty weather, then summer-like heat. We went swimming this morning, and as I stood in the sun, I almost couldn’t stop myself from bursting into a very high and operatic version of “Suuuuumertiiiime….and the livin is eeeeeeasy….”

Luckily for my kids I saved it for when I was alone in the car later.

Thank you for taking time to read… I’d love to hear your stories on storms, swords, and summertime!

Trish