Post Date: May 13, 2005
What an evening. This morning I moved all the plants back outside and set up the patio furniture again. Considering we have 6 chairs, a table with 2 chairs, 5 hanging plants, 7 floor plants, 9 pots of herbs, 1 long planter, perhaps 6 table plants and numerous candle jars, all this moving about is quite a job...
This evening Lynette and I went out for dinner and then to Heather's choir concert, all 8th and 9th graders. The kids did great, but the choir teacher is a buffoon. No, she's a musical idiot. First of all, it was nothing more than a popularity contest (read: a display of her class pets, none of whom really were very good). The worst part was that she lied to her class, telling those who had won awards for solo and ensemble competitions (Heather won a solo award) that there wasn't time for any of them to sing apart from the choir. Funny. Why then did she (on the sly, mind you) rehearse her pets, who performed on their own? And why were we subjected to a trio between the three music teachers? We don't go to these stupid things to listen to the teachers.
For the grand finale, the school orchestra joined in, sitting in the pit, conducted by their teacher. Did Ms. Megalomaniac leave the stage? No. She directed the choir! Two conductors? That's a train wreck waiting to happen! To the kids' credit, they never lost time or pitch, despite the fact that the orchestra did not tune to the piano that was being played onstage by one of the teachers.
As soon as the applause died down, a voice came over the P.A. system announcing that the National Weather Service had issued a warning—the west end of town was getting hit with baseball sized hail. Lynette said, "Oh no! The plants!" and I replied, "Forget the plants, we have to get the car in the garage!" We live on the west end of town. We and several other people stood to leave in order to rescue their cars and Ms. Megalomaniac called out, "Wait, everyone!" And why? So that we could watch her receive flowers! Believe it!
Paying her no further mind, a large number of us parents ran out to the parking lot through drenching sheets of rain, the sky lit with lightening that hit at least every second, and thunder clapping directly over our heads. The sky was an eerie yellow-green. Tornado sky.
We drove the three miles home very quickly and while Lynette made room in the garage for Dan's Jeep (he came down for the concert), I busied myself at top speed, pulling all the plants and furniture in under the patio roof. Just in time, too. The hail began falling hard. Soaking wet and my hair hanging in wet clumps, I came in and turned on the news. Of course, here in OK, if it isn't happening in Oklahoma City or Tulsa, it just isn't happening, so I turned to the Weather Channel, which had gone off the air for some reason.
The worst of it passed in less than 30 minutes and now we're enjoying a nice thunder and lightening storm with a steady, albeit gentler, rain. I've poured a glass of wine.
