HOLY S**T

Ok i've said it once and I'll say it again TORNADOS FREAK ME THE F**K OUT!!!

Today I woke up at oh dark thirty for a UA (piss test) well my dumbass had already pissed so i drank all the gatorade and augua i could stomach and about half way through the line i had to go make brownies, drop the kids off at the pool, take the browns to the super bowl IE i had to take a crap. and having to go 1 and 2 and HOLD it really sucks. so clear skies when i went into the UA, and I go out wanting nothing more than to sit on my porcelin throne, when of all thing golf ball sized HAIL starts comming down.

I'm not about to stick around BN unless i absoultly have to, so getting pelted by big ol chuncks of ice, i ran to my room, a task made more difficult by the aformentioned need to comune with nature. Anyway i relive myself and oh do i feel good. I take my boots off and lay down and enjoy the warmth of my bed, when all the sudden the siren goes off. I look at the clock and when i realize its not noon i get this sudden feeling of dread. I call Up my squad leader and ask him "is that the 'for real' siren" "yup, you better come down to the basement." so I start waling over there, and the sky is almost black as night, and i see all sorts of cloud movements that just don't seem normal to me (I'm from Cali we don't have tornados). And then I have to go back and get the guy living across the hall

The siren kept going off making me feel like i was under attack, and really when you see clouds like that you get this nasty ominous feeling. and there were folks saying i had to get down into the basement which was jam packed full of people and in another life was a fall out shelter for when the bombs from russia or wherever else fell on poor fort Riley.

But I couldn't go down there. The sirens, the sky the bunker, it was all a little too much for me to take, and in the end I actually felt more comfortable OUTSIDE or close to it than I did anywhere near that basement. The lightnign struck overhead and i was having a hard time staying in the here and now, i heard a woman talking in a slightly raised voice not hysterical but wanting to know what was going onand clearly ignorant. I wasn't able to stay in the here and now in that kind of company so I had to go outside with the smokers. I don't smoke, so I just sat there away from them, staring at the slowly lightening clouds.

It took a long time, longer than it had to. The CSM wouldn't let us go until the Emergency Ops Center gave the all clear (eerily like Iraq) and we waited and waited. By the time the all clear was given it was clear that there was no need to stay inside. I don't want to say i paniced, but my hand was definatly shaking, and it was really hard for me to even think about the idea of an actual tornado touching down on me in my sleep.

I suppose all is well that ends well but today was a stark reminder that, Yes Toto we ARE in kansas. The whole thing is very unsettling, and i don't know why. but one thing is for sure I'll be asking around next time i hear that siren.