Well, the lawn needed mowing. It's just a pesky tornado. And anyway, things snowball- first, you let some twinky tornado stop you from mowing, then the wife wants it mown later because company is coming, , but then that cuts into beer time, and pretty soon the whole day goes sideways. And who could face their mates at the pub and admit they were late, because of some punk tornado? Besides, he said he was keeping an eye on it. A man sets out to mow the lawn, and damned straight, the lawn gets mown.
Well, it was only a tornado. When I was in jr high in upstate Illinois, I chased tornadoes on my bicycle, once closing to within 100 yards of one. The only thing that kept me from getting closer was that I would have had to cross a farmer's newly plowed field, and it was muddy from the rain. That was more work than I felt like doing, and I would have gotten muddier than I felt like getting. Besides, there was a ditch nearby, had the tornado objected to my approach.
When I was younger than that, in Iowa, our family was in our Studebaker when a tornado passed over us and dropped a tree limb onto our trunk. Hard on the car, but not on us.
Indeed, the stiffest risk and closest to harm we came was when--after we'd moved to Illinois and before my tornado chasing--Dad succumbed to Mom's entreaties and we all loaded into the car and joined the evacuation of the area--only to be nearly met head-on by a panicky driver headed in the wrong direction and in our lane. No more of that.
Tornadoes are little storms, and it's a big earth. Some folks get hurt. But not me.
Well, the lawn needed mowing. It's just a pesky tornado. And anyway, things snowball- first, you let some twinky tornado stop you from mowing, then the wife wants it mown later because company is coming, , but then that cuts into beer time, and pretty soon the whole day goes sideways. And who could face their mates at the pub and admit they were late, because of some punk tornado? Besides, he said he was keeping an eye on it. A man sets out to mow the lawn, and damned straight, the lawn gets mown.
ReplyDeleteWell, it was only a tornado. When I was in jr high in upstate Illinois, I chased tornadoes on my bicycle, once closing to within 100 yards of one. The only thing that kept me from getting closer was that I would have had to cross a farmer's newly plowed field, and it was muddy from the rain. That was more work than I felt like doing, and I would have gotten muddier than I felt like getting. Besides, there was a ditch nearby, had the tornado objected to my approach.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was younger than that, in Iowa, our family was in our Studebaker when a tornado passed over us and dropped a tree limb onto our trunk. Hard on the car, but not on us.
Indeed, the stiffest risk and closest to harm we came was when--after we'd moved to Illinois and before my tornado chasing--Dad succumbed to Mom's entreaties and we all loaded into the car and joined the evacuation of the area--only to be nearly met head-on by a panicky driver headed in the wrong direction and in our lane. No more of that.
Tornadoes are little storms, and it's a big earth. Some folks get hurt. But not me.
Eric Hines
Toby wasn't kidding.
ReplyDeleteHey, no clippings to clean up after- Bonus!
ReplyDelete