Friday, May 17, 2013

An Ordinary Day with Alarms

When tornadoes have been really near, killed people, destroyed communities, you can be a little nervous.

I went outside with my dogs this evening, and my neighbor was outside staring at the trees.

I asked what was wrong.

She said she had seen sparks arcing among the tall trees in back and she didn't know what to do.

I did. I called 911 and described her witness.

Fire truck was out immediately. They called the energy company.

I didn't know what would happen. An hour later, the energy company was there.

We have had a lot of nasty weather south of here a few tens of miles. You know, in Texas, if it is within 100 miles, it is close. So we COULD have weather. Not likely.

I called. I peeked out afterwards to see no fires developed.

I keep thinking I failed as a good neighbor and it dawned. I know little more about her because how can you be neighbors without knowing each other? She's new. The homeowner is out of town. I did give her help, whether or not the help she wanted. It was the best help I knew.

I think I was a good neighbor. I tried to be.

3 comments:

clairz said...

When we lived in eastern New Mexico tornadoes were always a possibility so I was relieved to move away from there; however, when we first moved here to southern NM some kind of weird localized storm hit our house directly (sounded like a tornado!) and caused a lot of scary damage and frightened me half to death. I guess we are all at the mercy of nature in one way or another, but I sure do worry about you folks during tornado season. Stay safe, Charlotte.

charlotte g said...

Thanks, Claire. I've figured out my safe room (bathroom) and guess If I grab the dog treats as I dive in--one hand around my purse (miniature flashlight, cell phone and money) the dogs will follow quickly enough to be fairly safe.

clairz said...

I used to have drills with my dogs when we lived in Clovis. We'd hunker down in the closet and read The Wizard of Oz together. They loved Toto.