A year ago today, we had a near miss with a tornado. We were still in the first few weeks of the pandemic here, and The Bearded One and I had been in the middle of a Harry Potter movie marathon. We were settled on the couch, with a thunderstorm going on outside. My mom texted me and said there was a tornado warning nearby, so to keep an eye on what the weather was doing. The Bearded One paused the movie for a while, and the thunderstorm mostly passed, and we didn’t hear sirens or anything that sounded threatening, so after a few minutes he turned the movie back on. A little while later, I heard my dad’s pickup leave pretty quickly (they live next door, remember), and my mom called to say that a tornado had hit “The North Place”. That’s what we’ve always called an old farmstead up the road. It’s not owned by my family, and there’s no house, but there was a barn, a silo, and a bunch of equipment stored there. A couple other small buildings too–a garage, and a quonset hut, I believe. Anyway, this place is right around the corner from us. Like, RIGHT around the corner. Just about a half mile away if you follow the road. Much less if you just walk across the field. And that tornado that went through, as small as it was, did some major damage. The barn was torn apart. Power lines were down. It was a mess.
There was debris scattered across the field. Another neighbor who lives right across the road from “The North Place” said he watched it go by. Somehow the tornado hit this place where no one lives, and skirted by, just feet from his house and shop. We found out later that, for some reason, the tornado sirens never went off here. Of course–the one time we actually needed them, they malfunctioned. And The Bearded One and I had no idea. If that tornado had veered just a little bit east on its path, it could easily have done some major damage to our house. The house we were sitting in. Watching a movie. Oblivious to the danger that was just outside.
It was a surreal experience to know that my day, or even my life, could have turned out very differently if the weather had shifted just a bit. And on the anniversary of that day, after a year of nothing feeling normal, I have another surreal experience to share. As of today, The Bearded One and I are about halfway through our quarantine period after testing positive for COVID-19. Remember my post two weeks ago about how I was feeling hopeful about the future because we had gotten our first doses of the vaccine? Well, just over a week after that first dose, The Bearded One started having symptoms, and a few days later (actually the day he got his positive result) I followed suit. And here’s the thing–we didn’t get super reckless after we got the first shot and go mingle with groups of people somewhere. We mainly just kept doing what we’d been doing for the last year–going to work, coming home, and occasionally going to the store (masked) for supplies. Still, the day after an alarmingly long swab was stuck up my nose, I got confirmation.
Luckily, our cases have been quite mild. There’s some coughing, slight fever, headache, diminished senses of taste and smell, and I’ve felt like I hit a wall at some point the last couple of days, where my energy is just totally depleted for the day. But really, I feel lucky to be able to mostly function, when so many people have lost their lives to this virus. My run streak is even still intact, although the last few days have been slooooow, and I haven’t been doing much at all other than run each day. I just wanted to remind everyone again that even though people are getting vaccinated, and it’s good to feel hopeful, it’s not time to let your guard down. This is still a thing, and I can tell you from experience that you don’t have to be gathered with large groups of people to get it.
Which brings me back to Harry Potter. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody teaches his students that they should always be on alert: “Constant vigilance!” he says. Okay, technically I think it was Barty Crouch Jr. pretending to be Mad-Eye Moody who says it, but still, wise words. Whether it’s about watching your back so you don’t get attacked by evil wizards, or not relying just on sirens to know when dangerous weather is near, or continuing to practice all possible safety measures to avoid this virus. We need to remember that our safety is often up to us, and in some situations we need to be on high alert.
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