The weather here has been absolutely terrible this week. Lots of storms and wind, with the occasional tornado watch nearby. My office doesn’t have a window, so I often don’t even realize the extent of what’s going on outside. Sometimes, if I hear rain pounding on the roof of the building, I’ll walk out to the lobby to check things out. Most of the time, however, I’m so engrossed in work that I’m kind of oblivious to what’s happening around me.

Today, I could hear the wind and rain, so I realized there was a storm brewing, but it didn’t seem so bad those few times I walked to a window to check things out. I saw photos of nearby towns in my newsfeed and also knew that the town where I work had dismissed school early. Those should have been my clues that the storm was worse than I feared. It wasn’t until my mom called to let me know that my chickens were running around the yard that I fully understood just how strong the winds were.

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