Summer Storms

It is a hot, muggy, stormy night on the Plains. We are inside watching the doppler radar on TV and listening to our Weather Alert radio, which is going off constantly. Tornadoes have been passing by not far to the north and to the south of us. From our house this afternoon, we watched huge, towering storms popping up all around us. Apparently, a big tornado has hit Parkersburg, Iowa, and leveled a lot of the town. They just showed some aerial footage of it on the TV. It doesn't look good at all. Apparently, some of these storms are 70,000 feet tall. That is absolutely mind-boggling! This morning, summer was suddenly here. It was hot and extremely humid. The air felt heavy, and the unmistakeable smell of Iowa in the summer was all around. We didn't go to our chuch, but visited the local megachurch here in Waukee. That church has an absolutely incredible band, with about a 9-piece horn section, and amazing musicians on every instrument. It's a good church, not exactly the right fit for us as a home church, but a wonderful place to visit. It's really close to home, and did I mention I like the band? We really do love our own church, though, and we are happy there. After church, I decided to do some fishing. I went looking for a public pond I heard about west of here. I got somewhat lost looking for it, driving around the gravel roads out in the cornfields. The corn, by the way, is now a few inches high. Up close, each individual plant looks tiny, but from a distance, it forms a perfect pattern of bright green rows against the black earth, appearing all green until you are looking straight down each row. Everything here is suddenly green. The woods are now dark and full of life. I drove around the fields and woods, until I ended up far down a straight gravel road, which dropped steeply down to the Racoon river, then splashed through an increasingly boggy section of muddy ruts along the river. I came to a stop at the end of the road, the truck sinking into mud almost up to the hubs as I slowed down, and decided this was as good a place as any to fish. The river was beautiful, and lot of fun to cast into, although I couldn't manage to set the hook on any fish. Little seed "helicopters" were twirling down to the water's surface from the huge overhanging maples. Everything just seemed so alive! I was a bit nervous about the building stormclouds, especially with the already muddy roads, so I decided to head home. The tornado warnings began as soon as I was back in the truck. Unfortunately, back at home, the warnings had woken Asher from his nap, so he was a little grouchy when I got home. I did manage to grill some tasty garlic steaks when I got home (it's hard to keep me away from the grill on a day off), and we sat and watched the storms appear. It is a really beautiful sight, but pretty sobering considering that people have already been hurt and killed out there tonight.