Sirens

There is nothing that can ruin the experience of an awesome thunderstorm like a tornado siren. That is, having the tornado sirens go off and the guy on the intercom telling you to tune your radios to the weather channel. (Personally I think it sounds like something out of a concentration camp...and who uses a radio on a college campus?). It suddenly goes from "Feeling-the-Raw-Power-of-the-Universe" to "Maybe-We-Should-Head-to-the-Basement."

I enjoy a good thunderstorm, but a tornado siren can really ruin the effect. I suppose I should be grateful that we're so lucky as to have the system on campus, but last night I was far from grateful when it went off whining and screaming at 1:37 am and I was snugly tucked beneath my covers. False alarms have been rather abundant lately and I was beginning to resent the whole system.

I wouldn't have bothered to get up if it had been raining; the trouble was that it was so warm and quiet, and that kind of got me. So I went to the window and looked out. Nothing. Brittany, my room mate, is used to these disturbances, and she slumbered on, as did the rest of the suite, I assume. Except for one suite mate, who was checking the weather on her computer in the suite. Naturally it was the two girls from Texas and Kansas City, MO who were concerned about tornadoes. Both of us peered out the double doors trying to ascertain whether the sky was yellow or not.

Yes, we are on tornado watch, Cecelia confirmed. Suddenly overcome with sleepiness again, curiosity satisfied, I went back to bed. The wind was picking up, but the wind always picks up here because of the hill that Kettering sits on. When it began to rain normally, I felt better.

So I lay there, listening for abnormal noises above the racket of the
air conditioning unit that wasn't even on and wondering why it
was making that Noise and thinking about how Kettering
Hall was like a Fortress it was such a sturdy building
with bricks All Around Us and how hopefully if
there Happened To Be a Tornado the window
wouldn't shatter like they do In Movies and
sever any Major Arteries and maybe I
should put the quilt over my head
Just In Case and how nobody
ever thinks things like
tornados could Ever
Really Happen
to them but
Sometimes
they do

just ask dorothy.