Hi readers :) As I'm typing, I'm listening to Brad Travis on WAFF 48 talking about the potential for severe storms & tornadoes. Yeah, I'm giddy. Many of y'all know this tidbit of info about me, but for those who don't, here it is: I have a deep seeded desire & a never-realized dream to be a meteorologist. I've had it for years & years & years - waaaay back to elementary school. I never pursued it because I am just not math/physics minded. I don't think that I could've cut the mustard - and in typical Amy fashion, if I'm not gonna be great at it, I'm just not gonna mess with doing it. Yeah, that's a downfall of mine. I'm sure my close buddies aren't surprised.
I can't really pinpoint where the love affair with the weather began. It kinda seems like it was always there. I remember in elementary school, Mrs. Claybrook taught the RLC kids (not retarted-little-children as we were usually called) a semesters worth of "meteorology". I'm sure it was just surrounded with cloud types & other types of weather - nothing major, but it enthralled me. My parents bought me (crap, really, it was probably free) a "weather handbook" written by NBC 13 meteorologist in the 80s, James Spann. I read that puppy from front to back a crazy amount of times. I probably could've quoted it. I also convinced my parents to crank up the VCR & record a TV special on Tornadoes. I watched it until the tape broke. Seriously. Saturday mornings, curled up in the recliner with a blanket watching James' TV special & toting his book. I went to the Young Author's Workshop at UAB - what was my one purchase? A fiction book entitled "Tornado!". Again, I toted that bad boy everywhere & read it over & over again. When the Weekly Reader would have the book sale where you could order books...you guessed it, a small paperback about the Super Outbreak that took place in the 70s. Read it until the pages fell out. I watched The Weather Channel until it ticked everyone off & they had to ask me to PLEASE CHANGE THE CHANNEL! I would stand in front of the map & pretend to be doing the forecast. When nothing was on except graphics & muzac, I would read the forecast & pretend that an audience was listening. I've seen the graphic of the warm, moist air from the gulf mixing with the cool, arctic air from the North coming together to create chaos more times than I can imagine. I knew that my husband was 'the one' when we were talking on the phone & he said, "hey, I gotta go, I think I see a wall cloud". OTT. Over The Top. I even lie in bed some nights & go to You Tube to watch news coverage of the most devastating tornadoes. DORK!
I get giddy with the prospect of severe weather. I feel a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach. I research the history of tornadoes & wiki all the definitions that I need to remind myself of regarding weather. I want to know what Brad is talking about. I want to pour over images of the damage these things cause. Of course, I am afraid of it. I revere it, I am in awe of it, but it's just like a train wreck that I can't remove my eyes from. We all have wierd obsessions & hobbies, right? This one just happens to be mine. I guess it's too late to become a meteorologist. I do think about the "what ifs". What if I would've followed my childhood dream? What if? Could I have been up there with Brad Travis? Could I have trained alongside of James Spann - the dude that I spent years reading his little handbook & watching his TV special? Hmm...I don't know. Instead of wondering, I'll just sit here with my little weather-geek self & google & wiki until my heart's content :)
Hope everyone stays safe....I'm patiently waiting for Brad Travis to be 'streaming live' :) Um...and, I hope y'all are still my friends after this major geeky confession ;)
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