Lemmings – 73 of 90

The summer weather in Connecticut is sort of predictable. It’s usually pretty hot, and there’s a strong chance of some rain at some point in the day.

Today’s weather continues to follow that pattern … sort of.

Seemingly out of nowhere, we heard the rain start on the roof of the building. It’s always a little unsure when that starts, because it just muffled enough to not be definitive, and there’s no windows within sight of our desks. Then, it started to get progressively worse. Hard rain, some lightning and thunder, the works of a strong storm.

Eventually, it got so bad that a loudspeaker announcement come over the system (I didn’t even know we had a loudspeaker setup in the building. … The things you learn). It said that we were under a tornado warning and everyone should stay inside and avoid windows.

Naturally (and not exactly shockingly), most people headed to the nearest window to see what it looked like outside. Clearly, the true tornado drills hadn’t been done recently, as we weren’t finding a safe spot to cover our heads as we all learned in elementary school.

Finally — maybe 30 minutes later — the weather let up. The announcement over the loudspeaker told us that “The tornado warning has been canceled.” Apparently, it will have to be rescheduled for a doubleheader with a plague of locusts I guess (“lifted” or “ended” might have been more appropriate).

So, while it just ended up being a heavy storm, there was still some damage in the Bristol area. I heard a few tales of down tree branches and power outages. The path that I normally take to get home from work was closed off, so I had to try to reroute my way home, which is always fun when you barely know your way around to begin with, let alone with limited road choices.

I wrote about shared experience in regard to the World Cup, but little inconveniences like this also bring people together. I stopped to get gas (not at a BP) since I needed to, especially if I was going to be caught in traffic.

Normally, getting gas is a pretty solitary experience. But today, three us stopped at the same time and all started chatting about how we couldn’t get out of Bristol. We eventually devised a plan to escape the blockades and find freedom.

While I can’t speak for my two gas buddies, I eventually found a roundabout way home. We never did get the second round of storms that were predicted. Which is probably for the best, because who knows what my colleagues would have done if they were outside in the storm…