A tornado hits. Yeah, a real tornado! Right here in River City, folks! (I think I just dated myself, didn’t I *wink*). ANYway, after all these years of tornado warnings and running for cover, and nothing ever happening, it actually happened tonight.

There was severe weather all over eastern Colorado today, starting early this afternoon in the Denver area. It spread out and moved onward, and by this evening it had made its way here. At first we didn’t think there was anything to worry about; the clouds looked menacing, but only in a bad thunderstorm sort of way. Very quickly, though, they changed from just mildly menacing to way wicked, and before I knew it, my daughter and I were in the car with my sister, heading for her boyfriend’s parents’ house and their basement. (gee, that was mouthful! lol) Hubby decided he wanted to stay here at the house with the animals. I, of course, had taken Riley with me. He always comes with me. ;) So anyway, no sooner had we arrived at the house than the sirens began sounding, and to the basement we marched! lol However, being the curious soul I am, I didn’t stay there long. Within just a couple of minutes, I was back up the stairs and looking out the back door. What I saw scared me — strong wind, blowing harder than I think I’ve ever seen it blow before, so back down to the basement I went! We had a police scanner down there, and our jaws kept dropping every time we heard a new report of downed power lines, uprooted trees, gas leaks, fires, and some kind of a “building” falling onto a used car lot. We just couldn’t believe it!

When it became safe to leave, Sis and I decided that taking a drive around town was definitely in order, so a’driving we went! Ohhh man! Main Street was totally flooded, as were many, many of the side streets. The “building” that was reported as having fallen on a used car lot turned out to be the metal roof from the dealership’s HUGE garage area in the back. Oh man, you should see that thing! I’ve never seen such a twisted monstrosity in my life!! And it landed right on the used cars! I guess that’s better than having it land on the brand new ones, right? lol

So tonight Hubby and I thought we should go drive around again (with my daughter and Mr. Riley of course *grin*), seeing as we made the big newscasts in Denver — all 3 networks! One of ‘em even had their helicopter flying overhead giving live reports, and another had their news crew drive here. So anyway, we piled in the pickup and took off on our little journey. Oh you guys … it was amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it. HUGE trees uprooted and landing on houses; trees split right down the middle; trees cut off in the middle as if a chain saw had been taken to it; limbs stripped of leaves; and on and on and on. Thank God no one was killed! We’ve heard reports of minor injuries, but I don’t know what they are. The power company had to call in extra workers from Denver and Boulder to come help get the power back up for the 2500 or so residents without electricity. It’s truly amazing. And I missed it all! LOL There I was, sitting in a basement, with a real live tornado flying overhead! Bummer! lol As I said, I’m just so grateful no one was seriously injured or killed. We have a pretty big limb down in our front yard, and my neighbors across the street lost part of their privacy fence; they also have quite a few limbs down, and her little wishing well out front was broken. Oh, and our patio table and chairs were thrown about. In fact, the table ended up out by the curb in the front, under our big tree, and the limb we lost was sitting on top of it. So weird. But tornadoes are strange like that.

Well, that’s my excitement. What’s yours? ;)