Just Lots Of Rain

This morning in Lubbock dawned cool and pleasant, but you wouldn't have guessed that would be the case last night. The pickup had rain drops on it when we exited Caprock Cafe after dinner, and the rain picked up a little as drove back to the RV park. It picked up even more later after we went to bed. In an Airstream, it seems like you can hear every drop that hits the roof, especially when the rain comes down hard while you're lying in bed in the dark.

It made me think of May, 1970, and the tornado that devastated Lubbock that night. My college roomie Gaines Baty and I were getting ready for dates in the dorm room, when we noticed the rain going past the big window on the end of the room was raining sideways. Not down. Not across. This concerned us somewhat, and along with the green sky, made us think we might not have dates after all. Not long after that, there was a warning via the P.A. system to get to the basement quickly, as a tornado was imminent. There weren't many of us huddled there, because school had been out for several days, and we were only there because we had to stay for a Phi Delta Theta initiation. You may have heard that a tornado passing by sounds like a freight train roaring past; that's close to accurate, but I'd say it sounds more like three or four freight trains thundering by simoultaneously. It was beyond loud in that basement, even though the tornado didn't even touch our building. We were very fortunate, because we incurred no injuries, but many in the city were not so lucky; the tornado killed 24, and did millions in damages, blowing away all buildings for many blocks, and heavily damaging numerous others.

But last night, it was just lots of rain. Technology can be so reassuring. We hadn't hooked up the cable to the Airstream last night, so we had no TV. Instead, I just picked up my iPhone, loaded the Weather Channel app, and saw that there were no severe weather warnings of any kind for Lubbock, just rain.

So I went to sleep to the sound of rain on the roof, inhaling the sweet scent of the breeze streaming through the open windows.