THE WRATH OF GOD

9 May 2003

It was a really surreal hour or so. We live in earthquake country. We don't know from tornadoes. I have been listening with much sadness to the plight of the people dealing with catastrophic tornadoes in the midwest.

So it was kind of strange to hear a warning signal on television. We're used to those, of course. Ever since I was a kid and they practiced air raid drills, I've grown up with practice warnings. Only this was no practice. It was a severe storm warning. We actually had one of those last night too. Kind of made me angry because the warning was for the far northern corner of California and nowhere near me--and I missed a bunch of questions on Jeopardy, dammit <g>.

But tonight there was another warning. How very strange. This one was for possible funnel clouds--over Sacramento. Whoever heard of tornado activity in Sacramento? Was this a sign that even God didn't approve of Governor Grey Davis?

The irritating honk-honk-honk of the warning continued while the ominous voice of the announcer detailed all the places that were in danger from the rapidly developing storm. The weather persons were cautioning people to stay indoors, and telling which corner of the house you should huddle in.

There was a part of me which hoped that the storm would turn and start threatening Davis. Looking around me at all the work, at all the mess, at all the stuff, I decided that a nice ol' natural disaster to blow it all into the far corners of the state didn't sound like such a bad thing.

The interruption of a weather alert breaks the cycle of the cable transmission and when a signal began to come again, it was not showing the local news, but a blank screen with the solemn voice of a preacher talking about the wrath of God. We had picked up some religious station.....or else it was a message from God.

The weatherperson continued with his arrows and his Doppler radar while the helicopter guy broadcast photos of black clouds with developing little funnel clouds.

Again came the honk-honk-honk of a disaster warning. Now it was revising the prediction. The prediction now was for severe thunderstorms, large hail and possible funnel clouds hitting Yolo County, specifically Davis.

Huh?

Were my prayers going to be answered?

Was the preacher really telling me that God had decided to listen to me after all?

The skies were sunny (and I ventured outside quickly to see if there might be a rainbow somewhere--no luck), but the warnings continued while the weather persons described how quickly little clouds could go bad--kind of a celestial version of hazing, I guess. All those clouds out together for a nice little romp and suddenly they're rolling all over each other and lightning is flashing and they're throwing hailstones and threatening to tear up the neighborhoods below them.

But it appears that things are calming down. They say that we may have off and on heavy rain for the next two hours, but I guess that God isn't going to clear my office of all work, leaving me with a better excuse than "the dog ate my homework" to tell Dr. G for not getting all of his work done.