Hey, it could happen...

As Tropical Storm Beryl headed up the eastern seaboard on Thursday night, the forecast was for a fairly heavy hit out on Massachusetts’ more exposed areas. Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, and Cape Cod were in a direct path. Worcester, of course, is about 2 hours inland, so we were supposed to get some rain, possibly thunderstorms. In a cinematic turn of wish-fulfillment, however, my dreams brought the storm closer to home. Thursday night I had a vivid dream about being at work on Friday as the storms rolled in. I happened to look out the window at one point and saw dark clouds, an angry colored sky, and lots of churning winds. I commented that it looked like tornado weather. I grew in Wisconsin, which sees plenty of tornado weather. Massachusetts, however, gets minimal twisters. No sooner had I said that, though, and a funnel cloud started forming, pretty much right across the street. I started herding everyone away from the action. We basically made it into the production area and then couldn’t figure out where to go next. There really is no safe place nearby. The sounds of wind and turmoil began to die down, anyway, so we headed back to the Quality office.

Looking out the window this time showed a different scene. The tornado had ripped clean a perfect path of emptiness, including half of our building. The front building, which houses the offices, was completely gone except for the back wall that adjoins the production building. We didn’t get touched, but Sales, Engineering, Purchasing, HR, the owner / president, et cetera, were all GONE. We were just kind of staring blankly in disbelief at the wall, while ill-formed thoughts about unemployment drifted through our minds. Then I saw my car. From this side it looked OK, but the top was down. I was Positive I hadn’t left it down, and was rather upset that the interior got soaked. Going over to the car, I noticed the other side was completely mangled and the top had been ripped off, not lowered. There was even a stray wheel lodged in the door. It was with planning of insurance forms and unemployment checks that I realized I could now move south! Paychecks while not working relaxes the stress of the condo sale, so I was free to pack up and leave. (Yeah, sorry all those people died, but wuhoo!!!)