Not a Nebraskan Yet

We have lived in this house for a little over 4 years.  The first summer we lived here I witnessed some of the most amazing thunderstorms I had ever been a part of.  The rolling thunder, the lightening that seemed to stretch from one side of the world to the other, the rain, the hail.  While completely fascinated, I still had one eye on the door to the basement and whatever media outlets I could on the weather.
We had a couple of mild years after that, if I remember correctly.  Or maybe I got over my fear of a big storm for a short while... maybe I got cocky in my plains-lifestyle. 
I grew up in the Black Hills.  Tornadoes weren't even considered a small threat.  When storms hit, it was the blizzards that took out power lines that we didn't care for.  It was the spring flood that covered the campground below my house that was unnerving. 
But, with my husband on his way home and the house and dogs in my care after a week of him being away, I am sitting comfortably in our basement with our dogs, just to be safe as a thunderstorm with possible tornado activity goes over.  I wouldn't have even thought about it if he had been here, or if the neighbors hadn't been joyfully pointing at the sky (my neighbors, like most Nebraskans, point at swirling clouds instead of hiding from them).

I know I'm being overly cautious and all of my friends reading this who live in Nebraska, which is mostly all of you, are laughing at me right now-- that is unless you are catching this as the storm goes on... in which case, you've already stopped reading and are out on your back deck.  Then you'll come back and laugh at me.

I'm not a Nebraskan yet.  Maybe someday I will have my phone out to take pictures of the cool cloud formations instead of having it plugged in on a basement outlet in case I need it charged.  Maybe someday the dogs won't be severely disappointed when I grab their leashes and take downstairs instead of on a walk in the rain (hey, I don't want my dogs wandering off if my house falls down, okay?).  Maybe I'll be one of those cool Nebraskans someday that doesn't have to wonder if she should grab food when she walks past the fridge "just in case".  Maybe someday.

But for now, the dogs and I are enjoying our time in the basement, listening to the rain and thunder upstairs and watching the weather channel radar along with youtube videos.