Tornado!

 Tuesday evening is my band rehearsal night most weeks. We are preparing for a concert in less that two weeks and as a community group, we only rehearse once a week at a local high school. It's a good band; the members care about playing well, and we have two excellent conductors.

This past Tuesday our rehearsal was interrupted by tornado sirens. This is Illinois, we do have tornado warnings now and then, though mostly in the summer. Seeing as we were at the high school, we were all told to go down to the basement until the storm passed. 

When I later talked with my family members they all had a tense time. My husband was at our house, in the small windowless bathroom on our lower level. My son, daughter-in-law and 19-month-old grandson were in their small bathroom in their apartment. The little one was annoyed at first, but they put him in the bathtub (with no water) with some toys, and he played there happily.

On the other hand, it was a party in the basement of the high school. No food or beverages, but everyone was having animated conversations. No one was too concerned about the tornado - after all, there was nothing we could do about anything outside. So we all chatted in small groups. People joked that if we had had beer it could have been a real party.

Eventually the storm passed and the all clear came. We went back up to the stage. With our concert so soon, it was not at all good that we lost about 45 minutes of our two-hour rehearsal. Our conductors focused on parts of pieces and exuded tension. One more rehearsal. 

And most fortunately, the passing storm did not do any major damage.