There's no place like home...

Have you ever had a time in your life when you were in a true state of panic/fear and couldn't do anything about it?

I left work a little late today, around 5:30, and seeing the highway was jammed, I took some back roads through Norwalk into Westport, enjoying the waterfront scenery. I hopped on the highway at exit 17 and then off again at exit 18, as it was no better the further north I got. I was just about through Southport when Sean called me wondering if I was ok.

"Yeah, I'm on my way home, why?"

"There's a mega storm right over our house, and a tornado warning in effect."

Oh. Crap. I saw the grey clouds and rain, knowingt hey'd forecasted showers for the night. A tornado warning is a different story. I have a fear of tornados, I have nightmares about them all the time, and you couldn't pay me any amount of money to live in the south or midwest to experience these things on a regular basis.

I got back on the highway, as it looked like it was moving faster, and I was wrong. Stuck in a parking lot of traffic, I watched lightning bolts strike down about a mile ahead of me, and looking at the open sky above the highway I was not feeling very safe. I started feeling a bit claustrophobic, and more than anything just wanted to be home where at least I have a basement.

It took quite a while to cut up through town to my street, and when I got there, there was firefighters guiding traffic around a few large power lines that had fallen across the intersection to my street. I went down a couple blocks and made my way up to the halfway point of our street, thought I was free and clear.

Well, apparently my town has no drainage system, because there were 3 massive streams of water going across different points of my street, making me wonder if I'd be floating my way down to the Long Island Sound in attempting to cross them. Luckily, they weren't as deep as they looked (but they were deep), and I got to my house, scrambled inside from the pouring rain, and now here I am, breathing a sigh of relief and so incredibly grateful that Sean had already cooked dinner and it's waiting in the fridge for me to heat up.