Our Strange Weather

Well 2008 is starting out with some very bizarre weather here in central Illinois. First on New Year's Eve we got hit with a blizzard and -20 below wind chills.  We got about a foot of snow on top of what we had in December. We had fun playing in it , but mom wouldn't let us stay out too long for fear that we would get sick. We fell into a routine of brisk short walks and quick trips for potty breaks in the back yard. Then last Thurs. and Fri. it begain to suddenly warm up, we hit a record high of 65 degrees on Saturday. The last time it was that warm in January was 100 years ago, 1908. Isn't that weird? I wonder if we're entering a hundred year cycle? All of the snow has melted away.  Last night we got pounded with a severe thunderstorm , dangerous lightning and high winds which turned into a Tornado warning. Mom turned off and unplugged all of the major electronic devices except the weather radio. Her and dad sat in the living room listening to the radio while Josh and Joe camped out in the garage watching the show in the sky. Mom told them to come inside quick if the alert siren went off. Gracie and Pearl kept wanting to go outside with the boys to see what the heck was going on. Pearl was pretty mesmerized by the flashes of lightning spidering across the horizon. However, she didn't like the thunder at all. Gracie kept whining and sniffing the air trying to catch the scent of everything blowing in the wind. I kept barking at the thunder to scare it away. It didn't work. Almost on cue the  siren begain to blare and mom made us all run back inside and go down into the basement. Our power blinked once but came right back on again. After about twenty five minutes the township blew the all clear signal. Everyone stayed awake for about another hour , by then the worst of the storm had passed and it was just raining . The entire family went to bed worn out by all of the unexpected excitement. It's still raining this morning.