Tornado Skywatch

I should have known better than to announce to Gabe the tornado watch that had been issued for our area of the state. In New England tornadoes are relatively rare so there is always a little bit of a thrill when you hear there is a tornado warning. Gabriel is notoriously frightened of thunderstorms and crazy weather in general. His face went still when I calmly explained what I was doing peering at the sky from our front stoop. Suddenly his face crumpled and he began taking breathing deeply as panic and nearly tears set in. He ran to the kitchen and dragged a counter stool over to an upper cabinet. He climbed up, now on his knees and frantically grabbed for the binoculars we had inherited from his great grandfather. My grandfather then living, would often sit on his front porch, checking out birds and squirrels, and probably neighbors as well. He had always been a bit of a neighborhood busy body after his retirement, keeping tabs on the coming and goings of those who lived near by. Gabe and his little cousin now stood on our front porch binoculars of a great grandfather they had never met in hand, peering off into the distant sky, and verbally debating if this could really be true. A tornado??

But it was not to be. Within half an hour the crazy clouds had passed and the sun reappeared. The cousins soon loss interest and went off for a swim on that humid Sunday afternoon.

Now that is literal skywatching!

You can check out what others have seen this week at:http://skyley.blogspot.com.