The little tornado that couldn’t

They tracked the little tornado as it began forming. It was on a steady Northeasterly bearing, trailing the massive storm cell which had already wreaked so much havoc on Fayette county. Storm chasers were reporting the formation of a funnel at this location, but that it hadn’t touched down yet.

Sometimes, these conditions could lead to a very powerful twister. Everyone was hoping it would be the little tornado that couldn’t.

Its present course would take it straight through the center of Fayetteville.

Britannia Beach Marina
Britannia Beach
British Columbia, Canada, 2015

An addition to my photo essay, Sanding … a collection of abstracts taken from the side of a sailboat under renovation.

I nearly posted this a while back. Obviously, it was waiting for Jennifer Nichole Wells’, One Word Photo Challenge, which this week is, tornado. I’m not sure I’ll find a better image for it… or even another one.

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1

Jennifer Nichole Wells on Jul 21, 2015 at 1:38 pm
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This is great. If you hadn’t told me it was a boat I never would have known. I’m not sure how you intend it, but I can see it as a weather map, maybe over the ocean, because of the blue. In any case, I love it. Thanks for sharing.

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- 2
  
  Patrick Jennings on Jul 21, 2015 at 2:04 pm
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  🙂
  
  Yes. I was thinking weather radar image. Over land, though, because I always equate tornados with land. But, that was just the image which prompted the story.
  
  As with poetry, what I was thinking is of little matter. And all that blue does suggest a shoreline. So ocean works just as well. &l;smile>
  
  After I’d begun fleshing out the story, “Fayetteville” popped in mind. I’m not sure why. A bit of research placed the little tornado headed for Fayetteville, over Fayette county, in Georgia.
  
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    Jennifer Nichole Wells on Jul 21, 2015 at 4:15 pm
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    I like the idea of it heading over a rural area. And I too associate tornados with land, so you got me there…Great job all around!
    
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- 4
  
  Patrick Jennings on Jul 21, 2015 at 2:15 pm
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  There’s a picture of the boat here: https://pixtowords.com/2015/06/22/wordpress-photo-challenge-roy-g-biv/
  
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5

allthoughtswork on Jul 23, 2015 at 6:42 pm
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All tornadoes are associated with land. Those that associate with water are labeled waterspouts. Proof once again that you are who you hang out with.

I grew up in Iowa. I could lecture on tornadoes for FEMA. Your map is good but it would scare my ilk a lot deeper if it had blotches of magenta in it, the meteorological color of death. Blue means bring the animals in and lock the windows. Magenta means keep your State Farm insurance card tucked in your bra.

F1 Haiku

Turn up the volume
So M*A*S*H drowns out the sirens;
We have a basement.

F2 Haiku

Here it comes again,
That Chevy we just paid for.
Stupid tornado.

F3 Haiku

Clean underwear, sleep,
A body that doesn’t shake:
Greedy tornado.

F4 Haiku

Ma’am, are you okay?
Can you move your legs at all?
Open your eyes for me.

F5 Haiku

Video red light
Flashes like the ambulance…
No sound but weeping.

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- 6
  
  Patrick Jennings on Jul 23, 2015 at 7:23 pm
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  Well, then I have until next Tuesday to shift this image to magenta and have another go at it!
  
  Thanks for this comment, and all its insight, and deeply darkly incisive humour.
  
  I think this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship…
  
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7

allthoughtswork on Jul 24, 2015 at 8:48 am
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“I think this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship…”

Hold on, there, cowboy. There’s a vetting process.

1. French fries or onion rings?

2. Spring or autumn?

3. Beer or liquor?

4. Dawn or dusk?

5. Oxford comma, yes or no?

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- 8
  
  Patrick Jennings on Jul 25, 2015 at 4:14 pm
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  No easy answers:
  
  1: French Fries with burgers
  Onion rings with root beer
  
  2: Autumn in New England
  Spring, anywhere else
  
  3: I have written paens to lager
  After liquor, I suffer pains
  
  4: Dawn, with my didjeridu
  Dusk, with a beer and a friend
  
  5: Yes, or no.
  
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9

allthoughtswork on Jul 25, 2015 at 4:58 pm
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1. Beer battered onion rings are a food group. Once, I made a salad by stacking ten onion rings in a bowl and balancing a tiny spinach leaf on top. No dressing, though. I eat healthy.

2. Spring is nice but Autumn lacks mud. Therefor, Autumn. Plus, apple cider. Also, Colorado aspens smell like horses.

3. (Good) beer is for quaffing. Liquor is for medicinal purposes, like treating Friday night lonliness and a wasp sting.

4. Didgeridoos are fucking awesome. I lost my train of thought.

5. Yes. Because commas are free, force me to breathe, and don’t cause weight gain. So, it’s love.

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- 10
  
  Patrick Jennings on Jul 25, 2015 at 5:49 pm
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  1. OH! You didn’t say anything about BEER battered onion righs. Evidently a trick question!
  
  2. Where I live, Autumn has no lack of mud. Indeed, it is a mudder’s heaven. Which suggests, you either should not live in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland, at all, or simply avoid visiting here in October, or November.
  
  Actually, December through … oh, about June can be considered only as frigid mud wrestling season.
  3. Excellent. Then you might enjoy this ode to lager written under a pseudonym — NOT because I am freakishly skittish about sharing my predilection for hoppy drinks.
  4. In fact, I always travel with one. The best kind of travelling companions — they never countermand an executive decision to alter itinerary. And they only make (the best kind) of noice when directed to.
  5. Excellent reasoning, though, I might add, an overuse of commas, appropriate though they may be, can cause, to this author’s distaste, a rather broken reading. Such an outcome can be avoided by more appropriately arranging words and thoughts so as not to require the use of commas.
  
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11

One Word Photo Challenge: Humid | Jennifer Nichole Wells on Jul 28, 2015 at 7:02 am
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