I'm ready for ThUnDeR...

Tonight, I got to do something I've been wanting to do for a very . long . time . Mike and I attended a Skywarn storm spotter training session. I've been infatuated with thunderstorms for many years already.  As a child, I was extremely--irrationally--afraid of them.  When I was in elementary school, I was the last child on the bus when the tornado siren went off just as I was about to step out of the door.  Instead of letting me get out of the bus, the driver slammed the door and drove me back to the school.  How that was safer than letting me run the distance into my own house, I'll never know.  I could hear on her cb radio that there had been a tornado spotted north of Mazeppa, and I spent the next hour or so in a corner of the school wrestling room with my head tucked between my knees. My fear eventually developed into a fascination.  I am absolutely in awe of thunderstorms as they are one of the most tangible manifestiations of the power of our Creator.I had hoped to persuade my hubby to try it with me years ago... ...but he wasn't interested. He thought my thrill would pass, but it has only grown over the years as I've tucked away to watch storm chasing documentaries, and ordered various books and videos on the study of weather. My hubby and I share an appreciation for photography, and I even tried to use that to entice him into storm watching with me, but I still didn't have much luck... Until last summer... Last summer was a historic year for our state. Minnesota had more tornadoes than any other state last year! Finally, I realized I was taking the wrong approach with my husband... What is the one thing that my engineer-hubby can't resist? Numbers.  And even better--statistics of numbers.  Data.  Records and comparisons...you get the idea. So, I suggested that he use a patent award to invest in a weather station, and he liked the idea so much that he thinks he thought of it.  (shh...)  The device arrived in September: 

If you load Weather Underground for Oronoco, MN, you will see the current weather in our backyard, and you can view all the weather data since September.  Sweet.  Now he was starting to share my enthusiasm and our common interest grew. Tonight, we finally attended the Skywarn session, and he was eager to learn.  

It was a fairly large gathering of people at the Event Center in Rochester.  There were a lot of law enforcement professionals, firefighters, and even some local news media. 

It was a 2 hour presentation of severe weather information, and the second half had more specifics on storm spotting: 

He concluded the evening with a case study of the June 17 tornado outbreak in Southeast MN--the night we almost accidentally got our first tornado intercept driving through NW Rochester!  As best we could calculate, we were driving in the path of the tornado when it was on the ground--we had to have missed it by just minutes.  We had no clue...but thankfully, it didn't come as a surprise to our Heavenly Father and we were providentially protected.  Here is the tornado's path from that night: 

So, I consider tonight the beginning of a new adventure for Hubby and I.  I already have visions of spraying the old '97 Accord with Rhino Lining and plastering it with weather instruments and radio antennas and turning it into the Amundson portable weather station.  ;-)   But remember, I'm a visionary...   So, I'm just thankful that I finally got dear Hubby to go to a spotter training session.  :-) Now just bring on the thunderstorms... 

Technology is humbling

So, I've been in the process of learning my new phone.  Over the last couple weeks, I've learned that my smart phone can make me look really foolish.  I don't even want to know how many things I've accidentally "liked" in my Facebook newsfeed just from scrolling on the touch screen. I don't feel that old.  But then again, when I was in college, I don't ever remember feeling intimidated by electronic gadgets.  I always kinda felt like I knew intuitively how to operate them.  I didn't need to sit down to read the manual or take a week to figure out how to edit an event in my calendar... I have to sheepishly admit that before this week, I never knew it was possible to send a text message to someone's landline.  I learned that unexpectedly this week when I did it by mistake.  And of course, if there was one person in my contact list who I would have preferred to maintain some dignity with, it would be that person.   So, I got a call one morning this week from this lady that I host a Homeschool Mom's meeting with each month telling me that there was a very strange message on their landline that appeared to be from me.  Well, it wouldn't be beyond me to send "strange" text messages.  Some of the text messages that my husband and I exchange would appear very strange indeed if sent to the wrong person.  So, immediately, I get all hot inside and think--"What on earth did I send to Eileen??"  I think I incriminated myself more as I squirmed to figure out what my mistake was.  Thankfully, Eileen seemed pleasantly amused.  Eventually, I figured out that it was a legitimate message that I intended to send to her cell phone.  But the crazy thing was that, apparently, my mobile provider inserts an evil laugh anywhere there is a smiley face in the text message.   (Yeah, my cell provider is a little demented, but they're cheap...)  

So, if you ever get a text-to-landline message from me with an evil laugh at the end, it's no mistake.  :-) <insert evil laugh here> This makes me think back to about 3 years ago, I suppose, when I very first started using facebook.  My nieces and nephews had been using it a lot, and I mostly just got a Facebook to keep in touch with them, and a few odd friends and family. I wish I had written down all of the crazy ways that I utterly humiliated myself figuring out facebook...  Like once when I took one of those friend quizzes, and I didn't know you could skip a question if you didn't want to answer it...and I found out later that they posted the answers you gave on the person's wall!   I remember Mike was pretty skeptical when I first got a facebook.  He would check my profile to make sure I wasn't posting too much stuff on there because he thought it was "undignified" for a homeschool married lady to hang out on facebook all day.  Not wanting to embarrass my husband, I tried to be careful.  But even my dignified hubby couldn't help but lurk on my facebook, and he eventually got one of his own.  I guess I'm always the one who has to get the embarrassing bugs out of the process first so he can come along and try new things with dignity. Come to think of it, he got a blog shortly after I did, and I'm betting he'll have a smart phone before long, too.  But I'm pretty sure he won't make as many ridiculous mistakes as I have.  

Finally... A second phone!

A new device arrived in our house yesterday.

Yes, the Amundson's finally own a smart phone:

Just over a year and a half ago, we finally got text messaging...  So, this is quite a leap for us!

Not because we're afraid of technology...

We actually have a bit of a weakness when it comes to gadgets...

But my husband has an aversion to the ones that make you sign up for two years and pay monthly for them.

So, we were holding out until data plans became more affordable.

I was beginning to wonder if they were ever going to get more affordable.

We've always wanted to have two phones.

Mike has run out of gas before and had to hike to a farm house to call me.

But, we pretty much have to have a land line, so the thought of paying $70-$100 or more for a family cell plan just seemed ridiculous for us.

We don't even use our cell phone all that much--most months we use less than 100 minutes.

So, we figured if we held out long enough, some carrier somewhere would have an affordable plan for a second phone.

Well, guess what? 

It finally happened!

We found a "pay as you go" phone that has unlimited texting and unlimited data with 300 minutes of talk time for $25 a month!  We could each have one of these phones, and still pay only about $5 a month more than we were paying for our current plan on one phone.  And NO contract.

So, we're trying it out to be sure it's not "too good to be true".

So far, it's worked great!

I'm sure most people talk on their phones more than 300 minutes a month, but for us, it's perfect.

So, for us, it was worth the wait.  :-)

And I'm hoping this should come in handy for our storm spotter training this spring...