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Randy Stephens
HEY MUSERS!!!!!!!!
JK, I'm glad you are so easily entertained. Maybe all this is so musing because most of the time I really don't say anything when I'm trying to say something. Know what I mean Vern!!! But, I am sorry I haven't been able to a...muse you lately. My world has been spinning out of control. Now usually I like that and get a thrill out of riding the spin, but this is a warped, wicked, evil, devilish spin and it has been all that I could do just to hold on and not get bucked off. Maybe now it will smooth out a little, hell, everybody needs a break once in a while. I haven't even got to my email to read them. I just got electricity yesterday evening and set up with Mom last night. So here I am musing my friends.
Ralphie B. sorry about your missed phone calls but we just got our lines of communication and survival back in working order after all these Twisters. They say that on last Wednesday 150 hit Alabama. So tell Pope I'm still alive and kicking. Hey, it's hard to kill an old Texan, who has watched, ran from, dodged, survived and yes even chased those twisting devils from hell. But, I will say it's harder to spot and follow them out here because of all the dam trees, but I can smell um from several miles away.
Last week I was working in Northeast Bama, 15 miles from Scottsboro, and driving to a Scottsboro Motel every night. Wednesday after lunch the store owner said were going down the road a couple of miles to a church with a basement because things were looking real bad.
Two years ago I was working at this same store when one afternoon the Tornado Alarms began to sing and we only had time to run to the back of the store and hunker down. There were Twisters dropping down all around us.
Now here I am again, same town, same place, same store, same Sirens, same old shit! Go figure. Am I on the short buss or the Merry-Go-Round? I always preferred the Monkey Bars. Pinch me cause I want to wake up from this nightmare! I don't care if you kiss me or not! Just wake me from my misery. Hey now that's a country song I don't care who you are!
We got to the church just as the clouds started swirling, the wind screaming and hail (hell) falling from the sky in a town called Skyline. And no the church walls didn't cave in because I was there! As a matter of fact there was angelic light and heavenly voices. But that's another story for another day. When it looked all clear we headed back to the store, arriving just as storm three hit.
Storm one hit us at the Motel in Scottsboro Wednesday at 6:30am. That morning one of the ladies, TT as we call her, arrived late to the storm and showed us pictures of the storm she drove threw on the way to work. She just held up her phone and snapped pictures as she drove dodging debris in the road. Tractor Trailers overturned, cars wadded up in a ball and a boat blown into a house. Now storm three knocked out the power so it was now passed time to leave. I was 2.45 hours East of Waterloo (home) and I thought about trying to go on and drive home from the store. About two miles from the store I saw stuff floating in the sky. The wind died down, then just as quickly it gusted up again. Shingles and other stuff were falling out of the sky and pieces of plywood. So I made an exit left and headed to the Motel. I arrived in the parking lot as several pieces of Pink Insulation landed beside my car and then a tree behind me blew over as I was running for my life to the motel.
Round four started with a dark cloud in the Southwest. Yep, a bad place for another cloud to pop up on this historic day. We had heard earlier that Twisters had hit Athens, Decatur, Arab, Cullman, Birmingham, Tuscaloosa and towns east of Scottsboro like Section and Rainesville. Before it was all over Arab and Cullman and maybe some others got hit twice by Twisters. Now round four cloud was coming right at us. Twisted Tin was floating in the sky and falling to the ground. As the cloud got within a mile of Scottsboro it slowed, Hovering over the Tennessee River, and another cloud from the Northwest came screaming at us with Northern winds. The two meet and danced, swirling and twisting over the Tennessee River in colors of Gray, White, Brown and Orange turning in the blink of an eye to a passionate, moody, mean Black encircled and quickly hidden by rain moving Northeast and skirting safely out of our path. Missed us by that much! But standing in the breezeway in the Motel I thought at one time it was going to blow me away before I could get back to the safety of the lounge.
I thought what the hell. Ruby Tuesday was across the street. That's a far, far, better place to be than the Motel. So, I gathered myself leaned into the swirling, twisting, dancing wind and blinding went to R.T. and just got drunk!!! I talked everyone into having a Tornado Party and we parties till way after the cows came home. It finally got to dark to see, the stove was too cold to cook and the beer was getting warn; dam I hate warm beer; so the Tornado Party like all good things had to come to an end. Shit! I took my flashlight and went to my room because I had a stash there. So with a party of one I drank to all the lost and broken people of ALA-FREEKING-BAMA.
We all spend the night in Motel without any Utilities. No light, water, phone or food; but they gave everyone a flashlight. That was cool but we had to give them back when we checked out. Shit!
I sarted my long guest back to Texas Ridge Ranch (my home) Thursday from Scottsboro with less than 1/2 a tank of gas and there was no gas till you got to Florence a good two hours away. So I set the cruse on the double nickle and headed out. I told myself I'll drive as far as I can and walk the rest of the way. On the four lane I drove over shirts, pants and even a bra all distributed on the highway by the Twisters. I drove threw water over the road in Decatur and then there were the destroyed houses, only foundations left where families once lived, and over turned cars, busted trees, and highline wires. When I finally got to a gas station in Florence the car was on empty. I drove home to find out that a Twister hit both West of my house and East of my house. I was fortunate only lost electricity. I arrived home to find seven trees down and three on my fences. Shit!
I've heard counts of 200, 300 and officials think before it's all said and done there will be over 500 people dead in Alabama.
Black Wednesday!!! Hope I never see another one!!!
Got to go!! Supervisor called and I have to leave for Decatur, a town hard hit, and put a store back together.
"HEAD OUT ON THE FREEWAY, LOOKING ADVENTURE IN WHATEVER COMES OUR WAY............ BORN TO BE WILD..........!"
Randall
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