In which Zephyr tells her story.....

And another happy customer. John-John has worked some serious makeover magic on Zephyr, I must say. When he said he had a new look in mind for her, I didn't think it would be this new.

And as for what she's doing here, well - as they say, it's a long story....

"I was brought into existence in what your human friend calls Oklahoma." she said. "I left  about a year and a half ago because - of the other storm devas."

"They weren't picking on you or anything?" I said. I'd always had the impression that devas mostly got along.

"No...." Zephyr admitted. "It was because of what they did. They liked to make things really bad for everyone. Like they knew how unstable the atmosphere was this one day last spring. but instead of leaving things alone, they decided to see who could call up the biggest tornado. There were several, but the biggest one went out of control and went through that town and killed a lot of humans. It also destroyed most of the town. The worst part was that the deva who did it was bragging that she'd done it before, years ago. She was really proud of herself."

It took me a minute. "You mean Moore, Oklahoma? That one?" That really big one. I remember it going from zero to wedge in about ten seconds flat.

She nodded. "And that wasn't all."

"What was?" Tempest had come over. "See, this is why I don't like the older storm devas. Some of them forget that there are other creatures - not just humans - affected by what they do."

Zephyr looked even more ashamed. "A couple of weeks later in human time, they did it again. Same place, same atmospheric setup. Only this time they decided it would be funny to run a tornado across the big interstate road just as the truck from the weather station was coming. They wanted to see if they could hit it. I tried to stop it, I really did. I tried to turn the wind back against the storm, but I couldn't do it. It was just too big and they had it right in the jetstream. All I could do was make the car land right side up. I didn't see it hit the other car until it was too late."

"The El Reno storm...." Tempest said slowly, realizing it just as we did. "Listen. Don't blame yourself for what they did. It's almost impossible to stop one of those supercells, as the humans call them, once you let it get out of control. I only managed it once, and even then it took some help from another deva who had experience managing hurricanes. And we couldn't turn it around all the way. All we could do was force it though an unoccupied part of the town. It still wrecked half the town, but didn't kill anyone."

"That was you?" Zephyr looked amazed. "I heard about that. The other devas were so mad. They'd been aiming for the town."

"I know that. Bloody old-school idiots." Tempest couldn't hide a smirk. "So I made them mad, did I? Good."

"I know there have to be storms, but still..."

"You can do what you need to do without harming anyone. Since when did letting a storm get out of control become a good thing?" Tempest shook her head.

"Could you teach me how to turn a storm?"

"Girl, I can teach you everything you need to know," Tempest said. "And using the wind to stop that big old Yukon from rolling? That took skill. I wondered why it ended up upright."

So here she is - the reason we have Mike Bettes around to totally OWN Bill Belichick: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2255688-the-weather-channel-calls-out-bill-belichick-for-attack-on-meteorologists

I don't know about you, but I like this girl.

Bonus shot:

"Stop that. No exterminating in the house!"

In which it's really too hot to do anything...

(Yes, I reformatted my blog - what do you all think? I love the font - it's very Tim Burton-esque, isn't it?)

 ~*~

"Me and my big mouth..." Shel grumbled, looking at the thermometer. "I'm not going to complain about it being too cold again."

"if the house would cool off, it wouldn't be bad," Maddy said. The 71F is the outside temperature. Unfortunately, the 81F is the indoor temperature - at 9:55 PM. "Besides, there's got to be some happy medium between needing to go around wrapped in blankets and it being too hot to wear clothes." (Disclaimer: despite what she said, she is indeed wearing clothes as we speak!)




"Didn't Mars Hill play sax for the Psychedelic Furs?" Val said. She was looking at the TV, where Warren Madden was detailing a severe thunderstorm warning for Maine - Presque Isle, Mars Hill....

"Mars Williams," Pinky said. "But that was later on. Duncan Kilburn was their original sax player."

Emmaline, meanwhile, was looking uncomfortably at the computer. John-John had hooked up the speakers and was playing the aforementioned Psychedelic Furs. "I don't know about that song..."



"Into You Like A Train?" I said. "I think it's hilarious."

Maddy laughed. "Years ago, when I first got the album, I took one look at that title and said to the friend I was with, "Let me guess - Richard Butler write this one on the subway." A few years later, I was reading an interview and he said, "I had the "into you" part and I was on the subway at the time, so, like a train..." Too funny..."

 "Isn't that the one that a couple of your friends called the train song?" Pinky said. 

"Yeah. They wouldn't even say the title out loud," Maddy said.

~*~

Maddy said she'll be glad when it cools off after tomorrow and she can get this thing out of the middle of the floor. And kids, don't try this at home. John-John's a trained professional...

Maddy has adopted two Woodlee Junction dolls. She's also hoping to adopt a Little Mo Hitty for our growing family as well. 

Never too hot to snuggle....

~*~

All of us here want to give a quick shout-out to Mike Bettes and the Weather Channel Tornado Chase crew. For those who haven't heard, their chase vehicle was blown off the road and rolled by a tornado in Oklahoma last night. Thankfully, everyone is going to be all right. 

And a big thank you to all the storm chasers out there helping to keep everyone informed and safe!