artbyakm2183's Blog

How crazy was that weather last night!?!! I know it scared the pants off me! We just moved to Winston last month into a house with no basement...so I was really not happy last night! We were lucky though....all the rotation stayed north or south of us...even if only by miles. I hope those who were caught in the worst of it made it out ok...I know of one family mourning the loss of a loved one today  and my heart and prayers go out to that family ...who ever  you are. Pray for those with injuries spending time in the hospital this morning and those who have had serious damage to their homes. With the possibility of more storms Sunday I really hope you find a safe place to spend the night and that you are spared anymore damages.

On a different note.............

I have some Video of the lightening around the Hanes mall area from last night. It is on my cell phone so not the best  quality but on a bigger screen you can see the duller flashes and see how constant it is...and I think I even captured  an actual bolt of lightening streaking across the sky . Anyway it is of the storms rolling in and out...I was in to much of a panic during to  take video (never seen weather like that before).  As soon as I figure out how to upload it to this site  from my computer i will have it up....wanted to send it to Fox 8  but can't figure out how...besides they probably have enough fotage of it and right now focused on damages.

 

Again my prayers go out to those who lost someone, were injured or had damage to their homes...Stay safe should it get bad again this weekend!

 

Well we are still under the gun with a tornado warning until 6pm...another hour.

It didn't seem to bad (last storm that passed with a doppler indicated tornado) There was not that much lightening that I seen...but a TON of ,much needed rain! The storm did take  out our Time warner cable....though only on the TV for whatever reason. hopefully that will be back tomorrow at the lastest. The problem with that is that I was trying to find out what was up with the storm, and I couldn't.... then finally remembered that the basic cable should still be up and running...and thankfully it was. It wasn't until then I learned that the storm I was watching was cause for a doppler indicated tornado and the warnings! Talk about shocked!

I hope for the rain to keep up , but  no more bad storms. We will see how the night goes....seems like there is a bunch going on beyond this storm.....how much will hit us I don't know. I will be back tomorrow to update for those not in the area!

Stay safe and informed everyone!

 

Last night at about 11-11:30pm I got one HECK of a surprise! I had been tracking a storm online, assuming that like many it would either die out or miss High Point my a few miles. I had been watching the lightening flicker in the window for a good while, usually in between being on the computer and painting, my husband had also told me he was getting a good light show on his way home at about 10:30pm coming from the south. Well when I seen/heard  that the storm was coming closer I shut down the computer and resorted to channel surffing....not finding anything by the way on the weather situation..so I figured it was nothing to get to worried about.

Not to long after, A HUGE bolt of lightening struck ....very VERY close it seemed! Thunder AND lightening at the same time (Always was told that means it is on top of you or something) The night was suddenly a blinding day!  I thought for sure it wouldn't be long before hearing sirens blareing because lightening had struck a home or something! Just HOW close it seemed it was. After that I REALLY searched for some news cast on the storm, wondering how bad it was going to be....the lightening was pretty bad. Finally I braved it and turned the computer back on to check...I wanted to go to bed but the weather seems to always keep me awake....and it wasn't EVEN HERE YET! I was shocked....I guess this is what they mean when they say lightening can travel ahead of the storm!  I am still wondering if it ever actually rained or the wind picked up at all or did it die out as usual before hitting high point real good?

Anyway I finally just went to bed, I don't even know if it even rained (what I did see it didn't while I had been awake and the wind was calm) But I do know that I listened to thunder for a bit after going to bed before finally getting some sleep also checking my weather bug on my cell phone one more time...but on that it didn't really look like much was left of it (I am not a weather watcher at all....nope not me...ok yeah I like weather LOL)

I have only had one other similar experience a few years back (thinking about it we are probably talking 5 years or so). I had been in my room, again doing some various artwork during a storm, when a bolt of lighten struck close by....close enough that it made the lights go out and set off my phone and a game that had been laying on a cord in my room and of course the thunder was LOUD,  causing a fit of noise and scaring the pants off me! I think back on it and still get goosebumps ...thanking God it had not been ANY closer that night!

Well I really just HAD to share my experience from last night. Was anyone else awake last night in the area (311 bypass, Gordon rd., deep river area) that saw what I did?

 

During the lovely thunderstorms today (april 15th) I took some video on my phone of passing clouds and how looking one way it was only lightly overcast/light clouds and the other way was dark and and looking pretty nasty. This was taken about the time there was a doplar indicated tornado heading our way, in Winston  and I wanted to share it. I can't figure out how (or if) I can add it to my blog or send it to Fox8! It isn't the best quality video but it gets the point across! I wish it would have shown the clouds moving better.... seems they were in all different directions moving rather fast...no swirling though!

I added a picture of the creek by my house (in high point) that is VERY full , it should be up by tomorrow*at least this is usually when my photos show up!*... normally it is down to the rocks and muck on the bottom...more of a trickle...by comparison we now have a river! lol The street outside our house also had water running over it, nothing major just the massive runnoff from a neighbors driveway.. it is enough to get people to slow down and think twice before going over the area! But is ok to cross....unless it is the creek overflowing!

Anyway I was very happy to get some rain today and have the excitement of severe weather about! I love severe weather...as long as it doesn't become TO bad! The only thing that bothered me today was the commute back to High Point in the nasty weather... the rain was ok most of the 30 minute drive, but the wind was pushing and shoving the Van! So driving wasn't ideal but I had to get home before I was stuck in Winston for the rest of the night. Made it home safe and sound thankfully!

 I hope everyone who had to be out today and tonight made/makes it home safely !!!

Well Though the page still says I have an error I am finally able to get back on this site! YAY! Alot has happened in the past few weeks that I want to share with everyone! Ok so it is mostly one thing but alot came with it!

Last week on the 13th  my husband was on his way home from his acting class, as many of you know it was raining pretty good. On his way home on I-40 he hit a spot in the road that caused him to hydroplane...right into a cement barrier! Not only did he hit it once but he spun and hit it again with the back end ending up over the three lanes up on the embankment on the other side of the road! Thank goodness no one else was involved.  I recieved the call about 10-10:30pm that he had been in the accident, I of course freaked out worried that he was hurt. He told me he was fine NOT A SCRATCH on him! So knowing he was fine my concern turned to our car. He told me it was't pretty as you can only imagine that it wasn't in good condition after hitting a cement barrier!  When he finally came home, thanks to my mother going out to rescue him, I was very teary and glad to seem him but had major concerns for the car, it was the only thing we had. My husband and his optomistic attitude reassured me things would be fine, God will take care of us. 

The next morning, yes it was Valentines Day, we barrowed my sisters car to go to Winston and clean out our smashed up Toyota Camery. We made it out there just fine, took many pictures (that I will eventually post) cleaned out our stuff and headed home. On our way home on 311, we ended up on the side of the road with a flat tire! Though annoyed we laughed at the misfortune and my husband changed the tire. As we started off again we noticed that something wasn't right so we pulled over again. As if it wasn't bad enough that one car had been smashed and we had already had one flat tire that had to be changed in the cold cold wind and had our son sitting in the back seat, we discovered that the SPARE was flat!! Dry rot had killed the spare tire!

So with the spare tire flat now we where stranded, for about an hour and a half, waiting for my sisters husband. After  waiting for him we were rescued and home safely within minutes.

My story of misfortunes does not end there. I don't want to say to much because I don't know how it could effect things, but the accident report from the night before was discovered to be all wrong and my husb and was cited for exceeding a safe speed limit in unsafe  weather conditions! He wasn't going the speed that the police officer wrote down, about 10mph SLOWER, and he was even UNDER the speed limit! So I don't quite understand why the officer marked him for the wrong speed or how the accident report came out wrong but we intend to fight it. Any  advice on this would be welcomed!

The good part of all this is that we did get a new Van out of the ordeal. It is a nice van that is in my husband's name not my mothers, and it is something that will be very handy this summer on our trips to and from Winston doing theatre and on the severl trips for weddings we will be making to Ohio. Good things do come from bad things it just doesn't alwys show up right away!

For those of you who travel in bad weather conditions BE CAREFUL! No matter how good you are sometimes fate takes hold and there is NOTHING you can do to stop it. My husband is a good example of how sometimes it just happens no matter how many precautions you take.

Good Day and God bless!

Well for the past few days I have been unable to get into the blog section of this site. I am still unable to but thanks to one of the other computers in our house I am able to get on!! I am not sure why but I am sure it has something to do with our old last legs computer.

ANYway.... When I was last on here I said I would have winter weather pictures for you all and I do have a few. Unfortunately the rain started in our area around 1 or 1:30pm !But by 3:30pm there wasn't anything to take pitures of! was quite dissapointed when all the snow became a big wet mess instead of Ice or more snow and it melted away.

Speaking of weather related things...
I also heard that our dear little friend the Groundhog did not see his shadow, so that means no more winter! lol, I guess we have to HAVE a winter first for that to be good news!

Oh !!since I was unable to get on this site for a few days I was unable to send out a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to all the groundhog day birthday boys and girls!!!! I had a fabulous birthday on the 1st and I hope you all had a great birthday too!

YAY!! I got my birthday wish! SNOW!!! Oh I am loving this!!! Taking pictures and watching my son be amazed by the white stuff! I would have loved some of this for Christmas but I think I am content with getting it on my birthday!!!

I woke up this morning to find that the ground had already been covered and there was more on the way! Currently it is snowing steady and has been since around 10:50am. I just watched the weather report by Emily Bird on this site and she said that this is going to last longer with this batch and the wintery mix will be here soon. I hope everyone drives safe!!! I don't want to here about any crashes on my birthday!!! Take it slow, there is nothing like a lazy drive through the snow to take in the whole scene!

I will be taking pitures of all this winter weather throughout the day and posting them later tonight, so look for my progress pictures as soon as they are approved!!

Well here we go again with the "wintery mix" on thursday! Boy I am feeling it! My head is pounding!!! I get headaches when fronts come in, so heres hoping that my headache is a sign that this will be hitting!!!

Seeing how thursday is my birthday I am praying that I will get my biggest birthday wish... SNOW not just a wet mess! Though I do feel like all these wintery mixes are a big tease to what we could have I am thankful for anything! I wonder why we go through some years that are abundant in snow or winter weather in general and other years it is barely a flake of snow to be seen? I suppose that the mountains play a part in it and the right weather system would have to come into play, but are there any other reasons that we are a big dry spot in the winter weather department year after year?

I still say I am going to get a summer home in Alaska when I become a big artist and get rich lol ! I will always be here for spring and fall though, I do love the cooler temps and all the colors of those two seasons. I am just not a summer girl , it is way to hot for me! I remember the one year I was in Ohio and it was 90 degrees and 10% humidity, it was warm but not over bareing. I thought about the difference in how 90 degrees felt there and how it felt here... I thought it was interesting how much cooler it felt !

I love weather, as soon as a storm is approaching I am glued to the TV and watching out the window. i will never forget the time I was watching the weather report on Fox 8 and Van I think was showing a pan view of the city. As he panned he came to a wall cloud and was saying where it was, I asked my mother, who was standing outside, where that was and she looked up in the sky and said "Over our heads"!! Sure enough I walked out side and looked up there it was... a big orangey grey swirling cloud! I was freaked and amazed all at once, I had never come so close to seeing one and here it was above my head! Thankfully nothing ever dropped down out of it but it was the most amazing thing i had ever seen... well aside from the "oak tree" lightening I seen in Ohio one year that caused me to jump and run and step on a piece of glass! That was the other time that I came close to a tornado, but I never seen anything I only heard about it and then seen the damages as I weaved this way and that around tree branches in the road and looked at the pitch black sky as it was moving away!

Other then the wall cloud the most amazing thing I have seen around here is our creek go from almost nothing to a river! The one time It over flowed so bad that there was a waterfall.. that was due to a clog though. We have also had to push a car out of the water before...there was only an inch of water in the car and we were up to our knees in water...we managed to push it out. I know they say stay out of it, but if you seen the area I am talking about it wasn't like I was going to get very far should I have been wisked away in it...lol. The one thing I find kind of funny is how people act so different to the water in the road in front of our house, you have to cross it to get to our driveway so I have a really good veiw of it. But some people creep slowly across it, others stop and wait before deciding to cross it and other zoom right through it as though it wasn't there! I usually stop for a second if it is high enough to make sure that the man hole cover has not popped off, and it has been known to do that. but other then that it is the one place I know that I can cross water and be safe! I have experience from when I lived and visited Ohio, there is this beautiful park in the middle of the city I grew up in, all based around the black river. There is a ford in the middle of the park that does overflow, and because of that sometimes it is closed off, but there have been times when the water was over it but not so high they closed it that we could drive over it in the water... talk about a neat thing for a kid. It felt like we were on a boat crossing the river. I loved the place and to this day when I visit my home town I go to this park. It is So very pretty and when you are in it you forget that you are smack dead in the middle of a city! so many trees and large boulders! I will have to post some pictures one day on here to share that with all of you! If you are ever in Elyria Ohio ask about Cascade park!

As much as I love this wintery weather it does have a BIG downfall for me. Namely I get a cold every time! At the moment I am sick, stuffed nose, aching body, sleepy and even a little dizzy. This is not the first time and I knew it was coming with the firt string of sneezing!

When the temps go up and down like they have been my sinuses go nuts and I end up with a sinus infection. This leads to coughing and feeling like a blob. I HATE feeling like this. But I am very prone to sinus infections. I never really knew why, didn't bother asking the doctor when I used to go for this stuff.

My theory is that because my nose is rather small that my sinus cavities are as well... I don't know if that is possible but it makes sense to me! lol THe other thought i have had is maybe because my nostrels are so small that it doesn't do it's job as well as someone with a regular size nose... Much like a young child they always seem to catch colds even before they are in school. My 2 year old son sure does and I worry that my genes have effected him the way they have me. I know he has "my nose" and has already shown in the past that he gets colds easily as well as ear infections (thank goodness those have stopped!) I have also thought that maybe my immune system isn't up to par, but then again I never seem to get fevers or anything else like the flu or stomache viruses, just sinus infections and colds. I have had strep throat in the past, but that was because my husband had it and in turn gave it to me, like me with sinus problems he catches strep easily.

So I am still to wonder why I am so prone to these sinus infections and colds? I am a smoker but this isn't really a factor to me because I have ALWAYS been like this, even before I picked up my first one. Like I said my son has shown me that he is much like me when it comes to sinuses, as it were I also was a chronic ear infection case when I was his age. I am concerned he will have to deal with these annoying and uncomfortable sinus infections for the rest of his life and I am not sure if there is anyway I can prevent that from happening or if I can help them not be so bad for him.

I love hearing other people's input on things so if you know ANYTHING about sinus infections or simply want to share your story with me PLEASE DO!

I was just curious to know why The Weather channel often has a different forcast for our area then Fox 8?

Well so much for our winter weather! Hope this new system is bringing in the white stuff... heck I will settle for ICE!!Maybe if I paint a picture of snow falling on High Point it will happen!! LOL

Had a wonderful time with my family the year of the big ice storm that knocked out all the power...we were lucky enough to only be out for a couple of days.

Anyway.. once again the snow is "here today, gone tomorrow". I think if I get rich I will build a summer home in Alaska! LOL This one northern born woman who misses the snow badly!

Hello everyone! I just wanted to say that I am LOVEING the wintery weather and hope for more to come! My son has never really had a chance to experience snow, he has seen it out the windows and that is about as much as he has gotten. the past few years as, I am sure many of you know, has not been very abundant in snow. He is turning 3 this year and has never played in snow! Being from Northeastern Ohio I grew up with snow and I would love to be able to share it with my son. Unfortunatly North Carolina doesn't get snowed on often, so I am really praying for the white stuff to keep falling!!!