Tornado Awareness

Part of me wants to start a tornado awareness campaign of sorts for my fellow Alabamians.  It begins with "Any time it's warmer than 65 degrees on an overcast day in  January, you should check the weather" and ends with a link to the weather blog.  Also, information about polygons and the 'tornado alley' we have running from west central Alabama up through northeast Alabama.  And I'm not victim blaming here; these storms are strong and will do what they will.  That's not where I'm going with this at all.  But saying there is no warning is generally just saying you didn't receive the vast amounts of information that was floating around.  It's unfounded.  If someone wasn't warned, it's from a lack of education about weather and warning systems.  So many people don't even realize that those warnings aren't county wide; they're for a relatively specific polygon.  Our siren system just hasn't caught up to that yet, and people place far too much reliance on it.  My friend Elizabeth over at Adventures in Life, Love & Librarianship speaks her bit about preparedness in much more eloquent, informational fashion than I could muster today.  Go check it out!



*I will add that many, MANY people in our area do take these storms seriously.  We've been through enough as it is.  And I will give a shout out to every person who closed on a loan or house at our office today...they've all mentioned the storms and told each other (and their trusty closing attorneys) to be careful.  When the going gets rough in the South, we generally just get better.

Lessons of Moving

Jay and I are officially moving to Birmingham, and the cleaning up and cleaning out process has taught me a number of things:

1.  I am a sucker for charitable organizations that send address labels to me.  I threw out nearly ten different types of address labels last night, and I have a sneaking suspicion that I will find more before this is all over.  (Plus the notepads, greeting cards, etc. that they send.  I'm not sure how I got on all these mailing lists because, while I donate to a few charities, it isn't very much or very often.)

2.  I need a specific place where information regarding various electronic items we have can live.  I have unearthed discs that came with computers that died ages ago, booklets about cellphones that are long gone, and software that is long outdated.  This stuff needs to be in a place that I check fairly often to figure what needs to go away and what should stay.

3.  We have entirely too many socks.  Especially white, athletic socks.  Jay and I both work in professional environments, and the embarassing amount of white socks that we have is ridiculous.

4.  I have some very pretty kitchen things that I've never used.  I love them, but I'm not sure I will ever use them.  And I don't want to end up just keeping things because I like them.  They don't have sentimental value, and I can think of people in my family who would get much more use out of them.

5.  As much as I love all my books, they are a PAIN to move.  But I still can't bear to part with them.

6.  There are a lot of things about Tuscaloosa I'm going to miss.  My co-workers, the proximity to some dear friends, the Quad, Sitar (Indian food heaven, in my humble opinion), the Winn Dixie right next to the apartment, my people at my Books-a-Million, and other things that I won't think of until I pass them and realize how much I'll miss them.  Tuscaloosa has been good to me, and I will miss it dearly.  Heather and I are already planning a trip for at least one football game.  Roll Tide.