The Calm After the Storm

I live near the coast, about 35 miles from VA Beach. I grew up in Hampton Roads closer to the water than where I am today. I have experienced quite a few storms in my almost 53 years, several hurricanes, and I have actually survived three tornado's. I should be use to storms by now, you would think. That old cliche "the calm before the storm" really holds true. The sky's are usually very clear and light blue with white puffy clouds... the kind of clouds you spend your time looking up at and using your imagination to see really cool things in like, "oh look its a big white lion" or "that's the white mustang I've been dreaming about.". Now tornado's are not your usual storms. Unlike most of the hurricanes I have been through, with tornado's there is no warning. A tornado comes in quick, sucks up everything in its path and then spits it out on whats left of what it already obliterated.
In the summer of "72' my now husband and I were driving on Interstate 64 in Chesapeake,VA near what was then the small community of Great Bridge. It had been raining for a while, the road was already slick and visibility poor when the drops started coming down much harder. With no warning a blanket of black was thrown over the top of the car and we couldn't see two feet ahead of us. We were sucked up in a spinning void of darkness and hurled back out a mile down the road. We landed across a ravine. On each side of that ravine were large trees with looming branch's and huge roots. The car was slammed so hard upon impact and the force of the twister so powerful that the zipper on the long formal dress I was wearing was completely ripped apart and thrown into oblivion. The car (a brand new Javelin) was completely totaled. Not a scratch on either one of us. We waded through the deep wet ravine and walked away from the wreck that was once a car, into the clear light of day. The rain had stopped, the sky was blue and there were those beautiful white puffy clouds.
I stayed sick at my stomach for several days after that first tornado, and I've never taken storms for granted since.
I guess I am a pro at surviving storms. I learned to survive the stormy years of my childhood, adolescence, and teenage years, and now I am learning to survive a different kind of storm.
When my daughter was in college I worried about her, after all she was almost 1000 miles away. I talked to her everyday though and I understood that this was a time in her life to learn not only academics , but that the college experience as a whole would be invaluable. Yes, she did stupid things, most college kids do, but she had a great time and to this day tells me it was the best time of her life.
When she graduated and came home six years ago she met DICKWEED. For five years it was like getting beat to death by one of those coastal storms...worse than a hurricane, messier than a North Easter and just as cruel as a tornado. It's been pretty calm sailing for the last several months...up until now. It's hurricane season down here on the coast of VA. We have a lot of severe thunder storm warnings and tornado spin offs. Lets hope the worst passes us by this year.