The Spooner Storm

By Uncle Hans

There have been so many tornadoes in the USA this season that a recent storm in our area caused little notice.  It caught our attention, however.  We were at an outdoor dinner party on the bike on a sunny day when we started to hear thunder in the distance.  We turned on the TV and there were no warnings.  Same for our smart phones.  After 30 minutes of slowly louder thunder, we decided to leave on the bike because we lived east of there and the storm, as most storms, was coming from the west.  We got three miles and got a few sprinkles on the windshield.

15 seconds later, we were flattened by a flying poplar tree............

.........here is our tree, you can't even see the bike nestled inside there...............

  .............the leading edge of the storm developed into straight-line winds or even a tornado or two.  It caught many people unprepared and the time from first rain to disaster was just seconds in many, many stories.  We landed on the centerline in front of a summer cabin of a friend of ours, which can be seen in the back.............

  .....this scary picture looks like it's from a Stephen King movie poster.  But a little blood goes a long way...........

  .........Renee got poked in the side of the head by a branch and was bleeding profusely.  We went into our friend's cabin, inviting some other stranded people to share the shelter.  One was an elderly EMT who had his stuff with him.  He put dressings on Renee's wounds, and, unfortunately, called an ambulance..............

..... I say unfortunately because we turned out to have bumps and scrapes and other people more seriously injured had to wait for their turn for the ambulance.  Better safe than sorry, but we felt guilty when we heard the guy with the broken neck had to wait two hours for the ambulance.........

I cleaned up pretty well by jumping in the shower.  I had a chunk of poplar the size of a farmer's match stuck in my nose which I had to pull out with a hemostat.....

.....our time since has been spent pretty much in bed.  I was on call for the holiday weekend, 6 days in a row.  I stayed on call and operated, but spent the rest of the time laying low.  Road rash is basically a second degree burn.  It is quite painful, oozes a lot, and heals over 10-14 days.  This is our "pharmacy" and thank God for Vicodin!  We left the ER with 4 prescriptions apiece.......

.......as per previous instructions, Renee just held on tight and we fell off together.  She landed on me and got some rash............

.........I landed on the road and got a nice collection of rashes.  These things hurt a lot. even now, 8 days later........

   .........this is my "nest" and Renee has had to do a lot of laundry to clean up after me.  I drip and ooze everywhere I go.  I have been wearing scrub tops to work, but they bleed through and dry, sticking to me.........

  ..........this self portrait is on the 7th day. 
      We have not "learned our lesson".  On the 5th day we went out to eat with some of the same friends from dinner that night.  Renee wore the same dress (it does not even have a tear in it!) and we road a motorcycle 25 miles to the restaurant.

You have to "get back on the horse and ride".........

By Uncle Hans