Thumper Thinks Out Loud

You’d think that two college educated people would have at least a tiny iota of common sense.

You’d think.
And you might be wrong.
Probably, you’d be wrong.

Most of the time, the Spouse Thingy and I can reach those inner reserves and at least fake it. We know that, while the idea of sparks and Don King like hair might be kinda cool for 2.3 seconds, sticking a fork into an outlet would not be the brightest of moves. And we realize that while the cat enjoys it so much, there would be repercussions for letting him scarf down on as much shrimp as his little tummy can hold.

We’re not stupid.
Exactly.

So with some foundation of proof that we do have the capability of demonstrating common sense, we watched the Weather Channel this afternoon as it appeared a severe storm was moving through the area; Sacramento had already had a tornado warning (which did produce funnel clouds later declared to be The Real Thing) and we were “only” warned of impending rain and wind and hail. Of the Severe Variety.

So while the weather man was telling people to stay indoors and move to the safest part of the house (note to TWC people: most of us in northern CA don’t have basements, thusly, we cannot go to them) the Spouse Thingy and I did something else.

We went outside to watch.

We stood there, out of reach of the rain, and watched it pour. We watched lighting bolt across the sky. We watched hail fall and dance in the grass, boiling between the blades, popping up like…um…popcorn. We enjoyed the feeling of the wind and the sudden drop in temperature. We were as far from the safest part of the apartment as we could get without actually leaving the vicinity of the building.

Yep. We’s smart.

We’ve demonstrated this level of common sense before: in Illinois, as the guy on TV was screeching at people to take cover because a tornado was coming through, we stood by the big picture window in the living room and watched as the sky turned green. In North Dakota we stepped outside a few times to marvel at the force of the blizzards moving through.

Yep. That’s a college education for you.

Someday, someone will walk by my grave and read my tomb, and it’ll say simply, “Well, Hail!”