Fury from the skies!!!

outside my house this afternoon

We have just had an almighty thunderstorm here, crashing and flashing for the past hour! Poor Gizmo cat was fast asleep in his bed and ran to me in the sitting room crying and wide-eyed, poor little thing... though some tasty treats soon took his mind off it!

I have always had a lifelong battle with storms. One of my earliest memories is of my Nan (who was also scared of storms) rushing around covering up mirrors and opening windows "so that the thunderbolt can escape". Of course, I don't blame my dear Nan for my fear of storms but it is nice to know that other people get frightened of them too!

Storm anxiety for me is actually more like a phobia. My heart races, I can't catch my breath, I shake, experience feelings of fight-or-flight and generally feel very, very frightened. Irrationally, I convince myself that lightning will always find ME. Silly really but I can't help it. One term for the phobia is Astraphobia, which makes me smile because it sounds like I'm terrified of Vauxhall Astra's!

I would LOVE to be able to sit and watch a storm, as the drama of crashing thunder and the beautiful lightning show is quite something. Night time viewing has always been a no-no as the lightning freaks me out and my idea of hell is being woken in the middle of the night by a storm!

I even tried watching the storm just now as the lightning was still vivid in daylight, but I chickened out after a big flash and crash... oh well, one day!

It does infuriate me though as ironically I have always been interested in anything to do with the weather. When my friend Lisa and I went to New York we LOVED the Weather Channel. Why can't we have one here in the UK?!

I particuarly like tornadoes. Well, I say "like". To say that I find them fascinating is probably a better description. Obviously I feel sorry for the death and devastation that they cause every year, but I think that they are visually stunning.

I would really love to go storm chasing in the US but the combined problem of my storm phobia and CP means that I wouldn't be able to run quickly to the chase vehicles, so I'll never be able to go. I do enjoy watching tv documentaries on storm chasing and have found some amazing photos on the net. What a true GEEK I am!

There's always something awesome about the power of Mother Nature. However technologically advanced we may be, Mother Nature always has the last word.

xx