****These pics were taken by a neighbor from our street during the tornado****
I learned a very valuable lesson this past weekend. It's a lesson most people learn early on but it seems I am a slow learner here. NEVER discuss politics with your friends and/or loved ones. Unless of course they agree with you on every single issue. I'm fairly certain that my neighbors hate me now, and I'm not sure my marriage will survive this election year. Me being a pretty liberal democrat and my husband a conservative republican can make for some pretty volatile "conversations". I think we just agreed this weekend to disagree and not discuss it any further. Even though he told me that democrats were a "naive little lambs" and the republicans were the shepherds guarding us from the "big, bad wolf" (No more FOX news for Tom). Seriously.....wtf does that mean?? So, in the interest of family and friendship I will not engage in any further political debates. Unless of course you agree with my liberal, tree hugging ass.
Besides arguing, we did manage to have an excellent weekend. Thursday night we headed out for some live music at the local outdoor mall. Declan had a fabulous time dancing and running around. Afterwards we hit up the irish pub for some more music and a couple of cocktails. Declan let us get crazy and stay out till 9!
Saturday night my girlfriends Jessie and Casey came over for girls night while Thomas participated in his fantasy football draft. We stayed up way too late and went through far too much wine but it's always fun to have a girl's only night! That is until your husband comes home and wants to discuss an Iraq exit strategy. Good times.
Sunday morning we headed to downtown Denver to take Declan to his first MBA baseball game! Thomas's company was hosting a free picnic at the Colorado Rockies game so we took advantage of the free burgers and beer tickets prior to the game. Declan got to hang out with his buddies Riley & Alyssa and discovered the joys of cotton candy and cherry slushees. Afterwards, we headed downtown to check out the DNC action. From about 2 blocks away you could hear shouting so we headed towards the action. Protesters were swarming the streets carrying anti-war and "Impeach Bush" signs. Isn't it a little late for that? I mean, I'm no fan of the current administration but really, there's only 4 months left, is it really worth the energy to impeach Bush?? One of the protesters approached Thomas to speak with him about the atrocities of war and part of me knew we should probably get out of there quickly, but another part of me wanted to see what would go down. Fortunately, Thomas behaved himself and we decided to walk the other way. I may be a liberal, but I am definitely not interested in participating in any anti-war demonstrations (sorry mom)! I'll keep those reasons to myself. We had hoped to get a glimpse of a celebrity but unfortunately not one was spotted! After we checked out all the action we headed to Old Chicago for some pizza and then jumped on the train and headed home.
On the way back, I noticed it was looking very dark to the south of us. The guy sitting next to me says that funnel clouds are touching down in Castle Rock and Parker (the neighboring town). Turns out, he was one of our neighbors and his wife calls to say that there is a funnel cloud visible from our neighborhood. Needless to say I am panicking. Fortunately, no damage was done and everyone's house was still standing. Thank God, tornadoes are rare where we live!
Here is a video of the tornado that touched down. Apparently the guy isn't smart enough to send his children to the basement, rather, he is ordering them upstairs. They must have done something to piss him off. I especially love the multiple "Holy Shit!" exclamations. I thought I was bad!
All in all, I think the storm caused 3 or 4 funnel clouds. Seeing as we have no basement in our house I am sure glad we weren't home! I remember as a child that even if we were under a tornado watch my mother would sequester us in the basement for hours until all threat had passed (and then some). I guarantee you would not have seen a Dahlen child anywhere near a window or door. Possibly for a day or two, just in case.
