Photo Shoot! and… A tornado!

This is a post that would have been available on Thursday, May 16.

Here’s the most recent coloring book I randomly pulled from the shelf to pick a page to color. This one always makes me laugh because one of our nephews ruthlessly jokes about the “live, love, laugh” art that people put in their homes (including his mother), so I’ve probably told him at least once that I have and use this book.

Since The Musician is my current POV in the Neverending Saga, I picked this page to color.

You’ve seen that character doll on this site several times. He’s a piano prodigy, but for many reasons, and like many, many other musicians through the decades, a streak of rebellion and an instinct led him to the guitar. While I colored that page, I thought a lot about him, and where he’s been in his life so far. I got a fun (for me, at least!) idea for a photo shoot, an appearance at a record store circa 1974, where he signs photos and 45 records before a performance (in either a small town or a small venue).

Here are some of the photos I shot on Thursday afternoon. I don’t have many 1:6 scale props, so I do a lot of improvising.

I got all this done on Wednesday while Tom took Debby to an appointment at the end of his work day. They got home as I was putting the props in the guest bedroom, and I’d just uploaded the photos to my laptop when a tornado warning alert blared from my phone. I called into Tom and said, “A tornado? WHERE in Houston is a tornado?” I lived in an area of the South once known as a tornado “alley,” and I know a warning means a tornado has been spotted, but Houston isn’t just a city with a high population, it sprawls, much like Los Angeles. One area of the city may be impacted by something, while the rest of it is mostly unaffected.

Seconds later, I knew exactly where the tornado was–somewhere near or over us. As we moved through the house, we could see the impact of the wind on the trees and the sky was turning black, almost two hours before sunset. We grabbed the dogs and sat in the library with them. There was a lot of noise, a crash, four very frightened dogs, more banging noises. [ETA: We later realized two pictures were knocked off one of the walls in the office near where a large tree limb came down.] The power flickered on and off a few times, and then we were in near darkness as we lost electricity.

When that part was over, it was check-in time. Tom, dogs, and I were safe. Debby and Pollock were safe at her place. Tim was across town and safe. Lindsey and Rhonda texted to let us know they were okay and to check on us.

The impact of the tornado was only beginning for the city… and for us.