Have to interrupt narrative for breaking news. Last night we got some major, major storms in. Like, Motor City Furry Con weather. Severe storms were forecast for the night but the forecast kept getting bigger and more threatening as the weather approached.
About an hour before the storms were due ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger, worried about hail, asked my help in putting fleece blankets over her car. Cover is the way to minimize hail damage, after all, and while we lack a proper car cover or even enough of the heavy moving blankets that are ideal, the fleece we have for rabbit run areas would be better than nothing and probably adequate for pea-sized hail. While outside putting this on bunnyhugger worried what the neighbors would think and I assured her, they aren't looking and they don't care.
Later, the forecasts were for worse weather and hail maybe up to baseball size, and a couple bits of fleece won't help with that. What they might do is wick rainwater into her car interior, since they were pinched in the doorframe to tie them to the car. And that would lead to a mildew smell from the next forever. So, assuring bunnyhugger that it was dark and the neighbors would not see that we were undoing the work we had just done, we went back out to take the fleece off and discovered the neighbors had draped blankets over their better car too. I said ``This is going to start the weirdest feud with the neighbors.''
Still there was the question how to protect bunnyhugger's car. (I decided to just risk it, for my car, although I would park it way up in what I guessed would be the lee of the house.) She quipped about taking it to the vaguely creepy self-serve car wash to leave it under the overhang through the weather. I offered the Lansing Center, the convention center downtown with a large basement-level covered garage, where we always park for Silver Bells. After reassuring her I was in earnest, we went there, where her Insight and one cute sportscar were sitting out the storm, and drove back as the first raindrops were falling.
Then inside we got back to watching the weather, and the first cracks of lightning coming in. Also texts from JTK in Grand Rapids. About 11:30 the Emergency Alert System kicked in, including alarming my phone, with the word that we had a tornado warning and should shelter in the basement. bunnyhugger picked up Crystal's whole cage and moved the mouse downstairs to sit on the washing machine. I grabbed Athena from her cage and put her in the pet carrier where she sulked about what nonsense was this. After yanking out all the plugs of our electronics, including the RunDMD pinball clock, we sat in the basement watching weather maps and then the channel 6 live stream (their weather equipment was struggling to come back online after problems), and listened to lots of thunder and what might have been the tornado sirens never ending? Not sure.
But by a little past midnight things had settled down. We waited for the 12:15 expiration of the alarm anyway, and resolved to get some second chair that we could keep in the basement that would be okay enough. (bunnyhugger sat on a small stepstool.)
And with the promise of not much more happening I offered to drive bunnyhugger back to pick up her car, and this seemed better or at least cheaper than waiting until morning for it. (Even after midnight they charge $2 an hour.) This was ... not too bad going out. Lot of fallen branches, lot of trash bins knocked over, but we didn't pass anything too catastrophic. On the way back, a slightly different path because of the one-way street grid, we went past one blacked-out traffic light. And saw some pretty substantial-looking hail in the street, justifying bunnyhugger's caution even if it missed us by as much as three-quarters of a mile.
There was a lot of storm damage around town, not just the hail. Flipped 18-wheelers and a collapsed building on the westside. Trees falling through roofs, including one on a street nearby us. Possible tornadoes. Local weather people saying ``tornadic activity'' which I guess is a word but it sure sounds like it shouldn't be? Lot of power outages. I assume the only reason bunnyhugger's parents haven't called to tell us they're okay is because their power is once again out and they're cell-phone-averse. But, no significant harm to us, apart from shorting my night's sleep a bit. Once again we've turned out lucky through all of this.
That said, let's enjoy a little more Kennywood photography. No storms, just sun and heat this time around.
First room inside the Noah's Ark is a bunch of supplies, everything you need to survive forty days and nights of rain, like potatoes and wine and cats. Another bin offers 'skunks' and invites you to smell it.
Tried my hand at photographing some of the darker showcases despite the boat rocking. So here's one of those river attractions. I can't make out what the feature is.
You get a brief moment outside, so here's a look at the whale and the queue and the top of that ice cream stand that's not there anymore.
Back inside here now. You can see a bunch of rabbits, Noah's Wife, and Dr Zaius.
And here's some kangaroos. Not Kenny, probably.
Hmm, well, this sign looks inviting. Wonder what might be there? The answer should come tomorrow!
Trivia: Famous Funnies' Heroic Comics adapted the story of 13-year-old Lansing resident Hugh Decker's rescue of his seven-year-old brother Theodore from the Grand River. Source: The Bicentennial History of Ingham County, Michigan, Ford Stevens Ceasar. I must note that I can't find this issue in Heroic Comics, though it's possible they published it under a fake name. There's a lot of stories of rescuing kids from rivers there. Like, the September 1950 issue has stories of kids rescuing another from the Gooden Creek in Vassar, Michigan, which turns out to be a place that exists, and the Aberjona River in Aberdeen, Massachusetts, and at least three stories of grabbing kids out of frozen rivers or ponds. There is a story in the May 1951 issue of a kid saving his brother Teddy on the Grand River (Adrift In A Rowboat, page 45), but the other names are different.
Currently Reading: Miscellaneous comic books.
