Again, I find myself spending an inordinate amount of time, sheltering in place with my lovely wife, so I have another story about her to share.
On May 4, 1998, I was at my in-laws’, watching television. Everyone else was outside, but I was violently allergic to some of the plants that they grew by the swimming pool, so I stayed indoors (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it). My wife returned from a shopping trip with Jade (again, maybe she’s the common denominator here) and while my daughter ran outside to go swimming, Mia excitedly pulled me away from whatever show I was watching. Probably Maury Povich, he’s my favorite.
“Wes, I just saw a tornado!” I listened patiently while she explained that she had seen the clouds darken and swirl and start to reach for the ground.
Then I told her that the San Francisco Bay Area does not get tornados. We do not have the proper landscape or weather patterns. The buildings and road also compromise the weather systems needed to create a tornado. She tried a couple of times to convince me and I responded with, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Mia looked physically hurt. “Well, I thought it was a tornado.”
“I’m sure you saw something, I don’t know what,” I said, “But it wasn’t a tornado.”
Mia nodded and we turned on the news to see what had actually happened. Immediately, there was a reporter in the field talking.
“Well, Bob, it appears that we had a tornado, here in Sunnyvale. It tore the roof off the house behind me.”
Well, how about that. Who doesn’t know what they’re talking about?
Just a note to follow-up on this story. I’ve told it for years and Mia always got mad at me. I finally asked her why she got mad? Mia said that I was making fun of her. Incredulous, I asked her how I was making fun of her?
“I don’t know. Somehow,” she said, frustrated.
I really do love her.