I had
just dug into a tasty helping of chili at our Annual Chili Cook-Off when someone
approached me with a concerned look on her face.
“Dan,
my husband called to say that a tornado has touched down in Wilmington. That’s not far from here.”
I had
heard the weather was going to get rough but I had been busy and hadn’t really
thought too much about it. Looking out
the large windows I saw heavy rain, blowing sideways. It was dark… at 12:30 in the afternoon.
I
thought, “Hmm, I better let people know what’s happening.”
“Can I
have your attention, please?!?
Everyone!!! Please!” I called out
several times. The fellowship hall grew
quiet. “Folks, we want to let you know
that a tornado has touched down in Wilmington, Illinois which is not too far
from here. We have some people who are
monitoring the weather. We’ll provide
updates as the situation changes.”
There
was a moment of quiet, a few nodding heads and then everyone went back to
talking and eating chili. It’s very hard
to stop our folks from enjoying good food.
It wasn’t
too long before we were getting reports of tornados touching down in even
closer locations: Frankfort, Tinley Park, Alsip and even at the corner of 111th
Street & Cicero Avenue—which is about 2 blocks from the church.
(One
person even told me there was a very small tornado ripping through my office. But that just turned out to be Bob Miller and
some of the other ushers, wrestling.)
.
In the
meantime, most of the folks hung around, the votes were counted and Shital
Thakkar won first place in the Chili Cook-Off.
His “Internet throw-down strategy” seemed like it might be a bit of a risky
maneuver to me, but it paid off. Mark
Bogard took second place.
I didn’t
get a final count but I believe there were only one or two fist fights, so, it
was a quiet year from that standpoint.
(And I
hate to disappoint, but I did not do any of my ninja moves. Sorry, perhaps next year. Or… you never know… I’m not making any
promises… but… Yia Yia Palooza is coming soon…!)
As I
was heading home, after the event was over—across the somewhat flooded church
parking lot—the sun began to peek through the clouds. I looked at the temperature on the sign at the
bank: It was 62 degrees with just a
slight breeze and sunny.
I shook
my head and laughed knowing that I would only need to wait for 20 minutes, or
so, until the next “season” arrived here in Chicago. Who knows?
Maybe it would bring a lovely winter snow. It’s always fun to make a snowman after you’ve
had a few hearty bowls of chili!
