Worley's World: An Unforgettable Night at the Theater

Last weekend, Rachel’s piano teacher, Jeeyoon Kim, was guest soloist for a concert with the New World Youth Orchestra at Hilbert Circle Theater. Rachel and I had talked about going, but the ticket prices were a little beyond what I wanted to spend. On Friday, Miss Kim contacted Rachel and asked if she’d like to help out by selling her CDs and DVDs during intermission and after the performance. As a thanks, she offered to give us 3 complimentary tickets! So, Rachel, Mick and I made plans to go.

As Sunday drew near, the weather reports were sounding ominous. First a moderate risk for severe weather, then a high risk. The worst was predicted to hit between 3 and 4 o’clock, before it all moved out by 5:00. The concert was scheduled to start at 5:00. This called for a change of plans. We decided Mick would stay home and Rachel and I would leave early enough to beat the bad weather. I knew the Central Library’s underground parking garage is a tornado shelter, so we decided to park down there and wait it out, if it became necessary.

We ended up spending a little over an hour in the parking garage. Things got very dark and blustery at one point and there was a very strong downpour. Rain was blowing at an angle and running down the ramp into the parking garage. I called Mick to check in and let him know we were safe. They were all in the basement, just in case. He said it was very quiet down there, in spite of the blowing going on outside, and the kids were fine. One strong storm had blown through and he was watching one more thin line of storms on the radar which looked to be headed in their direction. A little while later, I got texts from Heather asking how we were doing. She said a tornado had been spotted going through our town. By then, things had cleared up enough for us to make our way over to the theater. It was a bit of a hike and more storm clouds were bearing down.

We parked several blocks from the theater and made a dash for it, getting inside right before the skies opened up again. Things went very smoothly after that. Our tickets were waiting at the Will Call booth and we had box seats! We got there 15-20 minutes early and the concert ended up being delayed by about 15 minutes due to the weather. Once we were settled, I checked my phone and noticed Mick had tried to call 3 times (the phone was on vibrate). When I got a hold of him, he was walking around the yard surveying the damage. They had watched the tornado as it moved from west to east about 3 miles south of us!

A neighbor got this picture from a farmer a couple miles south of us.

Thankfully, the damage was minor: we lost some trim from one of the peaks on the back of the house and one of the old barn doors was barely hanging on (Mick fixed it the next day, thankfully).

While we were talking, I could hear the wind whistling in the background and the kids laughing and running around the yard. After we hung up, Rachel and I were able to just relax and enjoy the view and concert, which started a little while later. Miss Kim played beautifully and we added a new song to our list of favorites: Schumann’s “Piano Concerto No. 3 in A Minor.”