I'm no daredevil. . .

. . .by any means. But, if there's one thing I want to do before I leave this planet, it's to successfully chase down a tornado. (Requires registration.) I've always been fascinated by them, despite the fact that I'm not too crazy about being in violent weather. I've been in a few nasty storms, and though I don't crumble in stark fear, or run shrieking from room to room, I find them unnerving. Still, even as I sit there waiting for the roof to fly off, wondering if I ought to go ahead and put on a toe tag, I'm in awe.

Fortunately, I've never lost a friend or relative in a weather related fatality, though I do have friends whose homes have been destroyed in straight-line winds from a very nasty thunderstorm several years ago. (If you have a taste for cruel irony, consider the fact that no one was home at the time, except for their dog -- which managed to survive the storm, only to be killed by a passing vehicle a few hours after the family had found her.) So, I'm keenly aware of the havoc events such as tornados create in people's lives. Yet, I can't help watching in wonder when I see images of homes disintegrating under the immense power of a twister on The Weather Channel, and I want badly to witness that power firsthand -- at a distance, but firsthand.