"Rain on a strange roof, thinking of home.” *

Due to the building-within-a-building design and absence of windows here, I usually have no clue what the weather is like until I go outside to rec. If the field is closed, I know it is either currently raining or has rained and muddied the field.

This evening there were the usual thunderstorm warnings that accompany late spring in Texas, but suddenly one of the counties on the map overlaying CSI.NY turned red: tornado warning. Rec had just been called out and I didn't go because it was in the gym only. A couple of minutes after the red county, people started running back to the dorm. Hail was dropping outside and they had been ushered in because of the tornado warning.

For the first time I could hear the rain hitting the roof two layers up. Then rain started dripping in through the light fixtures stuck in an all-metal building with metal bunks and lockers all around me. If this thing does hit, I'm a goner.

Luckily there was no tornado. I don't think there were any touchdowns. We didn't even have a power outage.

*“How often have I lain beneath rain on a strange roof, thinking of home.” - William Faulkner