The Storms No Longer Scare Me

One thing about leaving Florida is that weather no longer phases me.

For years the scaremongering about hurricane season sent my anxiety on one hell of a spiral. Weeks of warnings and days of tracking each and every storm left me a basket case from June through November. It was so bad that, after 2017, Joy and I agreed we would no longer travel together during September.

It wasn’t that the house was in any real danger or anything like that. Our worst danger was the giant trees we had removed last week. It was the constant fearmongering combined with forecasts that tended to favor the worst-case-scenario for days or weeks of each storm that got me.

Tonight, as I write this, we’re under a severe thunderstorm warning in Chicago and… I just don’t care.

The only annoyance is it’s the only thing on the TV. The storm itself will hit us or it won’t. There’s nothing I can do about it and no evacuation plans so… whatever.

I won’t lie, I’m grateful for the lack of anxiety, for once.