12 APR 07: THE SECOND WAVE

The siren sounded in my neighborhood around 7:30 Wednesday night. The severe weather siren, I mean. Thankfully, Columbus Police still have not invaded my home and seized my blogging computer.

A line of severe storms and possible tornadoes moved through the area, for the second time in six weeks. Thankfully, Columbus escaped serious damage this time -- because it would have looked bad for the Bush administration to overlook Muscogee County in a disaster declaration again.

The biggest hazard from Wednesday night's storms may not have been from tornadoes. Hail was reported in several counties, damaging at least 14 cars -- and in Fort Mitchell it reached the size of grapefruit. Why, one of those stones would be large enough to cool off a Big Gulp drink all by itself.

One Fort Mitchell woman told WXTX "News at Ten" the storm approached her house like a tidal wave, so she stood outside for about ten minutes and watched the hail fall. Hopefully she wore her bicycle helmet for protection as she did....

The Seale area reported "baseball-sized" hail -- and the residents there probably don't mind. It's all the better for Russell County High School's team to practice....

The tornado sirens sounded in Columbus because radar showed a potential twister in the making. The red-and-purple glob shown on the TV screen had what's called a "hook echo." I'm not sure the Columbus Catfish mascot "Hook" ever has said anything, to produce an echo.

Every time the tornado siren sounds, I face a dilemma -- because I can't do what the TV weather experts tell me. I can't go to a lower floor, because I'm in a one-story apartment. I can't really go to a "center room away from windows," because my apartment really has no such thing. And I can't even park my car under a carport, unless you count a big tree near the street.

So when the siren sounded Wednesday night, I shut down the computer to save a big repair bill from a lightning strike. Then I went to my "central location," in a far corner of the living room. I could watch weather updates on TV -- and duck under the wall furnace, if high winds shook the metal frame loose.

About 20 minutes into the Muscogee County tornado warning, WRBL left its weather coverage to show the final rounds of "Wheel of Fortune." I never realized those "Wheel Watchers" call TV stations as fervently as the "American Idol" viewers.

I wound up with some nice rain in my neighborhood, but no hail. So I'll have to keep my little sealed cup in my freezer awhile longer -- the one containing some of Columbus's last snowfall. If only I'd thought to write a date on it, for history....

E-MAIL UPDATE: Maybe we simply aren't savvy with our steaks - as we heard from a reader about Wednesday's review of Ben's Chop House:

I grew up eating what we called Chop Steak..it was chopped all right...usually it was ground round...so in my menu vocab.chop steak does not mean it is the name of a special steak of Ben's Chop House,but chopped meat...guess it is an old Columbus thing.. Have you ever tried "Evelyn's" for lunch next door to Rosehill Seafood..They have an excellent chop steak with veggies for the same price as the tip you left at Ben's..

I couldn't tell if I was eating ground round, plain old ground beef, ground chuck - or at a price of $15.95, ground Charles might be closer to it....

While I've dined at Rose Hill Seafood once or twice, I've never been to Evelyn's Café on Hamilton Road. But then again, I don't eat "lunch" very often -- unless you count hours of occasional nibbling from my stash of chocolate, tortilla chips and cookies.

Now that I've probably revealed a bit too much about myself, let's check other news highlights from Wednesday:

+ A town hall meeting in Harris County brought out about 200 people, many of them against a big new development called "The Grove." Some residents say they don't want commercial businesses across the street from them. Someday they'll realize they're in a Columbus suburb - and only one Waffle House in the county simply isn't enough.

+ Two environmental groups set up an "inflatable power plant" outside the Government Center. They oppose plans to build a coal-burning plant in Early County - and one of its pretend smokestacks said "asthma attacks" on it. So do these groups also support clear-cutting all the pine trees, to reduce the pollen count for asthmatics as well?

+ WRBL reported two Shetland ponies disappeared from a Lee County business, only to be found later near Chambers County. OK, which parent made one promise too many for a birthday party?

+ Alabama Governor Bob Riley says he wants to end the practice of "double-dipping" by state lawmakers - where they make money from government jobs, in addition to the legislative pay. More and more, Senator Ted Little's deal with the private Lyman Ward Military Academy makes him look like a stinking genius.

+ Which man is sending apology letters all over Columbus, because a statistician never showed up for last weekend's Columbus Lions indoor football game? It's a shame the World Indoor Football League is so low-budget that it couldn't have asked a child in the stands to keep track of the numbers.

+ The National Football League released its 2007 schedule. The Atlanta Falcons have three prime-time home games - two on Monday night and one on Thanksgiving. Someone in the league office must be betting Michael Vick doesn't get hurt.

+ Instant Message to the Duke men's lacrosse team: I've got a great idea! Hold a "unity summit" with the Rutgers women's basketball team, since you now have several things in common. But I wouldn't dare go so far as to suggest you have a party....

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