I stick to decaf coffee after 6PM, I already stay awake too late. I sometimes do tea instead, chamomile is great, also like a seasonal tea, "Candy cane lane" which is peppermint but has vanilla and some other flavors in it. Can only buy it around Christmas.

I've been antsy when storms are coming every since 1981 when an F-3 tornado came through Lawrence, a block from where I lived with my 2 year old, in a mobile home. While we really got lucky, no damage to us or the house, walking back from the shelter, within 1/2 block of our place trailers were flipped and one was missing it's outer shell, the inner walls were still there.

We actually didn't run for shelter until the tornado was basically there because the radio station was announcing that although they couldn't see much because of the rain, they did not see any sign of a tornado. Turns out they were too far out and rain was so intense they couldn't see it even though it was visible from 30 miles away. The pic of the tornado was taken in Olathe, 30 miles from Lawrence. For a few years, when the wind kicked up on a storm, I would tense right up. Still get uneasy.

@DotLewis You're in tornado alley....OK...that explains some of your fears.

I'm in hurricane alley....not quite the same "fears" but we watch the tropical weather maps closely; especially in the late summer and fall. I have strong and expensive sliding shutters on all my windows that I'm required to close if I leave for more than a couple of days.

So I hear you.

@Robecology Hurricanes scare me worse than tornadoes. To me they are like giant tornadoes that run around the ocean and the coastline. When they come, you can't really "miss" them. (or they miss you) Tornadoes can swing through the neighborhood and still miss you (as I witnessed) while taking the neighbors. Guess it is kind of luck of the draw on escaping them. Hope hurricane season is kind to you.

It turned out fine, the bad system broke just before getting to us and passed on each side of Norton. We got rain but just regular, no hail or downpour. I worry about what we are in for in the coming years, I fear weather will get worse and worse as climate change worsens. Humans may have run the course of their time as dominant species on the planet. Perhaps being old(er) is a plus, good chance I could be dead before the planet kills us all. Gee, aren't I the morbid one? Maybe I shouldn't waste a lot of time worrying about the invasive plants.

@DotLewis I think it's like free will even if we don't believe in it we live as if we do! Sometimes I think I would like to live another hundred years just to see what happens. Other times I feel I wouldn't mind if I died tomorrow.

@CeliaVL I know what you mean. Lately I have thought I would love to be able to "time travel" so I could go forward and see what the world will come to in the next decades. Then I also have those moments when I think it might be gone before the real shit-storms hit. Guess it will just have to play out as it will but it can sure be depressing.