Don't Move to Oklahoma. For a couple who's lived on the East Coast all our lives, K and I have had our share of close calls with tornadoes. I'm thinking of this because a tornado touched down in La Plata, Maryland, which isn't particularly close to us, but the same storm passed over our town. It got me thinking about the various tornadoes that seem to follow us around.

• 1995, central New York. While driving along Interstate 90, going home to Syracuse, we had to stop because of a torrential rain storm. We found out that tornadoes had touched down just south of where we were.
  
• 1995, Monmouth, Maine. While I was employed at a local theater, there was a torrential storm (which knocked out power in the middle of a performance of Much Ado About Nothing) and a tornado formed directly over the center of town, though it never touched down.
  
• 1997?, Silver Spring, Maryland. While picking my wife up at work, I hear over the radio that a tornado has touched down, one town over.
  
• 2001, College Park, Maryland. A tornado touches down around the Capital Beltway, tearing through College Park and skirting our town, Greenbelt. You can still see the damage path.
  
• 2002, the above-mentioned storm in La Plata.
  

Not a bad record for folks who've never even visited Tornado Alley. Call Aunt Em on the cell-phone, would you?