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Cool story (maybe)


12string

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4 minutes ago, 12string said:

firsthand knowledge, all true.

A fun story, and could/should easily be true.  Tornadoes aren't fires.  Things definitely don't get incinerated or vaporized, so you'd hope and expect a good bit of "stuff" to survive a tornado. 

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3 hours ago, Randomguy said:

I enjoyed the story, although it all sounds pretty made up.

Tornadoes do stuff that will blow your mind. In the Grand Island tornadoes (we had 7 in the same evening), one example was a house that had its roof lifted and set back down. The only reason the owners knew the roof had lifted was all the curtains were covering the windows from the outside of the house! I saw neighborhoods leveled except for 1 hose in the middle of it all relatively untouched. 

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2 minutes ago, groupw said:

Tornadoes do stuff that will blow your mind. In the Grand Island tornadoes (we had 7 in the same evening), one example was a house that had its roof lifted and set back down. The only reason the owners knew the roof had lifted was all the curtains were covering the windows from the outside of the house! I saw neighborhoods leveled except for 1 hose in the middle of it all relatively untouched. 

^^  This sort of stuff makes you wonder about how the universe is put together.

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One of her neighbor's houses had the whole side torn off, exposing the walk in closet.  All the shoes lined up except for the one shoe that was missing.  Another "isn't this odd" TV news story, followed by the other shoe being returned to it's owner from many miles away.

One farm had the roof lifted off the milking barn, laid back down nearby.  No cows left in the barn.  When they finally got a look under the roof, all the cows were in there, alive, only lost a couple.

My wife went to clean up at one hose, wondering why the owner would bother to neatly stack up all of his paint brushes, roller trays, paint, etc on a concrete pad.  Because that stuff was all in the shed that was iow in the neighbor's yard.

Pretty much every place we worked, the owners had stories like these.

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12 minutes ago, Airehead said:

There are no coincidences 

Coincidence:

I just planted a bunch of Maple trees, I have one that will need replacement soon.  They were free.  My wife's hairdresser gave them to her, got them from a guy who owns a business in the same building.  He got them from the state to replace trees destroyed in the tornado.  Some of which my wife and I cut up so he could get in his driveway.  (he wasn't ready to use them yet)

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3 hours ago, 12string said:

firsthand knowledge, all true.

Unless you were there, it is really far fetched and sounds concocted to be a religious meme on FB.  GWiMW, and all that. 

Two separate rings loosely placed, not in a box or connected to each other in any way, travel, in a tornado, and end up exactly together 20 miles away?  The extremes of unlikeliness boggles the mind.  And the water?  Much less of a coincidence that some items remain and fall to the ground, but it being specifically and mentionably "holy water" has 'spurious' written all over it.  "Look at the miracle, it was holy water and obviously blessed.  God is clearly sending a message".     

So after the house was demolished, the site cleared of debris and cleaned and completely dug out, they just 'happen' to be there at the exact moment before pouring concrete, the construction crew just decided to stand by and let them enter a construction site, just to let them have a moment of sentimentality and then they again 'happen' find the only item mysteriously missed while prepping the site, and it is the holy water, completely intact. 

It just sounds monumentally fishy to me, and doesn't get less fishy when it is examined more fully.

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2 hours ago, Randomguy said:

Unless you were there, it is really far fetched and sounds concocted to be a religious meme on FB.  GWiMW, and all that. 

Two separate rings loosely placed, not in a box or connected to each other in any way, travel, in a tornado, and end up exactly together 20 miles away?  The extremes of unlikeliness boggles the mind.  And the water?  Much less of a coincidence that some items remain and fall to the ground, but it being specifically and mentionably "holy water" has 'spurious' written all over it.  "Look at the miracle, it was holy water and obviously blessed.  God is clearly sending a message".     

So after the house was demolished, the site cleared of debris and cleaned and completely dug out, they just 'happen' to be there at the exact moment before pouring concrete, the construction crew just decided to stand by and let them enter a construction site, just to let them have a moment of sentimentality and then they again 'happen' find the only item mysteriously missed while prepping the site, and it is the holy water, completely intact. 

It just sounds monumentally fishy to me, and doesn't get less fishy when it is examined more fully.

Unless you have experienced a tornado, you won’t believe the weirdness that occurs. I’m not a very religious guy. The church pushed me away decades ago. Yet I still feel there might be something there. I’m not saying divine intervention was involved. But I have seen these types of coincidences over and over. 

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2 hours ago, Randomguy said:

Unless you were there, it is really far fetched and sounds concocted to be a religious meme on FB.  GWiMW, and all that. 

Two separate rings loosely placed, not in a box or connected to each other in any way, travel, in a tornado, and end up exactly together 20 miles away?  The extremes of unlikeliness boggles the mind.  And the water?  Much less of a coincidence that some items remain and fall to the ground, but it being specifically and mentionably "holy water" has 'spurious' written all over it.  "Look at the miracle, it was holy water and obviously blessed.  God is clearly sending a message".     

So after the house was demolished, the site cleared of debris and cleaned and completely dug out, they just 'happen' to be there at the exact moment before pouring concrete, the construction crew just decided to stand by and let them enter a construction site, just to let them have a moment of sentimentality and then they again 'happen' find the only item mysteriously missed while prepping the site, and it is the holy water, completely intact. 

It just sounds monumentally fishy to me, and doesn't get less fishy when it is examined more fully.

You sir, are begging to be smited!   :) 

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54 minutes ago, groupw said:

Unless you have experienced a tornado, you won’t believe the weirdness that occurs. I’m not a very religious guy. The church pushed me away decades ago. Yet I still feel there might be something there. I’m not saying divine intervention was involved. But I have seen these types of coincidences over and over. 

You always seem level headed and reasonable , but....

I  am from Ohio, where tornadoes are common.  I have driven around after (well after) a tornado and have seen the damage they can do, and I have seen the videos where one house is mostly fine and another is torn apart separated by not that much.  I know what can happen.   What I don't know is how any two superlight things like rings could be taken aloft, spun like mad, and still end up in the same exact place, 20 miles away.  20 miles?  In the air?  Ok, say you believe that part.  Maybe I misunderstood, and the rings were close by the original site, which is much more believable.  The next bit is totally unbelievable in any way.

The people claiming to find the intact and full bottle of holy water are lying, absolutely no question about it.  Why do I think know that?

Well, say it is agreed that the house is torn apart during the tornado, they emerge relatively fine and scuttle off.  Then, time goes by, and the site is demolished.  Then the site is excavated, just totally cleaned and dug out, flattened, graded, ready for concrete to be poured for the foundation.  Do you do that without flattening a mysterious bottle of water resistant, nay, untethered to the laws of physics?  No bulldozer ever produced by man could ever harm the indestructible bottle of holy water!  Is there also not a layer of dirt, sand, and gravel before you pour concrete?  So, amidst this, how do you 'find' that bottle of water in the exact spot you huddled while you rode the storm out, after all this? 

Then, on top of all this, they are able to get into an active construction zone?  No workers would let you in, insurance and regulations wouldn't allow that.  Say they come after hours, is there no fence?  In this age of theft, really unlikely.  Do these churchgoing folks ignore reason and signage, and clip a fence to trespass?   Assuming this, as they walk about unmolested in an active construction site, do they bring a shovel and start digging?  Nobody does that, it is not believable in any way unless somebody is really aching to believe a yarn like that.

Also, before all this, they are 'gifted' a bottle of holy water?  Uh huh, riiiiiiiiiiight, sure they were.  Vampires are everywhere, gotta be prepared.  NOTHING is believable in this story, not a thing other than the house got destroyed..

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22 minutes ago, Randomguy said:

NOTHING is believable in this story, not a thing other than the house got destroyed..

Maybe, maybe not.  I feel better if I read it and believe it to be true.  I win.  No one is telling me my life or the life of those I love are in jeopardy based on if I was tricked. 

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34 minutes ago, Square Wheels said:

I win.

See, I don't think so.  After a steady diet of wishes and untruths, you'll end up soft in the head and believing any cock and bull story out there as long as the logic circuits are turned off and you then want to believe.  Only believe believable things.

Religion doesn't have to be unbelievable, it is just that people go too far and try to make everything miraculous.   If you survive a tornado, that is plenty fortunate enough, but some folks want to add oomph to the story and make it about religion rather than good luck or just a tornado obeying the laws of physics. 

Is it a miracle to survive a tornado?  Maybe, if you frame it that way, but you don't need to throw in the bizarre, like a gifted indestructible bottle of holy water that god hid from literally everyone that touched the site, and also hid from the crushing weight of heavy construction equipment and materials, saved it just for these particular people.  Too much of nothing that seems even remotely plausible, and you completely turn off the logical folks.

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11 hours ago, Randomguy said:

See, I don't think so.  After a steady diet of wishes and untruths, you'll end up soft in the head and believing any cock and bull story out there as long as the logic circuits are turned off and you then want to believe.  Only believe believable things.

Religion doesn't have to be unbelievable, it is just that people go too far and try to make everything miraculous.   If you survive a tornado, that is plenty fortunate enough, but some folks want to add oomph to the story and make it about religion rather than good luck or just a tornado obeying the laws of physics. 

Is it a miracle to survive a tornado?  Maybe, if you frame it that way, but you don't need to throw in the bizarre, like a gifted indestructible bottle of holy water that god hid from literally everyone that touched the site, and also hid from the crushing weight of heavy construction equipment and materials, saved it just for these particular people.  Too much of nothing that seems even remotely plausible, and you completely turn off the logical folks.

My peacefulness level is high.  I am not anxious.  I don't have a need to prove others wrong.  I win.

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11 hours ago, Randomguy said:

See, I don't think so.  After a steady diet of wishes and untruths, you'll end up soft in the head and believing any cock and bull story out there as long as the logic circuits are turned off and you then want to believe.  Only believe believable things.

Religion doesn't have to be unbelievable, it is just that people go too far and try to make everything miraculous.   If you survive a tornado, that is plenty fortunate enough, but some folks want to add oomph to the story and make it about religion rather than good luck or just a tornado obeying the laws of physics. 

Is it a miracle to survive a tornado?  Maybe, if you frame it that way, but you don't need to throw in the bizarre, like a gifted indestructible bottle of holy water that god hid from literally everyone that touched the site, and also hid from the crushing weight of heavy construction equipment and materials, saved it just for these particular people.  Too much of nothing that seems even remotely plausible, and you completely turn off the logical folks.

Maybe you would feel better with a more detailed list of the other surviving things from the people in the story's house?  I'm sure it could be a long and exhaustive list - no way canned goods didn't "survive", and likely the ConEdison power bill turned up somewhere.  Probably a near complete set of silverware (how could that be destroyed?) is either found and back in action or lying unloved in a nearby ditch, but I think the point of the original story is that the "important stuff" made it through the destruction, and we should be joyous that it did.  Sure, the Apple charger and cable that made it through won't get any props for being nearly indestructible, but the photo that made it 20 miles in the wind will - because it has sentimental value and important to the people who almost lost it.  Just embrace the JOY, RG!

IOW, the story wouldn't be a very good one if it was just a list of all the stuff found, still in good shape, after the tornado.  Heck, who would even make an effort to return that can of tomato paste they found randomly in their yard? Not me. I'd just chuck it.

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1 hour ago, Square Wheels said:

My peacefulness level is high.  I am not anxious.  I don't have a need to prove others wrong.  I win.

Ok, if you like a story, you win.  If you don't care about it being true and you are in it for the fiction of it , then write a Hallmark movie about it, but don't claim it is true and expect wonderment.   You simply can't expect others not to question fantastical stuff like this, many are not willing to just gloss things over when implausibilities and impossibilities are stacked one upon another upon another upon another, as is the case here. 

In other words, you can't feed people BS and expect everyone to like it or take it, lack of critical thinking extends to other realms and thought patterns. 

Anyway, I am sure this cut-and-paster was sent 18th-hand to the op from a trusted source and it wasn't questioned at the time, they just rolled with it because that is what you do when your team rolls out a feel-good story.  You are in the moment and don't question it for whatever reason, and you just want to believe.   The story  isn't malicious, but I want to believe factual things instead.

As far as proving others wrong?  It is just another wild claim you can't prove or disprove, but you can show that the structural elements can't hold this stinker up.   You have to hope the population levels up when flaws in stories like this are pointed out.  Maybe there is a more tactful way to do it, but I do know that silence means assent to lots of people out there, and some aren't going along with the falsehoods.  

If you see something, say something.

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18 hours ago, Randomguy said:

Unless you were there, it is really far fetched and sounds concocted to be a religious meme on FB.  GWiMW, and all that. 

Two separate rings loosely placed, not in a box or connected to each other in any way, travel, in a tornado, and end up exactly together 20 miles away?  The extremes of unlikeliness boggles the mind.  And the water?  Much less of a coincidence that some items remain and fall to the ground, but it being specifically and mentionably "holy water" has 'spurious' written all over it.  "Look at the miracle, it was holy water and obviously blessed.  God is clearly sending a message".     

So after the house was demolished, the site cleared of debris and cleaned and completely dug out, they just 'happen' to be there at the exact moment before pouring concrete, the construction crew just decided to stand by and let them enter a construction site, just to let them have a moment of sentimentality and then they again 'happen' find the only item mysteriously missed while prepping the site, and it is the holy water, completely intact. 

It just sounds monumentally fishy to me, and doesn't get less fishy when it is examined more fully.

without going into personal details of the connection to the people in question, I have zero doubt of the credibility of this story.

And you've added/changed some details.  The rings were NOT 20 miles away, they were in a neighbor's yard.  The family didn't just "happen" to be there, they made regular trips to check on the construction.  It wasn't an exact moment, the concrete crew wasn't there, builders had left for the day, the visit was in the evening, and it was prior (a day, 2 days?) to the basement being poured. They were allowed to enter a construction site, it's their house.  It's actually a good idea to keep tabs, and pre-floor pouring is a good time to check.   They didn't dig anything.  

As I said, believe it or not.  I tend to believe miracles happen.  I've seen plenty.  They regularly defy things like physics, hence the "miracle" part.

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1 hour ago, 12string said:

without going into personal details of the connection to the people in question, I have zero doubt of the credibility of this story.

And you've added/changed some details.  The rings were NOT 20 miles away, they were in a neighbor's yard.  The family didn't just "happen" to be there, they made regular trips to check on the construction.  It wasn't an exact moment, the concrete crew wasn't there, builders had left for the day, the visit was in the evening, and it was prior (a day, 2 days?) to the basement being poured. They were allowed to enter a construction site, it's their house.  It's actually a good idea to keep tabs, and pre-floor pouring is a good time to check.   They didn't dig anything.  

As I said, believe it or not.  I tend to believe miracles happen.  I've seen plenty.  They regularly defy things like physics, hence the "miracle" part.

I believe you believe the source, you got the story sent to you or online or somesuch, I think your writing skills are far superior to that shown in the original post (which looks written to confuse or obfuscate reality).   That said, unless you were there, there is clear opportunity for embellishment at least, and I fully believe it was an opportunity taken.

I am glad you clarified the rings, the writing in the original post was all over the place and it wasn't clear.  It sounded like the rings were like a bonded pair of birds just on a 20-mile flight, landed together just waiting to get stepped on.  That part makes more sense now.

 I can understand wanting to see progress in the build site, yet I would be shocked that anyone would let other people into an active construction site unescorted, no matter who owns the future structure.  It truly doesn't matter if it is the weekend or the evening, nobody would consent to letting folks wander a build site, nobody.  I am not saying they didn't sneak in or break a lock or cut the fence, borrow a ladder, bring the whole family down into the basement area, but it seems extremely unlikely.  

I am still not buying the whole miracle aspect or even the bottle of holy water there for them to see right on top of the cleared, cleaned, and graded area that somehow everybody else and all the heavy equipment in the whole process missed, with a celestial beam of light directed at the bottle of water or a big glass of ice to pour it in..  I am still calling BS, it seems clear that the holy water bottle thing is a total fabrication as stated, and just for those whose minds are susceptible to and desperately want to believe a feel good fish story.  That items might remain after being blown about is no miracle, that simply happens just like RE said.  Wind blows, stuff gets reorganized.  Not a miracle.  And nothing defies the law of physics, nothing can.

 

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I have to agree with RG in that it reads like a LinkedIn feel-good story. 

If faith allows one to look at circumstance as an act from a greater power and they feel better because it, awesome.  I have no problem with that. 

I was raised in a moderate Christian home but like many, am educated in sciences so I tend to be wary of claims of miracles although if the facts are true, nobody can say whether this was a miracle or a series coincidences. 

MY father was a lover of the Bald Eagle and ofter fed them when cleaning fish.  He loved to sit of his deck overlooking the ocean and watch them soaring and hunting.  At his celebration of life, his grandkids let 86 white and blue balloons into the air.  The white symbolizing the Bald Eagle and the blue, the colour of the sky.  As the balloons ascended, an eagle appeared and circled the balloons until they were out of sight. 

The religious at the event found it to be miraculous and some suggested reincarnation.  We all see what we want to see in life events but we really ought not criticize the beliefs of others because there is no evidence that supports either side.  

When discussing religion with my wife, a devout Catholic, I would try to poke holes in her argument but she always came back with "having faith" and that is what religion is all about. 

 

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56 minutes ago, Randomguy said:

you got the story sent to you or online or somesuch,

What part of "first hand" isn't clear?  This was not a story that I read somewhere. And the people in the story aren't people who just make up stories.  You can call it BS and try to make all kinds of excuses why, but I'm telling you flat out, I know this for a fact to be a completely true story.  And the story has not been published, and isn't making the rounds on the internet.  I don't want to get more in detail, I'm trying to respect privacy for now.

I was the author of that first mish mashed post.  I am not relying on any religion or faith to believe the story, it is fact.  The faith part only come in to explain how it could have occurred in light of all of the obstacles (and physics)

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14 minutes ago, 12string said:

What part of "first hand" isn't clear?  This was not a story that I read somewhere. And the people in the story aren't people who just make up stories.  You can call it BS and try to make all kinds of excuses why, but I'm telling you flat out, I know this for a fact to be a completely true story.  And the story has not been published, and isn't making the rounds on the internet.  I don't want to get more in detail, I'm trying to respect privacy for now.

I was the author of that first mish mashed post.  I am not relying on any religion or faith to believe the story, it is fact.  The faith part only come in to explain how it could have occurred in light of all of the obstacles (and physics)

Ok, you got it first hand from them, and the writing is not as clear as your writing normally is. 

I simply don't believe them, I think they are looking for attention and are exaggerating at best.

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5 minutes ago, Randomguy said:

Ok, you got it first hand from them, and the writing is not as clear as your writing normally is. 

I simply don't believe them, I think they are looking for attention and are exaggerating at best.

I lean more towards the leaving a lot out.  I think what gets misinterpreted from this line:

Glad to be alive, with a realization that it was just "stuff", the only things they missed were personal things - some pictures, the rings, the Holy Water.

...is that there were likely countless other things - in addition to the picture, rings, and holy water - that were found/recovered, but the neat story around the photo being returned after being blown 20 miles is where the tornado's craziness & the story's main neato moment shows up.  

I remember decades ago, when balloons were still fun to release into the sky, our school had an event to see whose balloon would fly the farthest after being release. Every one got a balloon with the schools address and our name on it, and we all let loose at one time.  Eventually, it was expected that the balloons would fall to the earth and someone might find the balloon and let the school know.  Not sure how far they actually ended up going, but it was neat to think something could float miles and miles and miles.  A tornado sucking something up and dumping it 20 miles away is pretty nutty.  But, I guess they pick up cars and throw them over buildings, or suck up frogs and drop them on unsuspecting people, so the photo seems pretty plausible to me - but part of a bigger picture :) with lots of other details trimmed out.

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