RECOVERY

Things are beginning to get back to normal and about the time we think they are back, we find something unusual. After work on Friday we made a few stops for errands and then as we were heading home I told Tollie I wanted to run into Walmart. Mind you, this is a 24 hour Super Walmart. As we came near the store, we realized there were no cars in the parking lot. They had closed at 6 pm!

Then Saturday, Jamie need to run to Walmart and I went with her. We arrived about 5:45 and had to wait in line to get in the door. They let us in about 5:55 and we were able to shop and get what we needed, only because the lines in the checkout were out into the store in every line open. Waiting for them to thin down, we were able to make our selections and then head to the checkout line where we still had to wait. It is unreal!

I wonder where all the people are coming from and yet everywhere you turn, businesses are asking for employees. It seems not everyone has returned to Beaumont, yet there are so many cars and people here. At first I thought it was from the line workers and tree workers, but they would be driving their trucks, and this is just car traffic! So, I'm not sure what the deal is or what is happening but it is no fun to run errands in a short amount of time. You have to make plans for everything to take longer then it use to.....which includes eating out. There is always a wait on sitting and everything just takes longer.

But I do believe things are getting back to normal. We seem to be getting back into a routine. Our routine is not yet normal simply because we still have our kids living with us. Their apartment is almost finished and probably they will be going back to their apartment this week. It will be quiet here when they leave. I love having the little girls come to our room every morning and give us a hug and kiss. Ashton wakes me up with a nose to nose kiss if I am still asleep when she comes in. She is so soft and gentle and happy!

Tollie leaves for Big Bend this week also. So......I may be here by myself the latter part of the week! That will be different, but it could be soothing at the same time. I think we have all be dealing with post traumatic syndrome. Not the kind where people are having to seek help, but a mild form of it where you just feel tired and emotional. This has been an emotional ride for all of us. I am thankful we had no more damage than we had, but what we have we are having to fix and I think we had assumed since it has been so long, we were immune to such devastation. It was a shock to see all the damage and now our landscape everywhere has changed. I really need to work in the yard and do some different things because I have always had so much shade and all my plants were planted with that in mind. Now......I have sun, full sun for much of the day. At least my plants will be able to adjust with the winter sun and not the summer sun. That will help. It will be interesting to see who all this comes up in the future.

Have a great week. I plan to.