Joplin remembered and other stuff

   Today is the one-year anniversary of the Joplin tornado.  My prayers go out to all of those affected by the tornado for comfort and solace today as they remember loved ones, homes and businesses lost and lives changed forever, especially with all the media blitz going on.  I had just made it to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to start my vacation a couple hours before the tornado hit.  I remember calls from DMan and my folks to tell me what happened, then watching the devastation on The Weather Channel and CNN until I had to turn off the TV because I couldn't stop crying.  DMan actually flew out of Joplin two days later to join me in Myrtle Beach, so he got to see the horror from the air.  Every time we told someone we were from Missouri, they would ask about Joplin and what we knew about how things were going.  Seemed like the whole country was united, at least for a little while, around the rescues and recovery going on.  So many people stepped up to help in so many ways, and the help continues even today.  It gives me hope for humanity that we are not only about the greed and meanness I see every night on the news.  I'm so tickled that today is a beautiful blue-sky day for this anniversary, not a dark cloud or rumble of thunder anywhere, so Joplin can celebrate all they've survived and how far they've come in moving forward.

   My hair stylist told me the other day that she doesn't like doing all her shopping at Wal-Mart.  She said they are getting too big and scary and are taking over our lives with having banks, eye doctors, restaurants, tax services, health clinics, and even beauty shops right in them so people don't have to take their business anywhere else.  I hadn't really thought about it like that, but it got me wondering, what's next?  Will Wal-Mart be adding loft apartments above the store and patio homes around the parking lots, having shuttles carry folks right to the front door?  Instead of Supercenters will we be seeing Wal-Martvilles?

   Don't know if I mentioned it before, but DMan and I live right behind Jeffries Elementary, the site of God-awful construction and ruckus for months now.  Yesterday, we tried to take a nap before DMan had to go back to work last night, and I swear the rumble of the roller vibrated our whole duplex!  Our bed felt just like a cheap motel vibrator bed, the ones that you put quarters in the machine to make it go.  Poor DMan has to keep industrial-size fans running on high on both sides of the bed to get any sleep during the day.  Even when they quit working for the day, I can still hear the beep, beep, beep of the Bobcat backing up ringing in my head.  We are moving next week, and aside from the fact that I this will be my fourth move in seven months and I'm sick of moving, I will be sooo glad to get out of this construction zone.  Powerhouse Moving, take me away!!  I just feel sorry for the poor suckers moving in here.  I'll bet they have no idea what they are in for.
   Have a melty sunshine crazy day, Yall!