A Year Ago

The tornado hit. I'm still finding debris all over the yard, and every once in a while I find a spot on a doorway, or window ledge that has melted plaster still stuck to it, but for the most part, we're back to normal.

You can click in the June, 2008 archives to see all the pictures if you want-but I'd prefer not to look at them. Danny thinks we should do something to mark the occasion. I seem to have a glut of extra cookie dough at the moment, so maybe we can take some to the hotel where we stayed for the week after the storm. The people who worked there gave us a discounted room (they insisted, actually) and went well out of their way to fuss over Danny who was still kind of shell-shocked when we got there. The two women at the front desk took my little boy by the hand and opened the walk-in cooler to the kitchen and told him he could have anything he wanted. He shyly asked for some apple juice, which they gave him and then proceeded to try and give him everything else in the kitchen. It was a kindness we'll probably never forget. You wouldn't think apple juice and some cereal would be that big of a deal, but there was a normalcy in it-something like home. They spent the rest of the week doing the same and by the time we left, our then three year old son was pretty much back to normal-I really do credit the wonderful hotel staff with making that happen. They didn't have to go out of their way to spend time with him, and no one asked them to do it. Those are the things I'll remember most about the tornado, not having a barn fall atop my car -I never did like that Volvo anyway ;)

The weather is calm today, the sky sunny and cool enough that we can get by without air conditioning. I guess I really should go wipe the plaster splatters off the bedroom doorway that I only noticed a few days ago...I mean, it has been a year (who washes their doorways regularly enough to notice that? Actually, does anyone ever wash their doorways?).