Friday, April 10, 2009

None is more impoverished than the one who has no gratitude. ~ Fred De Witt Van Amburgh

We had severe weather through Arkansas last night. Here in central Arkansas it was mostly heavy thunderstorms ~ thunder, lightening, heavy rain, wind. The town of Mena in western Arkansas was not so lucky. The weather through their small town was so severe it developed tornadoes. Three people are dead. Homes and businesses were destroyed. There is devastation throughout the town. And, I was getting annoyed because the television station kept breaking into Hell's Kitchen to give severe weather updates and I didn't get to see the end to find out who was kicked off. How petty and self-involved is that?

Actually, I am ashamed to have responded like that, and I am so grateful that we didn't experience the deadly weather that roared through Mena.

There was also damage reported from El Paso, Arkansas, which is just a couple of miles from where we used to live in the rural part of the county, so I'm sure they had really severe weather there, too. I haven't talked to my friend and former neighbor, Lana, yet this morning so I don't know how bad it got out there.

This morning, we may get a little more rain, but the storm has blown through with just a few clouds remaining, and the skies should be sunny later this afternoon.

My son, Chris, arrived here day before yesterday and already I can see the difference in Tom. He's in a much better mood; not so solemn. With Chris here to help Tom get caught up, the pressure on him is not quite as overwhelming. They may pretty well catch up before Chris leaves for home next week. We were lucky that he was available to help out right now, since he just finished a kitchen remodeling job and hadn't found anything else yet.

My son, Mike, has had to leave his family, too, to find work. He is working on a job in northern California for the week and will drive home for the weekend to spend time with his family. He will do that for the duration of the job, which is about a month.

I don't know why Tom is so busy. It doesn't really make sense. His work should be slow, too. But, he is swamped. He's getting calls from places in the state where he's never worked before this. It seems like all the other stair builders in the state have disappeared and Tom is the only one left. It has just got to be a fluke and I cannot even begin to express how grateful I am for that. But, it also makes me so sad to see my sons and daughters-in-law having to struggle so hard to make it through this economic disaster. The whole thing makes me so mad and I want to yell and scream and blame somebody...but there are too many to blame and it is pointless to waste my energy on all that.

On to more positive things. Tom's mom and dad are coming over for Easter dinner on Sunday. We are having leg of lamb. My mother-in-law is bringing her own mint jelly. This is our menu...



Not too elaborate, but tasty just the same. No matter what your belief, where you go or what your plans, I hope all of you have a warm, loving, safe, fun and blessed Easter.

UPDATE: Someone left a comment earlier with a link that required a download. I have deleted that comment and will continue to delete all comments with dangerous links that could harm my readers' computers. Over and out.

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