Tornado Perspective

Elkmont, Alabama

Weather: low 52 degrees, high 86 degrees, clear skies

The weather is getting nice. It's enjoyable to sit on the screened porch, soaking up the warmer temperatures, watching the birds do their thing with nests and babies. I know the humidity is coming, but I'm loving this.

I slept better last night, even though I still feel like I had some of the sleeping pill affecting me from the night before. Carolyn said I didn't seem to dream like I did the night I took the pill, but was still a little restless. I do know that I felt better today, and I will not take another of those sleeping pills. What in the world was I thinking to take that thing? Especially since I had never used them before. Oh, that's right, I forget that everyone has to learn for themselves what works for them. I'm here to tell you that these particular sleeping pills don't work for me.

Today was the first day without chemo drugs this week. I'm glad that I get a break every week like this, since it may help the severity of the drugs on my body. My brother-in-law Roger and sister-in-law Kathy don't seem to get a break like this. Of course, one thing to keep in mind is that they are actually fighting cancer with the drugs they take, while my illness is treated with the same drugs as used against cancer, even though I don't have cancer. The drugs are used against myeloma, which is a cancer of the blood, while I have Amyloidosis. I hope all this makes sense.

This morning, while I felt halfway decent, we decided to take a ride down to the community of Tanner, about five miles south of Athens. Tanner was hit very hard during the tornado outbreak, and we had not been there to see how bad the damage was since then. We built a house in the worse hit area back in the 1980s, and had heard that the house was completely destroyed. Well, we found that the house is still standing, but suffered a lot of damage. All the windows were blown out, the shutters are gone, the roof is damaged, and the house looks like it has been abandoned. It is such a shame that people have lost everything, and we think it will be a long time before the recovery effort in the neighborhood is finished. We saw the path that the tornado took, and it appears that it was about a half mile wide. It sure gives me a different appreciation for the damage that these things can cause.

More later, be safe.

Today's Town - New York, New York: The City That Never Sleeps

Not all who wander are lost.