Things are just different in Oklahoma. And things this trip are different than usual in Oklahoma. It is very green and it is the grass, not the corn, that is high as an elephant's eye. The rain comes every afternoon and big black clouds form. We have had 10" of rain and a constant 1" of rain in the cellar. Pumps are pumping, hoses are squirting, and still there is water in the basement. I am hoping that there are no more tornados. One is enough. They are cleaning up across town, and all the plumbers and electricians are busy. I know.
Yesterday we found out that the water heater had flooded out, so this morning we got a new one installed. I didn't care how much it cost, when the man said he'd be right over, I was very happy!
Yesterday the phone stopped working and AOL crashed, which meant that I had no phone, no internet access and no LIFELINE line for my mother. She is better, but very dependent on others. Not having her LIFELINE working really bothered me, so this morning I was up early to go buy a new phone line, install that, and get a new AOL CD, which solved the internet problem too. Dial up is slow and awful, but it's better than nothing!
I hired two sons of a friend to come this afternoon and help me pull some weeds and pick up some trash that has accumulated over the few months since Mom has been able to take care of things. It isn't really trashy...but just a little littered. One of them found a bull snake in the yard. It was a small thing, and he had it in a jar. I convinced him that if that little snake could talk, it would ask him to take him down to the creek and let him go. No snake wants to be in a hot jar with a small hole in the top. He looked at me like I was crazy (the boy, not the snake) and he went to put the snake back where he came from. God willing, the tornado missed us, but the creek DID rise!
Being in the land of afternoon bull snake saving is a bit of a change for me. I can't say that I enjoy it. I survive it. I was the third car at the Super Wal Mart, and since that is the only store in town that sells anything much, that is a feat to beat the crowds. I bought a new phone line for my computer, and picked up the free AOL disk to update my software to something usable. Early to bed and early to Wal Mart means you connect to the real world, and I was hungry to read the news and emails.
Today I am going to relax by making a strawberry pie. Mom isn't eating much, but I think I can tempt her with that. She is doing lots better, but it will take a village to keep her that way. I am the mainstay of the village, and it seems that my calling right now is to try to see that my mom is where she wants to be. All I have to do when I feel that this may not be the case, is remember how we both cried when I had to leave her in that rest home, and how hard she exercised and worked so she could, in her own words, "blow this joint". Blow it she did, and it is over her and my dead body that she will ever go back there.
Off to surf the web and find out what is going on "out there".
Have a great day.
God Bless us all!
