Ash Wednesday

The best thing about Ash Wednesday is that it signals Mardi Gras has ended. Let's get back to normal now. The wait at any eatery in town is at least 45 minutes. We went to Texas Steakhouse last night for dinner and the place was packed, the wait was as to be expected. Traffic was bumper to bumper and why we decided this was a good night to go I have no idea.

The husband got home Tuesday morning at 0100 and left again this morning at 0600 for a 12 hr drive to Hollis, Oklahoma. I lived in Hollis one summer and it's really not a place I care to visit again. The big five reasons? Tarantulas, scorpions, rattlesnakes, tornadoes and black widows are plentiful there and I'm not fond of any of them. If I walked out side and notice the natives with their faces turned up to the clouds, I knew they were watching the cloud movement for their prediction of a tornado. During tornado season we would race to the underground earthen cellars or shelters, scurry down the ladder, stay stooped over and take up a seat on the bench like structures that encircled those four walls. One naked light bulb hung from the ceiling if you were lucky and in a wired shelter. We huddled there together with people that were strangers until that very moment and listened to the racket overhead. It made for long summers and ones I don't want to repeat.

Hollis is farming country and cotton growing country. The big cotton gin there could be smelled for miles. The land is dry and flat and perfect area for all those tornadoes. Tornado Alley. If you were out on the highway when the sun went down, you could look out ahead of you and believe you were seeing those heat waves coming off the pavement. Not so. That movement you could see was 100's of tarantulas crossing the road as it was cooling down. I used to have nightmares about my car breaking down and it being covered with tarantulas. Nope, I never put it on my list of places I wanted to revisit.

A quick shower and to the podiatrist's office is my morning plan. I'm hoping there is something that can be done to get this heel back in shape.