New Normal

We are almost 2 months away from the tornados of April 27th.  Our new normal is strange and constantly evolving.  The weirdest thing recently has been the complete bulldozing of neighborhoods.  I know it's progress and I cheer on the people doing the work, but it's weird.  I understand that looking at cleared land is better for my mental health than continuing to look at destruction, but that does not make it less freaky.

I have had a fairly sudden and intense case of asthma; just one example of the increase in local respiratory illness.  (Although, I am better today!  Praise God!) Then there is the issue of the ever present debris trucks, further reducing our air quality in so many ways:  dust, debris, exhaust, blown tires, etc.  (These would not pass state inspection if we had one.)  When have I not been stuck behind one in traffic?  And then I sat on 15th Street for several minutes because a policeman ticketed a lumber truck in the middle of our busiest intersection.  Still, I understand this is progress towards a better future.

We have become so accustomed to hearing the stories.  Even now, "Where were you?" is the first question asked when you run in to somebody you haven't seen in a while.  My summer dance classes began this week and I finally heard my teacher's story.  She lived next door to her husband's parents.  His Great-great-grandmother built one of the very first homes in the Forest Lake neighborhood and it is the only place his mother's family has lived since.  Their homes were a total loss, but 5 people, 3 laborador retrievers, and her in-law's dog all survived.  The storm sucked her shoes off her feet while she was huddled in the bathtub with her husband, his best friend, and the 3 previously mentioned labs. She said she doesn't comprehend how it was not an F5 at that point, but that somebody told her she would not have been able to keep her arms hugged around her dog if the winds had been over 200 miles an hour. 
After she climbed out, she was unaware she was in her in-law's backyard until she was standing on the sidewalk that served as the aisle for her lakeside wedding last October.  The national news media chose their front yards for a reporting hub and a friend is trying to collect all of their news appearances for them. 
An esteemed guest choreographer assisted with their delayed spring recital and she told him "I need to dance and you're going to choreograph me something."  She danced it out until she hurt herself, but some pulled muscles were a small exchange for her catharsis.  I really hate I missed seeing this, but I would have cried until my makeup was in my eyes, so I probably wouldn't have seen it anyway.  Her legs are still covered with trace bruises and scrapes.  She never mentioned them, but they are tell-tale tornado wounds. 

In a meeting with our Mayor, he said we lost 600 businesses and 7,000 jobs. The only event it can be compared to is the Joplin tornado, so there is no exact roadmap. Early economic predictions say there will be a struggle but that we will make it through.


I'm going on an extended work trip in a couple of days.  I know the people I'll be with will not understand what I left behind and I know I will get a brand new shock when I return.  But progress is a good thing, right?