The 2nd Oklahoma Trip & an Ashley update!
Well, I got some good news about my cousin Ashley-she's been taken to an excellent rehab hospital in Lexington that her dad knew of-I hope they're able to help her; when I last went and saw her, she was curled up in her wheelchair, and she responded to my voice and touch, but only in a barely nominal, seemingly more involuntary muscle response...
So, a comment Shag made to me while I was eating at McDonald's in Miami, OK inspired me. When he said it to me, I was ready to come home, but after I got back, I kept thinking about how he said "Well, while you're out there, why don't you buzz on down to Tulsa while you're at it, just to say that you've been?"
The more I thought about that, and the more I wondered if I really am where God wants me to be, I decided to bring those two streams of thought to a confluence...
So I packed my suit, went back to Oklahoma, and applied for jobs. I got two interviews, and a job offer from a small amusement park in Oklahoma City(I am supposed to tell them something by Monday and start ASAP if I take it). I also did some touristy stuff, like seeing the Oklahoma City bombing memorial, and then I went all weather nerd and drove the path of the 1999 F5 tornado that went through Oklahoma City, Moore, Bridge Creek, and Chickasaw. (That sucker was on the ground a looooonnnggg time)
I even stopped in a convience store in Bridge Creek, a small community that had 100% of it's structures destroyed by the tornado and several residents killed, and asked what the girl at the counter if she remembered anything about it when she said that she'd lived there her whole life. I felt really bad after I asked because not only did she remember it, she showed me the scars that it left on her arm and on both legs. Then she called a few customers over, and explained to them that I was interested in the tornado and they all showed me various scars that they had from when that tornado had injured them, and they all told their stories about they survived it. One poor guy didn't have his arm from the elbow down because of that tornado. They all seemed oddly grateful for the chance to show a stranger "yeah, buddy, here's my scars from where I took on the fastest wind that's ever been recorded on the face of the Earth."-like they seemed touched that anyone still cared, it seemed.
The two spookiest things about driving that tornado path was realizing that even now 7 years later I can still tell what got hit, like I'd see subdivisions that had a lot more driveways and concrete pads than they had houses, and a question that the girl at the convience store asked me. She asked me if I thought she was crazy for staying in Bridge Creek after that happened, with being pretty much tornado central. That question and the way that she said it really haunts me still.
I even drove up to Wichita and filled out a few applications there; coming back to Baxter Spring to get on I-44 to come home, I realized something about Kansas-holy crap that place is huge! Looking at where I was going to drive on the map, and seeing that there was 65 mph speed limit on the 2 lane road that i was going to be on, I thought I'll be back to the 'ducah before i know it-but nay nay. See, I thought that when I left Wichita at 2:30 P.M.-I got to Baxter Springs at seven freaking thirty! 5 hours! Arrrgghhhh!
So, a comment Shag made to me while I was eating at McDonald's in Miami, OK inspired me. When he said it to me, I was ready to come home, but after I got back, I kept thinking about how he said "Well, while you're out there, why don't you buzz on down to Tulsa while you're at it, just to say that you've been?"
The more I thought about that, and the more I wondered if I really am where God wants me to be, I decided to bring those two streams of thought to a confluence...
So I packed my suit, went back to Oklahoma, and applied for jobs. I got two interviews, and a job offer from a small amusement park in Oklahoma City(I am supposed to tell them something by Monday and start ASAP if I take it). I also did some touristy stuff, like seeing the Oklahoma City bombing memorial, and then I went all weather nerd and drove the path of the 1999 F5 tornado that went through Oklahoma City, Moore, Bridge Creek, and Chickasaw. (That sucker was on the ground a looooonnnggg time)
I even stopped in a convience store in Bridge Creek, a small community that had 100% of it's structures destroyed by the tornado and several residents killed, and asked what the girl at the counter if she remembered anything about it when she said that she'd lived there her whole life. I felt really bad after I asked because not only did she remember it, she showed me the scars that it left on her arm and on both legs. Then she called a few customers over, and explained to them that I was interested in the tornado and they all showed me various scars that they had from when that tornado had injured them, and they all told their stories about they survived it. One poor guy didn't have his arm from the elbow down because of that tornado. They all seemed oddly grateful for the chance to show a stranger "yeah, buddy, here's my scars from where I took on the fastest wind that's ever been recorded on the face of the Earth."-like they seemed touched that anyone still cared, it seemed.
The two spookiest things about driving that tornado path was realizing that even now 7 years later I can still tell what got hit, like I'd see subdivisions that had a lot more driveways and concrete pads than they had houses, and a question that the girl at the convience store asked me. She asked me if I thought she was crazy for staying in Bridge Creek after that happened, with being pretty much tornado central. That question and the way that she said it really haunts me still.
I even drove up to Wichita and filled out a few applications there; coming back to Baxter Spring to get on I-44 to come home, I realized something about Kansas-holy crap that place is huge! Looking at where I was going to drive on the map, and seeing that there was 65 mph speed limit on the 2 lane road that i was going to be on, I thought I'll be back to the 'ducah before i know it-but nay nay. See, I thought that when I left Wichita at 2:30 P.M.-I got to Baxter Springs at seven freaking thirty! 5 hours! Arrrgghhhh!