Paradise Lost

I'll start with the bad news.

For the almost 4 years we've lived at Rio Concho West (RCW) on the outskirts of San Angelo, it has always been a pleasure to enter the gates to our little subdivision. Once we passed through those gates, we entered an area of calm and peace, away from the hustle and bustle of the encroaching city.

Those days are gone, and our little paradise has lost a little of what has made it so pleasant.

Unfortunately, there are several acres at the entrance to our community that RCW does not own. Instead, Shannon Hospital owns that property. We have 2 major hospitals in town, with Shannon being the larger by far. Shannon is now developing that property. We've known about this for at least half a year, and we have been dreading the day when construction would start. That day was yesterday.

I've forgotten the specifics of the building going in, but it is some sort of long-term physical rehabilitation care center. It will not be that large, and in the long term it may even prove to be a good thing for our little community. We do have folks who fall or take tumbles from time to time, and these folks need some sort of physical rehabilitation to return to their regular activities. For them, this will be quite convenient.

Now, Donna and I like Shannon. Sure, they aren't perfect, but for the most part Shannon is a pretty efficient medical organization. Overall, we have been pleased with the care we receive there, and this care has been one of the reasons we have remained in San Angelo for essentially all of our retirement. Shannon even ranks rather high nation wide in several categories.

But I'm still not looking forward to the construction phase of this new facility.

We returned from a shopping trip yesterday morning to discover half a dozen or so trucks of various sorts near the entrance starting work on the property. I went out a little later and there were even more trucks. It's a bit congested near the entrance trying to drive past that work area, and I certainly don't walk to go walking around there.

I'm not looking forward to the next year or so, but I'll hope for the best.

On to other things . . .

The weather lately has really been nice. By 10 or so most days, we've been able to get out without jackets, or very light jackets at best. I've even seen buds on one of our trees, and the little red bud tree near the entrance to our neighborhood is already in color. I don't think spring is that far away.

Tuesday night about 8:00 or so, a storm moved into the area and lingered until late Wednesday afternoon. There was a little thunder and lightning, but not much. We tallied about 2.5 inches of rain overall at our house, while other areas nearby got as much as 3 or more inches. That is really nice for us, and it should go a long way in refilling area lakes. I hope it was beneficial for our farmers.

Because of the corona virus that is in the news, we probably won't be making any trips for a while. We're not so worried about becoming ill as we are at getting quarantined or something. So, we'll probably stick pretty close to home until this all passes over. Anyway, I just received a jury summons yesterday, so I have to be available for jury duty for the entire month of April.

I hope that something good will come of this virus. One thing I'm concerned about is hygiene. I'm always amazed at the number of people I see in restrooms that simply walk out when they finish their business and never wash their hands. You would think in this day and age that we would be more enlightened than that, but that is obviously not the case. All the experts emphasize again and again the importance of washing your hands, but there are a large number of people out there that ignore this simple task. In many aspects, we seem to be regressing as a culture, and personal hygiene is one such area.

On Thursday, Donna and I watched The Call of the Wild at our nearby theater. It was entertaining enough, I suppose, but if you are hoping for a movie that is faithful to the original Jack London book, you'll be greatly disappointed. The book is vastly superior. Books are almost always better than the movie versions, don't you think?