I live in a quiet little town tucked away in a valley and separated by miles of open farmland from the nearest town. While I'm not going to give you the name of the town, you may look at the pictures and guess it.
People live a quiet existence going about their daily lives without much bother from anyone. I moved here back in 1996 when I retired from the US Air Force after 20 years. I knew the area before moving the family, so things weren't too strange to me. But how things have changed in these 30 years.
This year (Jan 2026), this area was devastated by an ice storm. In that one night, it tore this small town apart. I remember getting out of bed and looking out my bedroom window to see if there was any damage. While it was still dark, all I could see was the power line pole in our yard, 5 feet from my window. It was broken into 2 pieces, and a large limb had fallen on it. I stood in the front yard the next day feeling helpless, watching as ice-covered trees fell and took down power lines. Power line crews came into town, and electricity in my house was restored 4 days later. Others took over a week.
But that event, regardless of how bad it was, is not what I had planned to write about here.
I could say this town is growing. New houses are being built and old ones renovated. We now have a Jack's restaurant right across from a long-time establishment, Sonic. It would appear that there is a place to eat on every corner. I plan to take some pictures of these eating places, and when I do, I'll post them here.
