Ripple effect

Watching my dinner companion of two nights ago squirm on my hard, flattened futon sofa mattress inspired me to order a new one. Time to upgrade my environment. It's probably been twenty years since that futon was new.

Then a friend called after work. She has a lot of family on the gulf coast including a beloved 88-year-old aunt evacuated from New Orleans, and her work is stressful and husband is out of town.

Well, because I had excellent leftovers, I grandly invited her over to dinner. We had left-over focaccia and salad and tossed together some shrimp and peppers and the rest of last night's red onion and feta - magnificent!

After dinner we drank the rest of last night's bottle of wine while we watched an WLBT on-line movie taken from a helicopter cruising down along the shore where some of her folks had lived.

A casino had dropped on top of a Holiday Inn.

My friend pointed out still-standing casinos and highrises there, up against the ocean highway. This string of huge buildings had replaced the little muffaleta stands and shrimp boats she remembered from her childhood. On a recent road trip, this coastal road, which she remembered as sleepy, rural and lovely, had assaulted her eyes with miles of jittering, jagged neon exclamations.

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