I felt like Dorothy.

Dear Mom,

We're not in Kansas- I mean Carmel- anymore.

That's how it felt yesterday to drive down Main Street and see this.

Disoriented, I parked Mr. Anderson. What used to be there, I wondered?

"What used to be there?" I asked the first person I saw. "I've lived here almost my whole life and I can't think what used to be there!"

"I haven't lived here my whole life," the smoker on the sidewalk said. "I don't know."

...

"What used to be there? I've lived here almost my whole life and I can't think what used to be there!" I ask the shop owner once I have reached my destination.

Are you ready?

The old Ace Hardware is gone. The IMMI building you once worked in? Gone. The "Little Shop"? MOVED!!! Apparently that was a house of Historical Significance and it is being relocated. But not the musty, dusty Ace Hardware building with its creaky wood floors, dim lighting, big store front windows and double entrances. For me, that building was the definition of a hardware store. Even though it hasn't been Ace Harware for a long, long time. Gone.

Now Mike Mulligan is at work. The plans, I've learned, are for a 4 story building with shops on the lower floors and apartments above. And underground parking I think the guy said, but at that point I pretty much couldn't take any more in. I was starting to feel dizzy because I was having an "old timers" conversation with a bearded grizzly guy and his boss. I do not consider myself old enough to have an old timers conversation. But I guess I am because clearly I was.

I know to expect changes. And keeping a city vital is better than allowing it to decay. I just didn't expect to lose everything familiar and see a whole new city put in its place.

Love,

Kim

p.s. Today is Gina Whocanparallelpark' s Birthday! Happy Birthday, my friend!

" A friend is, as it were, a second self." - Cicero