So much fun in Nashville!

Hey y'all! Here we are with yet another blog entry. I know, we could almost make this a regular thing! We can dream right? So what's new in Nashville...

We survived the great flood of May 2010. In a span of 2 days, Nashville received somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 inches of rain. It is one thing to imagine a blanket of 15 inches of water falling all across middle Tennessee, but then to realize that water runs to low areas and ends up as 10 feet of water here and there is an entirely different concept that very very quickly became our reality. Fortunately for us, our apartment is on relatively high ground so we were spared from the quickly gathering water. While all of our windows leaked (to the tune of using ALL of our towels to mop up water!) and we had some wet carpet in the coat closet, and losing power about half way through the weekend, we were spared any major damage. Without power, we were no longer able to monitor the storm and its devastating effects. The true scope of the damage would become clear to us in the next few days. Catching glimpses of the devastation in the news and driving around town was eye-opening to say the least. Several neighborhoods just 1/2 a mile from our apartment were essentially destroyed. Houses, while still standing, needed to be completely gutted. Now there are gigantic piles of debris, sheetrock, and cabinets in front of each house. Clean up has begun, but will take a great deal of time to complete. In all of this, two things have been made very clear. First, the grace of God is with us always and we thank Him for sparing our home. And secondly, the Nashville community is wonderfully resilient! Community outreach has been extensive and fundraisers are everywhere. I'm sure in a short while, all of Nashville will be back to full strength and better than ever! One last thing to give some scope on the amount of rain, the previous 2-day record for rain fall was a little over 6 inches. Yes, this more than DOUBLED the previous record!! Needless to say, this is easily the wettest month in Nashville history, by far.

Well, I see that this is already getting pretty long, so I think I will try a "Nicole", and break this up into several smaller posts! Up next, cooking with Julia Child, and Draco takes a swim!