Moving Ahead

Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans.

                                                                ~John Lennon

If anyone had asked me a two months ago what my plans were I would have told them, work less, write more, hope to go diving more. If they had asked me again a month ago I would have told them, I have decided to invest in my daughter and her future. I still planned to work less, write more and go diving.

Note: See samples of Caits recent portrait photography at the bottom of this post.

Cait has loved photography since she was about 13 and her grandpa gave her a camera. She went on vacation and took some photos with the point and shoot APS camera he gave her. She came back with pictures that showed that she had a natural eye for a good photo. Those pictures are still displayed at her grandpa’s house, one of the New York skyline that includes the twin towers, the other of an amazing sunset outside the house of a relative in the Florida panhandle.

When I take pictures, it is just luck when I get a good one and to get that one good one I probably take about 100.Thank goodness for digital cameras. I can see a scene and think it would be a beautiful photo but can’t seem to capture it correctly; it never looks like what I hoped it would. Cait on the other hand can take a picture and it seems to be framed just right, have just the right elements in it.

In high school, she started more seriously thinking about photography as a career, she took a photo class and then went to the Academy of Art in San Francisco for college. Although she was still great at photography, she was not thrilled with the rest of what she was doing at AoA. She finally left after a semester.  She continued to take photographs, many of which I have had hanging in my house.

Cait moved to Nashville in 2007, and worked in both retail and office jobs to make a living. It isn’t always easy; the cost of living is certainly cheaper here than California but the pay is significantly lower as well. She still took photographs, beautiful ones and started to think about what she really wanted to do with her life.

A few months ago her circumstances changed and she had a chance to make a decision about what she would do next. She wanted to give photography as a career a serious try. We talked about what it would take to do so, could she or should she work at a part time job and do photography on the side, or should she  try and just make a business go? We agreed that the latter was a better option for now.

We had considered the idea of she, her boyfriend Kyle, and I all sharing a house together, to allow them to keep pursuing their creative endeavors and to allow me to have people I love around me more. We had not made any final decisions.

Then, as John Lennon said, life happened while I was busy making those other plans … the flood hit. It somewhat forced us to make decisions a bit quicker. Cait and a friend own the house I had been living in. It is currently uninhabitable.  When Cait moved out, I had moved in to help the two of them keep the house, as neither could afford it on their own. The housing market was still in its downturn and they could not sell for what they owed. My living there seemed like a viable solution, at least short term. Since the flood, they learned that they only qualified for loans from FEMA, and neither Cait nor her friend, my former housemate, could afford the house payment, a loan payment and rent for somewhere to live. They have decided they will have to give up the house. Maybe this is the part where you have to think; when one door closes, another one opens.

So, this is a part of my investment in Cait’s business. To allow her to continue to focus full time on her photography, allow Kyle to continue to focus more on his music and to allow me to focus on my writing. Cait, Kyle, and I have decided to share an apartment, although one bigger than the one bedroom they currently live in and have graciously allowed me to camp out in for now. It was that or have her mom be homeless.

So I’m working a little more than I had planned, part time at Home Depot and part time at the dive shop. The decision feels right; it feels like a good short-term sacrifice for me to in the end make all three of us more successful in our creative lives.

My investment is to support Cait financially while she makes her photography business, Caits Images, a success. And I have no doubt it will be. She has already done several photo shoots; portraits, family portraits, photo sessions of musicians (including of course Kyle), and kids. She has worked in both the Nashville area and in Southern Illinois/St. Louis area where Kyle’s family lives.

It is incredible to watch your little girl take on all the things that go with starting a business, put herself and her artwork out there for the world. She is in so many ways so much braver than I am. She has her moments of self-doubt but that is the other part of my investment in her business, trying to remind her how talented she is, keep her spirits up when it is tough to find new customers and build a portfolio and a reputation, and if it helps to talk through potential business decisions and plans.

She has hired a designer who is helping design a logo, she started her website/blog, she has started a relationship with several professional labs for printing, she is advertising, and she is studying the details of starting a small business and succeeding as a professional photographer. She is happier and healthier than I have seen her in a very long time. She works very hard for very little financial reward at this point but I’m certain that will change.

Take a few moments to visit Cait’s site, look at more of her pictures, she loves to get comments and feedback, and be sure to get in touch if you’re looking for a photographer. You can also check out Kyle’s music, here. And if you like what you hear you can download some of his music from iTunes.

Kyle and Cait  have also been collaborating some. Cait has taken photos to be used as album art for Kyle and the image below is a poster that the two of them designed and using photos Cait took of Kyle and Lisa Auge for an upcoming show in Nashville. If you live in the Nashville area, consider coming out and giving a listen.

The Upside of Disaster

There is one it turns out, an upside I mean.

It is deliberate and random acts of kindness. I have witnessed in the past three weeks true generosity and caring. The kind without an ulterior motive attached.

In the days following the flood, when we were finally able to return to the house and the neighborhood, people who had before only been geographically close to one another, living on the same street, in the same subdivision suddenly had something bigger in common, loss, survival, hope. We gathered as we surveyed the damage, offered solace and understanding, sometimes advice or information if we had it.

While laboring to begin separating out the belongings that could be salvaged and those that had been ruined by the flood waters, as people began to tear out carpeting, tile, linoleum, hardwood, carpet pad, trim, sheetrock, insulation, an “army” of fellow Nashvillians descended.

These were not people I knew before, in fact, I still don’t know them now, I don’t know their names or where they lived or why they chose to come to our neighborhood. But, they came, on that first day we were there, on a flatbed truck stacked with supplies, bottled drinking water, bleach, paper towels, cleaning supplies, information about where you could get clothing if you needed it, more food, and maybe most importantly a kind word and maybe just a little bit of hope.

They drove by and would ask if we needed anything, no cost, no sales pitch for any organization, business or church, just supplies for those beginning the clean up.

A few hours later as I threw away all those books that had been on the bottom shelf of the book shelf, now soaked through with water, the pages stuck together and the ink bleeding from the covers I heard a voice outside the living room window. A woman said to me, “Excuse me.” I turned around to see two women standing in the front yard, one wearing a “uniform” from Domino's Pizza. Each woman held a stack of pizza boxes. The one said, “Would you like a pizza?” “No thank you, I said, we ate, but thank you.” She said, “Would you like one for later?” “No, but thank you so much.” Again, there wasn’t any self-promotion with the offer, clearly just a local business doing what they could to help those affected.

As the days went on and the clean up continued, so did the offers of help, supplies, and food. The Metro Police Department took up position at either end of the street, discouraging any ne’er do wells who might think of taking advantage and stealing from those whose homes were now vacant, and providing security for a now ghost-town of a neighborhood.

The Red Cross arrived every evening, workers visiting the houses, where people worked to clean up and salvage belongings, to offer assistance and information. They were watching for the signs of post-traumatic stress. They also brought along with workers, hot meals for anyone who wanted one.

Complete strangers would walk up; wearing work gloves and ask if we needed help moving heavy items. When told no they would smile and move on to the next house. Another day, two young girls walked up and offered bottles of some type of mold removal stuff they had gone and purchased from the Home Depot. I don’t know for certain but I’m pretty sure those kind of things aren’t cheap but these girls were offering them to anyone who needed them – people, young, old, well-off, struggling, it didn’t matter – they were just reaching out to their fellow Nashvillians, doing what they could.

Those random acts didn’t account for the hundreds who volunteered their time, effort, and money at the Red Cross, at Second Harvest Food Bank, or at Hands on Nashville. Nor did it count the ones who went to the other neighborhoods and business to lend their time, morale, muscles, support.

But, that was not all. As I’ve mentioned, I work part time at Home Depot. I can’t speak for other Home Depots, only the one I work at, but you couldn’t find a nicer group of people who immediately came to the aid of those in need. I saw it first on Sunday, May 2^nd while I was at work it thundered and the rain and the lightning continued. A woman called the store; she was at her home and didn’t know how to stop the flooding. Her neighbor had apparently put in some concrete that actually served to direct the water right towards her house. I watched as two employees, took it upon themselves to get some equipment from tool rental and some supplies including sand and plastic and drove to the woman’s house to erect a sandbag wall to stave off the water. These employees did it on their own, and were supported in doing so by store management, on store time. They helped not a customer but a neighbor who needed help. 

After the flood and my evacuation, I was supposed to work that Monday but called out explaining that I had been evacuated and had no clothes or anything to wear to work. I was scheduled off Tuesday and Wednesday.  I obviously didn’t suffer as terribly as others did but despite that, the entire ordeal seemed to knock me on my ass, both physically and emotionally. I got a call Tuesday evening from a fellow H.D. employee, one I had only met once or twice and really didn’t know. She said that everyone at the store had heard I had been flooded, were worried, and wanted to know that I was all right and if I needed anything.

When I returned to work again on Thursday, almost every employee, most of whom I really didn’t know since I had only worked there a couple of months, came to me, asked me how I was and what they could do to help or what did I need. To a person they all said all I need do was call if and when I needed help. I didn’t know these people but they treated me like a friend.

The store manager came up to me that first day and asked, “What are you doing here?”  I answered, “Uh, working?” afraid that somehow in the days since the flood I had somehow lost my job. He asked, “Didn’t you get flooded out? Why are you here? What do you need? As soon as you’re ready you just let us know and we’ll be there, whatever you need.”

I can’t even tell you how close I was to crying. Nashville was my adopted home but these people acted as if I was family.

A day later the manager came to me, brought me a form, and told me to fill it out. It asked what store and department I worked in, what my home address was and what disaster had affected me. I filled out the form and returned it to him. Two hours later, he came to me with an e-mail with a confirmation number allowing me to go to Western Union and get cash – a grant from Home Depot available to employees in time of emergency.

My job there is part time, to allow me money for fun stuff, travel, diving etc. It is not my sole means of support as it is for many employees. I am a new employee, yet without a second thought they allowed me to take advantage of the grant, it came at such a perfect time. They allowed me to adjust my schedule to make it easier for me to continue the clean up, meet with FEMA and try to put my life back in some kind of order.

Retail jobs are retail jobs, no matter where you go. But, I will forever be a huge fan of Home Depot for taking care of their employees, even the brand new ones.

Really, it is also the very small acts of kindness that touched me most. This may sound silly to some but it to me was the epitome of what things are like here after the flood. Those first few days the mail was not being delivered, the mail trucks couldn’t get in either. I went to the post office because I was expecting something rather important in the mail. I waited in line and when I got to the window, I asked the woman if they were holding the mail from the Pennington Bend area. She said yes, and that I could just come pick my mail up there until they started delivery again. I gave her my driver’s license; she went in the back and retrieved my mail. I told her that if possible, I would prefer to just pick up my mail, I could no longer stay at the house and the post office was closer to where I was staying. She said no problem and I put a hold on my mail.

Since that day, I have returned to the post office probably every three days or so to pick up mail. And every time I am there no matter where I am in line, that same woman sees me and says, “Oh Ms. Jeffs, I’ll go get your mail.” 

There is something about that act, remembering my name, not making me wait in line every time. Behaving as if it is the one small thing she can do for a flood victim to make their recovery easier.

Maybe it is like this anywhere there is a natural disaster. I don’t know, this is the first and hopefully the last time I’ll be in this position. But, it seems somehow unique to this area, this up side of the disaster this real sense that it is just so true … We Are Nashville.    

The Big Flood in Three Acts -- Act III

Act III

Monday the 3rd of May. The sun is shining it looks like a gorgeous day. Late last night my housemate arrived at my daughter’s apartment building with my dog. She had snuck into the neighborhood last night, and had to swim in the rising floodwaters to get to the house and rescue the dogs. I was thrilled to have Bodhi with me but in reality it was a stupid thing to do, extremely dangerous and lacking common sense, she and the dogs could have been killed. But, her dogs are like her children and she could not bear the idea of them being left there alone. I get that but still…

My daughter and I returned to the neighborhood to see what it looked like. We had to park near where I had climbed aboard the evacuation bus, and walk back in. The water had continued to rise throughout the night. It is running swiftly through the entire neighborhood, like a river. The street is blocked off, and so we stand in the yard of an elderly woman that lives around the corner from our street. The police are talking to the woman as she sits on her porch. The only thing I hear her say is “I’m not going anywhere”. Other police officers are there and still others arrive on boats having rescued more people who stayed the night before. We strain to try to see at least the back of the house. From where we are we can see the water is now about half way up the 6-foot fence in the back yard. We still have no real idea of what the condition of the house is.

Throughout the day, we continue to hear that the worst is still yet to come. They are planning to do releases of water from the lakes due to pressure on the dams, to avoid a dam failure, which would be catastrophic. The releases would be made into the Cumberland, which would only would mean the water would continue to rise. We go back again Monday afternoon to check again and we are told that they have already released water from the dams. No one is sure when the water in the neighborhood will begin to recede and we might get back in.

For this neighborhood, it is catastrophic. The neighborhood was not in the flood plain and so homeowners were either denied the opportunity to buy flood insurance or told they didn’t need it, as the area had not flooded in the last 100 years. Moreover, our neighborhood is not the worst hit in the Nashville area. In some areas two story homes were flooded up to the roof eaves. Everything those people owned was gone.

For some perspective, the average annual rainfall for the Nashville area is 48+ inches. The wettest month of the year on average is May where the average rainfall for the month is 5 inches. In the first two days of the month, we got between 13 and 16 inches of rain. I will compare that to Sacramento, California, which is the area I moved to Tennessee from. There the average rainfall for the year is approximately 20 inches with the wettest month being January with an average rainfall of slightly over four inches.

Tuesday May 4th. My daughter and I went back and checked again, still the water was too high and moving too quickly to allow residents back in. The smell is getting overwhelming. Hearing reports that anyone who has been in the floodwater should go get a tetanus shot if they hadn’t had one recently. Tuesday afternoon I went back again. This time I got to talk to the elderly woman whose property many of us were gathering on to try and get a glimpse of our homes.

This woman was a true gem. The nicest lady in the world. So concerned about the girl she saw who Sunday night had gone back in to get her dogs. I told the woman that was my housemate and she was so relieved to know she was alright, she had been so worried for her. She was truly concerned for everyone who had been displaced. I mentioned to her that I heard her tell the police she wasn’t leaving. She laughed and said her daughter in-law had arrived and the police, not knowing she was related, said to her, don’t even try to talk the old lady into leaving, she’s not going anywhere. The water had risen to where it was now beginning to crest the woman’s driveway. I spoke to another young woman who was asking about my house, about my belongings and about being evacuated. I must be losing my touch or at least my cop spidey-sense. After talking to her for a few minutes, I realized she was a reporter and her cameraman suddenly appeared, popping up behind me.

When the reporter was done talking to me she said to me, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so calm after going through something like this.” I took that as a good sign; maybe I was far too boring to put on TV.

Well, no such luck, I was on the evening news. As I told my housemate, I didn’t say anything too stupid but it wasn’t the first time I had felt like I made a fool of myself on TV. And no, if you are wondering, I will not be posting that video here.

Wednesday the 5th we were finally allowed back in. We still had to walk through water almost knee high to get onto our street but the yards were no longer flooded. The weather now for three days has been beautiful, temperatures near 80 degrees. Everyone in the area was in need of sun and warmth, but homes that have been flooded and then have sat closed up for several days in heat really take on a terrible smell. All we could really do was look around and try to assess the damage. I’m not sure; I think we had somewhere between 12 and 18 inches of water in the house, but it looked like it may have settled at around 8 inches before receding.

Amazingly it appears we never did lose power as by the time we got back in on Wednesday the power was still on, the refrigerator still cold and clocks still working. Don’t ask me how or why the power company didn’t shut off power at least until the water receded.

The carpets were still soaked and there was a very thin coating of mud on everything that had been on or near the floor. Nothing much we could do right then. Thursday, Friday and Saturday we began the process of cleaning up and salvaging what we could. The city allowed us to just throw everything we were disposing of out onto our front walkways and lawns and they would have a company come around and pick it up. Each day the area looked more and more like a war zone with every house having a growing pile of carpeting, furniture, sheetrock, molding and various appliances and other trash.

We began by ripping out the carpeting and padding throughout the house. Then we started taking out all the sheetrock – from the floor up four feet. What was left by Monday evening was a shell with studs showing at the bottom of existing walls and concrete floors.

My housemate has already found a new apartment to rent. I am still staying with my daughter and her boyfriend until we make other arrangements. I feel so very fortunate that I get along so well with them both and they have both been so gracious in letting me stay, with my dog.

My daughter and her friend owned the house. When my daughter moved out in July of 2009 neither she nor her friend could afford the house payment alone and as we all know, the housing market was in the toilet so they could not sell. I decided to move in to help them out and let them keep the house. Of course, they were among the thousands of homeowners who did not have flood insurance. They have applied for federal aid through FEMA but still don’t know what if anything they may qualify for. It is very likely that they will be unable to do anything other than let the bank foreclose. My housemate, my daughter’s friend, has already decided to move on; she has no interest in trying to fix the house. Neither of them could afford, even with a zero or low interest loan, to make a house payment and a loan payment for repairs while also renting somewhere to live – all on a gamble that the value of the house may someday return to allow them to sell for what they owe.

I am still so grateful that neither I nor my housemate nor our pets were injured. Many others in the Nashville area were not so lucky. It is so sad to see the dreams of my daughter be dashed but we will survive and we will recover, it just may take a little time.

Photo Credits: All photos by Caitlin Jeffs at Caits Images

We Are Nashville Flood Relief Poster by Ty Mattson at Mattson Creative Not:e: Ty Mattson has offered to let anyone use this artwork for T-Shirts or other fundraising efforts as long as 100% of the proceeds go to the charity orgnizations involved with Flood Relief in Nashville. An amazing thing for any artist to do. Check out the link to his blog.

The Big Flood in Three Acts - Act II

Act II

Note: I wanted to add pictures about this night but obviously I didn’t take any during my evactuation. But I would ask that you at least watch the video at the end of this post to get a feel for what things looked like in the cold light of day. Thanks.

Sunday night, May 2^nd about 9 p.m. The power has remained on the entire night, the rain stopped about 6 p.m. or so. I’m working on my computer and expecting my housemate home at any time. My dog as well as my housemate’s two little dogs are quietly sleeping.

I hear what sounds like someone talking outside my bedroom window in the front yard. I can’t really make out what is being said and I’m trying to figure out if it is my neighbors, are they just talking? Are they fighting with each other? It sounds weird, like the sound is different than it should be. It is a man’s voice I hear but certainly not one I recognize and I still can’t figure out what he is saying.

I went to the front door and open it to see who is talking outside and make sure everything is okay. It is not only my general nosiness about what my neighbors are up to but I got that same feeling that I used to get while working as a cop, something seems not quite right and I want to find out what is going on.

I look out to see a man walking down the middle of my street. I was right, something is not quite right …. the street is flooded and the man is walking in thigh-high water. Well, how the hell did that happen and why was I so clueless? It is a surreal scene, the water flooding the street is what made the conversation and everything else sound so strange, voices sounded different, they didn’t echo off the houses in the neighborhood in the same way.

Other than the stranger walking down the street I didn’t see anything else out of the ordinary which made the whole thing so out of the ordinary. I can hardly believe we still have power.

I go back inside and call my housemate telling her not to try and come home, she wouldn’t make it anyway. I then call my daughter and tell her that our neighborhood is now flooding. She asks what I plan to do. There is nothing I can do at this point but wait and see what happens next. If the water continues to rise I will at some point I guess have to call 911 and try and get someone to come rescue me from my house.

About 10 p.m. as I am outside once more checking on the water level I see two men heading my way through the neighbor’s front yard, both shining flashlights in my direction.

One of the men says to me, “You ready to go?”

“Am I being evacuated?” I ask.

“Yep, are you ready?”

What I want to say is something snarky like, “Mister, do I look ready? I’m in sweats and a t-shirt and no shoes.” Instead I just say, “Uh, no. What about my dogs, I have three dogs?”

He tells me, “You’ll have to leave them, we need to go.”

“I have to go in and put some clothes on.”

I think he’s a little exasperated with me and says, “Just go put some shoes on”.

Now I’m the one exasperated, a little notice would have been nice. I tell my evacuator that he needs to give me a few minutes, to get shoes, to calm the dogs and get what I need to take. He agrees and moves on to the next house and begins banging on their door.

Okay, before anyone gets ready to string me up at the very thought of abandoning my pets … first, I saw the water outside; there is no way in the world I could manage myself plus three dogs trying to get out. Second, I was in law enforcement; I know what it is like when you are trying to evacuate an entire neighborhood quickly and safely. The last thing you need is everyone on the street wanting to bring their animals and needing help in doing so, can you imagine the dog fights with all the freaked out animals trying to get out? I believed that the dogs would actually probably be better off in the house. I still didn’t think the house would go under and figured if water came in the house at all, the animals could probably get up on couches and beds and remain dry and safe.

So I changed my clothes, put my sweats and some clean undergarments in my backpack, grabbed a toothbrush and loaded up my computer, my electrical cord to charge my computer, my phone and phone charger and my wallet and checkbook. I then gave the dogs each a couple dog treats and some fresh water and stepped outside and locked the door behind me. No, I didn’t think enough to grab my passport, my retired law enforcement ID or probably 50 other things I probably should have thought about saving. But my concern at the time was my computer with the entire manuscript for my memoir on it. Yes I have a back-up copy, on a flash drive but at the moment I can't tell you where that flash drive is.

Six of us were grouped together and told to each grab on to the rope one of the rescuers was holding, a way to stay together. Not really sure what would have happened if one of us had fallen, dragged the other 5 with them? We stepped into the street, into the cold water which was now waist high.

It was so odd to me that the water could be so deep in the middle of the street only 20 yards from my front door yet my yard was not flooded, water was nowhere near the front of my house.

Water is a very powerful thing and can sweep you off your feet in seconds. I could feel the current around my calves. I was more worried though about some of the people around me, people of all ages and physical abilities.

We finally got to the end of the street and out of the water. They directed us to walk down the street to a where the flashing lights were, what turned out to be the emergency services command center for the neighborhood evacuation. It was between a quarter and a half a mile, but in soaking wet cold clothes it seemed much further. We got to the command center and waited by the side of the  road as the group of people grew. Couples with young babies, small children, several people with their little tiny dogs. I felt bad that my dogs remained alone in the house while other people brought theirs. I was certain though that it was like anything else; most people probably didn’t ask if they could bring their dogs and if they did ask and were told no they probably just brought them anyway.

A couple buses arrived, we piled on and were driven to a nearby high school which was now an evacuation center. No cot in a high school gymnasium for me. I was a lucky one. My daughter and her boyfriend arrived to pick me up and take me to their apartment.

The Big Flood in Three Acts

Act I

"Water, water, everywhere,
     And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
     Nor any drop to drink."

            ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I have a habit of checking the weather forecast at night before going to bed, to decide what I need to wear to work. Saturday May 1 was supposed to be in the 70’s but with rain and thundershowers. The weather forecasters got it right. It rained, there was thunder and lightning and as I checked the weather throughout the day there were severe storm warnings.

I’m fairly new to Tennessee or anywhere else with tornadoes as part of their weather picture. Standing in a huge warehouse home improvement store added to some of my unease, didn’t sound like a good plan to me to be standing amongst the hammers, saws, power tools and large pieces of lumber flying around. Visions of that witch on her bicycle come to mind.

Customers were coming in for things like sump pumps (whatever a sump pump is), wet/dry vacs, sand and bags, large drainage pipes. But, there weren’t that many customers; most were likely home riding out the storm. The manager asked if anyone wanted to leave early, a chance for him to cut hours and save the store money. No one had to ask me twice and so I left.

I was scheduled to work Sunday as well. The rain and thundershowers continued, the weather reports continued to talk about severe thunderstorms, possible high winds and possible flooding. I am never quite sure the difference between the severe weather watch and the severe weather warning. I’ve become kind of complacent, believing that usually the warnings are overkill, I wait until I hear the tornado siren.

Again, I got to leave work early, business was slow and again it was almost all supplies to either clean up or redirect water.

I’ve been in severe weather before including localized flooding and really thought that was what was happening here. The weather reports remained the same although the severe weather warnings were starting to add up.

As I got off of the parkway and turned onto the street to head to my house, I was suddenly forced to pull into a gas station to avoid a huge amount of water in the middle of the road. In the middle of the water was a car, a sedan up to the windows in water and the driver climbing out the driver’s door window. I turned around and headed to a back road that would lead to home.  As I rounded a corner, I saw another driver coming the other way, we slowed and I asked if the road was clear. He told me yes but that there were a couple of areas where the water was covering the road, to just go slowly.

I made it home without much problem. My housemate was planning on going out. She normally drives a small Ford Focus; I drive a Toyota 4 WD pick-up. I told her to take my truck, that there was likely too much chance that her car wouldn’t make it through some of the streets that were beginning to flood. She left and I sat down to write. I checked the weather reports again; the rain was forecast to stop by about 8 p.m.

At only 6 p.m. the rain had stopped and the skies were beginning to clear somewhat.  It looked like the worst might be over. My house is about ½ mile from a park that overlooks the Cumberland River. I decided a walk to the park was in order, give my dog some much-needed exercise (we won’t mention the much-needed exercise for me) and check out what the river looked like.

About half way down my street is a walkway that leads to some steps that lead to what is a big field behind my house. It is almost like a big bowl, from the bottom of our fence in our back yard it is probably another six feet down to the deepest part of the field. It is about ¾ of the size of a football field. I walked down the pathway and was shocked to see the field filled with water. Only three of the steps leading down into the field were still out of the water. But that still left the water a couple feet below the bottom of our back fence. This just seemed to be collected water, not from a flooded stream or river and since the rain had stopped I thought it likely had gotten as high as it was going to.

As I got to the park the atmosphere was interesting. I had never seen so many people and cars were streaming both in and out. I wasn’t the only one who thought checking out the river was a good idea. At the entrance to the park, the road was slightly flooded and the dog and I had to walk through about 6 inches of water. No biggie, the “puddle” was only about eight feet wide, easy enough to wade through.

The river was high. What was usually a grassy hill that slopes steeply about 20 feet down to a chain link fence atop a concrete wall was now a hill of only about 5 feet and the chain link fence and concrete wall were under water.

I walked home. I talked briefly to my housemate; she asked if I thought there was a danger of our neighborhood flooding. I assured here it wasn’t likely the water would have to come up a lot higher to flood the park then a whole lot higher than that to reach our neighborhood. Where she was there was no danger of flooding and so I returned home and went back to my writing.

Storm schmorm …. mostly a lot of hoo hah for nothin’ …. or so I thought  ….

To be continued …