The first day of May will be one that many Tennesseans will never forget because of the heavy rains we received which caused severe flooding. In Jackson the total rainfall was around 12 inches that day. The rains continued east Saturday night and Nashville took a pounding not only on Saturday but also on Sunday. The pictures I saw online and on television are still etched in my mind. Where homes, yards and streets once were, now looked like a river enveloping homes. Even Opryland Hotel's property received damage from the floods. In Jackson, roads would wash out and what resulted was a huge hole that looked as if a bomb had blown up a section of the road. One picture that I saw, taken not far from Jackson General Hospital, showed a big pickup truck in such a hole . . . the truck looked so tiny compared to the circumference of the hole. Another picture was taken at a used car lot that sits on the corner of Airways Blvd. and Highway 45 ByPass. The parking lot looked like a lake and some cars, trucks, and vans stood in water as high as their windshield.
We had two weekends in a row of severe weather threats for our county. Friday night would start out with our NOAA radio going off, telling us we were under a tornado watch. Then came the tornado warnings. When the threat subsided and we would just get to bed and fall asleep, we would wake up to the sounds of our tornado sirens blaring (and NOAA radio blaring). This happened both Saturdays around 1:30-2:00 a.m. People who have lived in Jackson over the past 15 years do not take tornado warnings lightly. We know from experience how a tornado can destroy a city such as ours. We always turn our television on Channel 3 or Channel 5 News as we know the weather guys are going to be there, tracking the storms paths for us.
It seems to me that we have had less sunshine and more clouds, rain, and soggy ground this month. I did manage to clean our carport and our lower deck with our power washer two weekends ago, while my hubby cut up a tree that fell in our back yard from the ground being so saturated with rain. We received another break this weekend, so my dear husband and I scrubbed the upper deck and the outdoor furniture Sunday. We still need to clean the front porch. Then comes the cleaning of all our windows. My goal is to have everything looking great for Memorial Day weekend.
I normally have annuals planted in all my flower pots and containers by the end of April or first of May, but not this year (because of rain). This is a job I am hoping to accomplish this week. As a matter of fact, I might just work until noon tomorrow and then head to the nursery! I love planting flowers!
Maybe I will get to enjoy the last week of May without the rain to interrupt my chances to sneak outside and sit on the deck. I love to watch the different birds swoop down on our bird feeders to grab a bite to eat! Then there are the hummingbirds who come by for a pick-me-up from their feeders. So peaceful . . . so peaceful, in fact, that I am headed out there now! Catch you later!
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