It certainly has been an eventful couple of weeks since my last post. In Anderson's life, he now consistently finds his thumb (through the baby monitor, we can hear him sucking on it vigorously during the night), his smile occasionally breaks into a giggle that I hope to capture on video for you, and he is able to track us with his eyes as we walk around him. Unfortunately, all has not been as amaingly sweet for the rest of Nashville.
As the nation now knows, Nashville experienced unprecedented (some say biblical) flooding last weekend (May 1 & 2). They are calling it a 1,000 year flood, and we can only hope that it is that long before the city sees water like this again. My parents happened to be visiting over the weekend and I think that we have finally figured out the common denominator for the notorious Skowronek freaky weather - my parents! They pointed out that they were in Charleston for Jack's birth when hurricanes threatened, they were in Nashville for Anderson's birth when we had the big snowstorm, and now they were here for the flood. Hmmmm... :)
The rain started on Saturday (actually it might have been Friday night) and fell constantly, sometimes in torrents, all day. We (including Deacon, Mom and Dad's golden retriever) hunkered down inside waiting for the rain to let up with no idea what lay ahead. We decided to pass the time with a little Texas Hold 'Em where my mother schooled all of us and I taught Anderson how to lose gracefully. (Dad gave Mom a run for her money on Sunday, though)
Following thunderstorms Saturday night, we awoke on Sunday to still more rain and learned about the horrible flooding on I24 that resulted in 70+ cars being stranded. Later that day, they shut down parts of I40 due to standing water. Water rushed down our street and pooled in large puddles in front of our garage. We now realize that our side of the street is slightly more elevated than the other side and we were very fortunate that all of this water only resulted in several inches accumulating in the space below our house which was reabsorbed by Monday. Our only casualty was our hot water heater.
Our neighbors across the street called Sunday morning to see about a wet/vac and Jonathan and Dad went over to help them move furniture, inventory, and belongings out of their flooding basement. They swept water out the door and tried their best to stay ahead of it. It just didn't seem to let up! The bakers across the street were also unloading buckets of water from their basement, but fortunately none of their delectables were impacted. We were reminded that the springs in our Lockeland Springs neighborhood are still viable and may have contributed to the flooding around us. Apparently, folks near us had water in their homes up to their chests, not to mention the homes south of us that were completely destroyed. The pictures are surreal.
Monday was literally the calm after the storm. The sky was a brilliant blue and all seemed back to normal for us. Mom and I went shopping (and I got a pedicure as an early Mother's Day gift from my sis...thanks Brookie!) and as we entered the interstate we saw firsthand the wrath of the Cumberland. A junk yard that borders I-24 that we pass every day was essentially under water - the water level was up to the windows of the big trucks and some of them were completely submerged...this junk yard borders the Cumberland and you could see that the river was even with the water that we saw in the junk yard. Incredible!
Tuesday, we all packed up and headed our separate ways - Mom, Dad, and Deacon to Salisbury and our Wright family to Seagrove, FL. We left the flood behind us and hoped that the oil from the BP oil spill in Louisiana was not awaiting us on the Gulf Coast. So many lost so much last weekend and we will do what we can to help - we hope you will, too.
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