Good morning Kossacks and welcome to Morning Open Thread.
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As I write this, it's been exactly 14 years since the tornado that hit Nashville in 1998. My prayers are with all the victims of the recent tornado outbreak. I've been there, done that, replanted the trees that got blown over. I have tons of pictures, but they are all film and I haven't scanned any of them yet.
There have been so many changes in my neighborhood since then, most notably that back in 1998, the local paper didn't even cover the tornado damage to East Nashville for several days; now we are considered one of the hippest neighborhoods in the nation. We have a crazy local art festival called the Tomato Art Fest. It started as a small art festival, and it took on the Tomato theme from the fact that for a couple of years there were some very unsightly and hated buildings that were being torn down, and the city graciously cooperated with a plan to have a tomato throwing contest which then culminated in bulldozing. Really. It was a blast! The tomatoes, all donated, were rotting, so they were very juicy and created a real splash. And thus the Tomato Art Festival was born.
I was rehearsing downtown that day, and we finished just as the tornado was hitting. The security guards didn't let us out, and we had to go back down to the basement. I could feel my ears popping from the low pressure. While we were waiting downstairs, there was an announcement that kept playing over and over, "Emergency, please leave the building." Ha! Finally about an hour later we were allowed to leave, but we had to leave through another part of the building because there was broken glass everywhere on the streets outside the stage door, and windows were threatening to fall out of the building across the street.
For some reason, I parked in a parking garage that day; I usually parked at an outdoor lot. So, my car was OK, but I had only fumes in my gas tank. All the traffic lights were out, and it was rush hour, so it was a real mess. I thought my best move would be to go west to get to the east side, because I could hit the interstate sooner. Well, I just about made it to the Charlotte Avenue exit when there was another tornado warning, and the police made us get out of our cars and crawl under the interstate overpass. After about another hour, I got to leave and try to go home. I wanted to get home to my cats to make sure they were OK. It was their second birthday!
When I finally got to the east side, my heart sank when the road to my house was blocked off. I parked at the Kroger and started walking. Since I had just moved in to my house barely a month before, the neighborhood was absolutely foreign to me. The trees were all down, the street signs were down, utility poles were down - just about everything I could use to find my way home. But, I had to get home so I just started walking, taking care not to step on any power lines. Many other people were walking home, looking like zombies. At one point, a police cruiser made an announcement that there was another tornado warning, and everyone slowly looked up, and then just walked on, ignoring the warning. I guess we were all in shock, so what did it matter that there was another warning?
I finally met a guy walking a dog who said he lived just a few blocks from me, so he walked home with me. When I got the door open, I saw broken glass, dirt, leaves, and grass all over the floor and table. Calling out to the kitties, I was really scared because I was afraid they had gotten out the broken windows. Finally I heard them and saw them come down the stairs, but I couldn't prevent them from walking over the floor. They apparently spent the afternoon under my bed upstairs, which is now their preferred location during tornadoes. Anyway, my neighbor helped me nail up some particle board - who knows where it came from - over my broken windows, and then we had a glass of wine before he left to tend to his own house.
This is the view several days later on the street behind my house.
For more than two weeks, I had blue lights in my bedroom window all night long. I live across the street from what was a nursing home, so after all the residents were evacuated it was used as a staging area for police and utilities. I was without gas for 5 days, electricity for 9 days and a phone for two weeks. I didn't settle with my insurance company until July, but I was one of the lucky ones. Some insurance companies tried to cancel policies at noon before the storms hit.
So now the former nursing home is a restaurant, Montessori school, shops, and apartments for deaf people. I have 5 restaurants, a coffee house, and a Jeni's Ice Cream all within walking distance of my house, which has more than doubled in value.
And my cats? They are 16 today, and still as feisty as ever.
Here is Pepper
And Cinnamon (They are color-coded.)
Even better? It will be one year this coming Friday that I got my cancer diagnosis. I saw the surgeon today, and she was happy with my mammogram and everything else. I feel absolutely great and I'm once again planning that triathlon that got put off last summer.
So, jibber jabber away!