Our Nashville

I just want to second what Holly Wynne says here. There’s not a soul alive who hasn’t seen news footage of something happening to some OTHER place they know. But when it’s the places you hang out, the places you see every day, the roads you drive down…

I mean, I was going to live to be an old age and then die and haunt the back end of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. It’s under water. My hauntin’ spot is ruined.

And I’m trying to be funny, but it’s making me cry.

So, yeah, I was glad Keith Olbermann remembered us tonight.

They’ve been sandbagging at Metrocenter (in it’s pre-industrial life, it was a swamp of sorts, so you know it’s happy to flood again if it can), but if the levee breaks before the water gets back down below flood stage, we’ll lose our internet. So… if posting becomes more sporatic, that’s what’s going on with that.

I’m having a hard time tonight, I’ll just say. I want everything back, shiny and clean. I want little old couples trying to get to church to not end up dead behind the grocery store. You know, just small things.

The hardest part is that some places are fine. You’re driving along and everything looks like it normally does and then you turn a corner or come over a hill or cross a bridge and there is all the terribleness. And for some people it’s over. And for some people it’s ongoing.

And I feel so bad. I guess it’s survivor’s guilt. I feel so strange that, for us, it just kind of stinks. For others, it means nothing, and for others, it sucks. And for others… I mean, what they’ve lost… it’s too much.

The Story to Go with Those Photos

I wrote it up over at Pith.

Yes, We’re the Jerks Who Drove Around, Looking at Stuff

Flood Update

I don’t mean to bore those of you who are following this locally. I also don’t want to not update those of you who aren’t local. So, here’s a short update. We woke up this morning to learn that parts of downtown are under water. If you’re a student of history, you be completely unsurprised to learn that it’s “Black Bottom” that has flooded–those old ghosts stick around, you know?

I-40 going out towards Memphis is closed. Much of Bellevue, which is our western neighborhood/suburb, is under water. Pennington Bend, which is the bend in the river where the Grand Ole Opry and Opryland Hotel is located is underwater in parts. Briley Parkway, which is a major loop around the city is flooded in two parts.

I don’t know. It’s hard to get you a sense of the magnitude of it. And I haven’t even started to tell you about the surrounding areas. Basically, if you look at a map of Middle Tennessee, you should just imagine all of the low areas under water.

We’re very lucky that, though we’re in a low area of our little clump of houses, we are actually higher up than most of the city. That’s why our yard emptied out pretty quickly, even though it was still raining. Our good fortune was the bad fortune of someone else.

I’m going to try to get into work here in a second.  The mayor has asked people to stay home, but the word from work is that folks are expected to be there. And the mayor doesn’t sign my paycheck, so there you go.

Please keep us in your thoughts.