More April Showers

It was a year ago this weekend that the flood waters caused so much destruction in Nashville. We had a large storm system move through the first part of the week which left standing water everywhere and reminded us of last year’s flood, and it makes us a little nervous about next week's forecast.

As you know from watching the news, this is the largest storm to hit the South in about 80 years. The tornadoes that ripped through Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee have left around 300 dead. This was brought home to me as I listened to one of my colleagues at work who is from Mississippi try to find out if people she knows from her hometown are all right.

A TEAM PLAYER. I won't get into baseball details this time -- we've been rained out a lot and then Ben was sick for another game -- but I will share that all the coaches have said Ben is the player who has shown the most improvement on their team. They've been very complimentary about his ability and his attitude. I know it makes me proud to watch him play because he is a team player, not focusing on himself, but working hard to do his part for his team. Hearing his coaches appreciate this as well has been nice to hear.

CRIME WAVE. Our big excitement centered on a string of burglaries that happened in the area yesterday. Mom and Aunt Mar were victims.

Mrs. Connie called me at work to let me know Aunt Mar's burglar alarm was going off and that she had been over to check on Aunt Mar. When she got to the house she found the window in the back door broken and the door left open. Since Mom and Aunt Mar weren't home (they were in town for a hair appointment) she left. By the time I got there a deputy was on the scene. The best we can tell the thief did enter the house and looked at things on Aunt Mar's dresser, but it appears he didn't stay too long since the alarm was sounding. We aren't sure if he took anything.

It appears that he left there and hit a house a couple of miles away where the homeowner and her father arrived and caught the man there. They were able to get a description of the vandal's truck, and the father even hit him with his cane. We heard today that the Sumner County police arrested a man matching this description today.

STRAWBERRIES. Our strawberries are in. The kids have been out picking them the last few days. Ben was so excited about the crop he came in this evening and went straight to the computer to look up strawberry recipes. At the same time Nate was complaining to Jenna about how tired he was after picking strawberries and said he thought he was going to turn into a strawberry. He went on to say, "I think I can feel the seeds inside of me starting to grow strawberries."

As for me, I've eaten one strawberry which has reminded me that I don't like them any more this year than I've ever liked them in the past. Yuck!

Joe