And the Waters Rose………

Last Saturday we had rain all day long.  Here, the Harpeth began to swell and overflow its banks.  Thankfully, we had no homes flooded that I know of.  (I could be wrong about this.)

Above is a photo taken by Girlfriend of our local golf driving range/golf course. 

And here is the entrance to the area—the trailer which served as an office was flooded, the steps up (about 5 steps to the door) floated away.

 

Girlfriend’s hubby is a golf pro who works here and gives lessons.  He also stored his golf cart on the premises—it was under water, too. 

It could have been worse, of course, and we are grateful it wasn’t.  Sadly, the water has done enough damage—and more rain is predicted this week.

We certainly empathize with flooded towns and cities in the Midwest.  We had a 500 year flood in 2010 and don’t want to relive that again.

 

Owl Obsession

Guest blogger, Vanna, writes:

Our babies are doing well tonight. We watched them for a long time and they seem very peaceful and recovered from their traumatic adventure yesterday. This morning my husband saw the mother owl swoop in with a squirrel in her mouth and feed one of the babies. He was unable to get a picture but was so pleased that they are being cared for by the parent. Needless to say, we are fascinated by them and feel privileged that they have chosen our trees to live in for now!

Today’s pictures:

The Continuing Saga

Vanna has some interesting things going on at her house!  Here is her guest post, an update on the owls:

Today the tree trimmers came to rid of us some storm-damaged branches which were located quite close to the nest. After taking pictures of the 2 babies who were again sunning themselves, one of them shimmied up the 40 ft close to the nest. We were hopeful that they would go back in the nest when they heard the noise but instead one fluttered down and the other got caught in the falling branch! Not to worry though because our trimmers gathered both of them and climbed back up the tree and placed them both back in their home. We have not seen them outside yet but are hopeful the sun will entice them outside again tomorrow. Surely, their mother is wise enough to reassure them that they are once again safe!

Thank you Vanna.  We will eagerly await news of how they are doing!

Babies at Vanna’s Tree (house)

 

Vanna emailed:

Look what we spotted in our tree in our side yard. We had been hearing these sweet babies and their mother but finally got a visual . How cool, are they?

In it to Win it!

More on the Country Music Half Marathon participants:

After the race, above, Front:  Racer Daughter and Leader, back their running partners Chris and Mac

LEADER!  Yes, she came in at #7 in her age group for the Half Marathon—how about that!  (Notice the lovely garbage bag garment which adorns her?  We will make her one with arms for the next race, just in case.)

Meanwhile, in Illinois, Daughter-in-law Racer completes the Illinois half marathon.  Her time is:  2 hours 7 minutes! personal best!

Congratulations to everyone who succeeded in finishing the 13.1 miles!  In my book, everyone is a winner.

Only Half Crazy!

“I knew it!” said Jabber.  “You ARE half crazy!”

Yes, but we all did the half marathon today in the heavy rain, rivers in the streets, and cold.  Above, left to right:  (back) Maisie and her husband; (front) Jabber and Vanna.  We GOT MEDALS too!

  At the end:      Maisie and her husband.  The rain quit 10 minutes before we reached the finish line.

If you think this looks a bit overdone, you should have seen me in a garbage bag.  This was before the half began—I quickly donned my black garbage bag with arm holes.  And I wore it for the duration.  I never have appreciated garbage bag garments so much, either!

Vanna, before the race began, above.

                                     

  This woman had an umbrella hat!  I have no idea who she is.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Below, crowd lining up at the start of the race—this is the last corral, the one from which we started. 

                                                                 

  Waiting to start. 

Below, the hula hoop walkers.  Very impressive to say the least. 

  One of a very few live groups performing as we walked. 

All were so grateful to those folks who came out to cheer us on and to entertain us and hand us water and other refreshments along the way.  They, too, got stuck in the cold rain for many hours.

One amusing sign said:  “Free hairdryers.  Runner provides electricity.”  Another said, “Run Random Stranger, Run!”  At another front yard, one woman was quickly drying off very wet walkers with a towel.  People were so supportive in what they shouted at us, making us smile and laugh and wave back.

THANK YOU SUPPORTERS!

We hit the last mile!

Leader and Racer Daughter had already finished as they are runners, so I did not get a photo of them yesterday.  But they, too, endured and did it!  Congratulations to everyone.

When I got home, TMWLH had bought me roses and the Y-Knots had left a gift.  What an adventure!  But then, again, as we always ask, “Why not, Y-Knots?”

Thanks to everyone for all your support in every single way!  Especially to Leader and Vanna who made all the difference.  Could not and would not have done this without you.  You are the best!

“So,” asked Jabber, “What’s next?”

Preparations

For the St. Jude Country Music Marathon and Half Marathon got into full swing this morning when Maisie and Girlfriend picked up Vanna, Jabber and new friend “Teach” to head to the Expo at the Convention Center downtown Nashville.

We were picking up our official numbers, shopping a bit, and generally enjoying some free music, snacks, entertainment, and milling about with some of the early registrants for Saturday’s events.

Below, some murals at the Expo:

Jabber and Vanna dream about the FINISH! in front of another mural:

We had to ‘ham’ it up a bit—here is Vanna doing her Rock N’ Roll Routine.  Impressed all the Elvis Impersonators!

 

Maisie had parking access across the street since she is ‘well connected’ to a public relations executive (her son-in-law) for a large record company who has his office on the 11th floor—what a view!  A lovely woman by the name of Summer (isn’t that a beautiful name?) gave us a tour.

Panoramic view of Nashville:

“Wait a min’ here…….” Jabber thoughtfully interrupted, “Let me see—you are parking right across the street so you don’t have to walk very far to register to walk 13.1 miles on Saturday.  What is it about this picture that seems just plain WRONG????”

Never mind Jabber.  Just be quiet.  For once.

Okay, so as I was writing, we had a lot of fun, got some free stuff, bought some gear, had a tour of the beautiful office suites of Maisie’s son-in-law’s company (saw where some scenes for the TV show “Nashville” were shot, too, in the office!) and then went to eat.  All of this with some really good friends—here are some more photos:

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Here we are at lunch:  (l to r) Jabber, Maisie, Teach, Vanna and Girlfriend.

Now, of course, all we have to do is to DO it!  I will report.

A Trot in the Park?

Leader has generously been preparing Jabber for walking the Country Music half marathon coming up this Saturday.  This morning she took Jabber on a walk in the park.  Here is Leader!

She’d taught four classes at the Y yesterday, put down 10 bags of mulch and weeded part of her very large gardens.  So, of course she wanted to do 5 miles or more this morning with Jabber.  Yes, of course.  (She is the original Superwoman, in case you haven’t guessed.)

While crossing this small bridge, I took a picture of a very artistic-looking tree root. 

We walk at Edwin Warner Park in Nashville which has miles of flat paths along with miles of hills. Guess which we did this morning?

Both, of course.  It is a gorgeous day here around the Harpeth.  Get out there and enjoy the sunshine!

Duck Calling Champion!

“Why would anyone want to call ducks?” Jabberwocky asked in a confused tone……….”It’s well known that they don’t say much, so conversation seems out of the question?”

Speaking of not saying much, Jabber…….oh never mind.  On with the story:

Yes, I never would have thought that my little girl, CCQD (Coupon Clipping Queen Daughter) would also be the Duck Calling Champion!  Here is a picture of her, right after the award:

You see, she and Granddaughters attended the Southern Women’s Show on Saturday.  While there, they happened upon a program where duck calling was happening.  Seems that there is a show on TV called DUCK DYNASTY (heard of it?  NO?  Well, me neither…..but I digress…..)……. and the mother of the two men who are stars of the show was there.  Her name is Miss Kay.  So, naturally, CCQD and the two Grands were interested. 

  Yes, here is a picture of Miss Kay her very own self!

“Why ‘naturally?’” inquired Jabber once again. 

I did not respond.

So, somehow or another, CCQD was asked if she would like to compete in the duck calling contest?  Always having been a bit of a ‘ham’ herself, she said yes, of course.

AND SHE WON!  This without ever having called a duck before in her life (that I am aware of).

She won a gift certificate to Dick’s Sporting Goods as well as her very own duck calling horn.  So now she goes around carrying said horn in her pocket, ready at a moment’s notice to call a duck.  Yep, she does blow her own horn!

Below:  CCQD, Amy Page, disk jockey of The Big 98 WSIX, and the two Grands.

And here they are with Miss Kay after the competition, in the ‘winners circle.’

An aside here:

I don’t have a history with ducks, but I did know one years ago.  Its name was Daddles.  Daddles lived with friend “California” (see some previous posts for pictures of California) back when all of us were, well, ducklings.

(Not really, do not take me literally here.  Daddles was a duck, and California and Jabber were girls, if you have to have it spelled out for you.)

Daddles lived in the back yard of California’s home.   (She also had a pigeon named “Pidge” and a dog, but I’ve forgotten its name.  No, she did not live in a zoo.) 

One week, California and family went on vacation and Jabber was asked to feed Daddles.  Let me just say this about that:  ducks bite.  Daddles successfully chased me around the yard, biting my ankles every single darned day of that week.  I did not develop an affinity for ducks.

Needless to say, Jabber has never had another duck encounter of the 3rd kind.  But now CCQD might, what with her horn and all.  I’ll report if suddenly there is a flock of ducks around here—she just came for a visit and had to toot her horn, of course.

Abbreviated Brocanting

“How would your crew EVER abbreviate brocanting?” inquired Jabberwocky.

Well, fewer sales that we’d hoped for, but as always, we persevered and found some treasures.

A few photos for today:

At a sale, Sosew examines binoculars……….

Thumper and Cupcake take a moment for a smile while searching for treasure:

And, Cupcake finds a new hat! and takes a nap—a nap in a hat!  (I think there is a Dr. Seuss rhyme in there somewhere…….)  Not really.  Cupcake discovered TMWLH’s hat and decided it looked good on her!  (And it does!)

We had fun and found a few treasures.  Mostly, though, we had fun!  Which is the point, after all, isn’t it?