Just a Friend You Haven't Met

Last night, tornadoes hit Nashville.  Germantown, East Nashville, and Mount Juliet were the hardest hit areas.  I have friends and colleagues in all three areas, but for now, everyone I know is accounted for.

That said, the images are horrendous.  And inspiring.

Borrowed image  w caption from CNN.  


For what it's worth, we're not that far from East Nashville or Germantown - we're south of those neighborhoods, and while we both recall hearing sirens, we also both went back to sleep.  Even the dog slept through it.

You cannot tell by looking at our house that a tornado hit several miles away in a long swath causing a boatload of damage.  But that's what happened.

In fact, I didn't realize that there were issues until I got up this morning and the message light on my phone was blinking.  I've had calls, texts, instant messages and Facebook tags, posts in a forum I frequent -  all to check in on us.  Here in Tennessee, in Alabama, Illinois, Georgia, Alaska, California... people checked in on us.

I posted a note on Facebook telling everyone we were OK - and the outpouring of relief has been embarrassing and a little overwhelming.

It's nice that people want me to be OK.  It feels weird and icky.  It's like when Dad died, and the attention felt a little too much, a little too kind.  I don't do well with sincere outpourings of love.  But I appreciate them, so I put my personal issues aside and I accept it.

So, that's where we are. 

I did not neglect my other civic duty this morning - even though the poll openings were delayed an hour, I got in line and cast my ballot.

I don't mind sharing that it was a game time decision.  I went with Biden.  Honestly it was him or Bernie, and I'm fine with either.  But since Klobuchar and Buttigieg are both backing Joe, I felt like that was a good enough endorsement for me. 

Now, we wait.

That's true both of the election, and the tornado damage.

I hope that if you are in Nashville and reading this, that you are ok.  And if not, please let me know how I can help.

ae

Comments

Chuck said…
Really glad you're OK. And finding myself OK with Joe, although I personally voted for EWarren. In the end, we all want the same thing.
Christopher said…
I'm glad you're doing okay too. In our part of Bellevue the sirens never went off and our phones never alerted us, although my wife did wake up in the morning to a text from the weather service that there was a "severe weather situation developing".
And now on to the cleanup...