Bad days

Posting from my husband's computer. My computer died this morning. But that isn't the worst thing. My daughter fell from a swing at recess yesterday and broke her wrist. I'm feeling lower than dirt right now. I'm so numb I can't even cry. I don't even know what to do now.

EF 4 Tornado

That is what the National Weather Service has deemed this tornado. Wow. They have also added EIGHT more miles of damage to the length of the tornado making it a 23 mile path. It also puts some other cemeteries in our county in the path. Most notably the Rocky Glade(Downing) Cemetery. I will wait a few weeks before getting out to check on these places(more bad weather forecast for this weekend).

One of the homes near Medical Center Parkway.

Hazens Brigade Monument. The tornado went right over the monument. From other photos I've seen on Daily News Journal, some tree branches ended up in the small fenced graveyard, but it didn't appear there was any damage to anything. The Stones River National Cemetery did receive damage though, a tree fell over and took out a section of the southern wall. I could also see some other trees down inside the cemetery, but I couldn't tell if any markers were damaged.

Tornadoes here in Rutherford County

It was a scary Good Friday. This is the closest any tornado has hit since we moved here in 2002. As the crow flies, the Blackman area that was hit hard is about 5-6 miles south of me. I thank God for sparing my neighborhood. I pray for the family who lost a mother with her 3 month old baby.

As the news broadcast the weather warnings live, and with the weather alert radio going off every ten minutes(seemingly), my daughter and I huddled in the bathroomt(yes, with the cat too). I could tell eventually that the worst of it would pass south of us. And then WKRN, news channel 2, showed a TDOT video of the huge tornado passing just north of Hwy 96 across Interstate 24 I breathed a small sigh of relief. For us at least. The worst was past and "big one" was at least 5 miles to the south.

And then I started figuring out what would be in its path. I knew it would cross Stones River Battlefield(and sure enough there are reports of many trees down there now). It took a diagonal path and headed towards the VA Hospital at Compton Rd and Hwy 231. There are so many homes destroyed. As much as the photographer in me wants to document this, I will heed the call of the Sheriff and PD to stay off the roads.

We had planned to travel some backroads to do some grave hunting tomorrow, but I'm not certain that will happen now. Perhaps next weekend we can get out to check on the status of any cemeteries in that path.

Oh, and now I find out that Rutherford County has had more reported tornadoes than any other county in Middle Tennessee since tornadoes began being tracked. Yikes.

Just adding in: cemeteries possibly in the path of the tornado:

Stones River National Cemetery, Old Nashville Hwy
Wade Cemetery, Thompson Lane
McFadden Cemetery, Van Cleve Ln
Mitchell Cemetery, Haynes Dr
Green Cemetery, Sulphur Springs Rd
Watkins Cemetery, Hwy 231
Rucker-Pitts Cemetery, Compton Rd
Emery Cemetery, Compton Rd

I hope to get out and check on them as soon as possible.

Weekly update

I've been working on getting the Rutherford County Tombstone page re-done and completed. So far I've completely re-listed the entire county, alphabetically(which also means numerically). Over 700 cemeteries, so it took me a few days to finish it. One thing bugged me though-there is a small cemetery in Murfreesboro that I had found a few months ago but needed to revisit when the weeds wouldn't be so bad(and threat of snakes). And from descriptions in the new Rutherford County Cemeteries and Graveyards book, I figured it could be one of 2 different cemeteries, since both descriptions showed them to be near each other(and if I found one, where was the other?)...

Note to self...read the ENTIRE cemetery description including names when thinking two are awfully close to each other in location!

One cemetery was the "Kirk"(#368) cemetery, the other was "Nisbett"(#491). We went back out to visit it on Saturday. I didn't bring the book along with me, but when I got there and started reading the names on the headstones I found both Kirk AND Nisbetts there! When I got home I checked the names for those I had found....yep, sure enough the exact same names are listed in BOTH cemeteries in the book! So there are Kirks and Nisbetts, so this will from now on be the Kirk-Nisbett Cemetery.


Wanted to get out more as Saturday was a gorgeous day, but I wasn't feeling well and we had things like yardwork that REALLY needed to get done before it rained again on Sunday.

More country music awards on Sunday night. I can never remember which are which but I love watching any of them! Especially when Brad Paisley won for Best Male Artist!! I let out a huge scream! And he's at home here in Nashville(well, Spring Hill) waiting for Kimberly to have their 2nd baby any day now. Awwwwww! So sweet! Carrie Underwood won Entertainer, which is fine by me, as long as it wasn't Kenny Chesney again. And the song that Trace Adkins sang with the military choir, my goodness I was in tears from the start of it. The opening lyrics are:

I was there in the winter of '64
When we camped in the ice
at Nashville's doors
Three hundred miles our trail had led
We barely had time to bury our dead
When the Yankees charged and the colors fell
Overton hill was a living hell
When we called retreat it was almost dark
I died with a grapeshot in my heart

Oh man that hits home. And of course anything moving like this makes me cry like a baby. I also cried when Jamey Johnson sang "In Color" even though I've heard the song a thousand times. I just love it so much. And I was sooo happy when it won "Song of the Year". It was an excellent field with some really great songs this year, but I was thrilled that it won even though it meant that Brad didn't win that one. And finally, the performance that got me off of the couch to clap and cheer at the end of it was John Rich's "Shutting Detroit Down". It says so much. I love John Rich.