The Floods

I'm sure everyone has been following the disastrous rainfalls and floods that took such a toll in human life and property the past two weekends. No one has ever seen anything like the amounts of water recorded in various counties, or the number of tornadoes and severe thunderstorms. TV pictures and commentary are hard to comprehend. We had 6 1/4 inches of rain in our gauge for Friday night and Saturday. Some areas of the county, and state recorded much, much more.

The Fair on the Square was Rained Out for the Saturday part of the festivities. That is a 'first' in the 35 year history of this activity. More of same (rain storms) was predicted for Sunday, May 2nd, but the sun came out and shone brilliantly all day long. Many of the vendors had given up and gone home on Saturday, and no one could blame them. Those who stayed had what looked like a moderate crowd of browsers.

We drove around to see what was flooded around town... Collierville actually sits on fairly high ground, but north of town in the Wolf River bottoms, water was out of the river banks and into Peterson Lake and Johnson Park's nature walkways. It was amazing to see.

It's been really nice - dry and sunny - since Sunday. The temperature got up to 89 today... which is a little bit warmer than it should be this early in May. And all that rain, two weekends in a row, is making our grass (and everything else) grow like crazy. Just when we had the yard nicely mowed - thanks to Paul and his air compressor - we can almost see the grass getting taller.

The UMW meeting today was interesting, with a speaker from the inner city church and community. Afterwards, sister and daughter and I had lunch together and then went out to vote in the primary election. I was not surprised when my sister and I were there, that only one other voter came in. The poll workers were not busy at all. Voter Apathy is awful and has been a problem for several elections over the past several years. Wonder when people will wake up and realize that their voice Does make a difference if it's Used ! The polls have closed now, so the results will be available on TV shortly if not already.

Friends of the Library meets tomorrow, and we'll be discussing what grants to offer for the Library collections and programs. There's a never-ending need for more books in each category and genre. The Book Store and Book Sale revenues go a long way toward fulfilling those needs.