The OPRY!

Had a blast Saturday night with my boss at the Opry! I had never been and found out that Rascall Flatts were going to be there on this particular night. I immediately called the ticket office and got us two tickets.

We sat on the 4th row of the balcony and the seats were great! Lots of funny stories by the old MC's for each of the 4 parts.

A big lesson was learned though! I recently bought a new "off brand" battery replacement for my camera. The battery works great and holds a charge for a long time. It doesn't however, let me know when it is getting low on juice! Just as Rascall Flatts came out on the stage (4 th act) my battery died!!! So, the rest of my photos were taken from my cell phone. I'm still trying to figure out how to get those off and will get them edited and posted ASAP.

Here are some pictures from our big night. Listed you will see:

• The Opry house and the new "Minnie Pearll"
• Little Jimmie Dickens. He was a hoot!
• Buddy Jewel! I about died when he walked out. I bet I called 200 times while he was on Nashville Star. We use to go to happy hour at El Chico's on Murfreesboro Road on Friday nights to hear him play.
• Danielle Peck
• Ryan and I being silly. Look at my ears! I put in 2 different earrings to try and decide which ones to wear and never changed them back out! Ugh!
• Ricky Skaggs is starting to look like a back hills southern preacher.
• Steve Warner was the MC for the 4th act of the night.
• Gary LeVox of Rascall Flatts!
  

Yesterday Storms

Wow! Did the rest of you get stuck in the storm yesterday? I truly believe this is the worst storm I've ever been out in. It was so crazy.

I started out waiting on the parking lot shuttle a few minutes early hoping to get to my car before it got bad. No such luck. I was barely out the door when it began to poor. By the time the shuttle got to us (15 minutes), all of us were pretty wet and it was still raining! Then as we got close to my parking spot I started to panic a bit. The spot I normally get off at was under water. The sign had washed away and you couldn't see the sidewalk at all. The driver let me off in a dryer spot but of course my car was at the high point of the flood. Seriously, I had to wade through knee deep water (which is normally 4th ave) to get to my car in the gravel lot. Once at my car a new panic set in. I am soaked up to my thighs and then realize that I only have about an inch or more before the water will be rolling into my floor boards!

I got in as quick as I could and started out of town. While I was waiting at one of the red lights downtown, the tornado sirens started going off. Quite a surreal moment to realize that the sirens actually come out of the building I was in front of. :) Without thinking , I started towards the interstate to get home. BIG Mistake! Apparently heavy winds or a tornado had crossed I-40 right at Briley parkway. There were 2 tractor trailers turned over. One on either side of the interstate, directly across from each other. It took me 2 hours to go 15 miles last night and I looked like I had walked home in it. :) Hope everyone else fared better than I did.

I Caught One!!

Bailey helped me out Friday by letting me know I had finally caught a squirrel. I had let him out on his lead to potty and he didn't come back to the door like he usually does. When I discovered him he was nose to nose with the squirrel and they were at a stand off. I finally got Bailey drug back into the house and then moved the squirrel to the garage to get a few photos and get prepared to take him off. Bailey freaked out the whole time. He actually was still whining on Sat. thinking it was still in the garage.

Here are a few pics of my first catch and a short clip of him pacing the trap.

The “Money Pit” Strikes Again

I wish I wasn’t the only person these things happened too! I mean really! I decided to have my roof looked at because I have a few leaks. The reason I know this is that I have about 5 water spots on my ceiling that I had been partially ignoring, but silently worrying about. The worrying came to a peak when a neighbor explained how he had seen some spots on his ceiling, reached up and his hand went through it.

So, I called the insurance company to see who they would recommend I call and started the process. Well , BKA was backed up and told me they would have someone call me next week and schedule a time to come out. I basically put things on hold. Tuesday night I got home from the hockey game and found a BKA brochure in my screen door. So, I called them on Wednesday to find out what happened. I explained I was supposed to have been called and I would have made arrangements to have been there. Anyway, the man on the phone explained that they had come out and I really needed to call my insurance company to have a CAT (catastrophe) team come out to inspect. Due to the storms recently this had been considered a disaster area and this way I might have it covered. He said I had some minor work that needed to be done. Basically, some shingles need to be replaced and I have a little bit of dipping.

I decided to get some more opinions and so Wednesday I call Don Kennedy roofing. Again I am told how busy they are and it will be several days before someone will be able to come out, but they will call first. Two hours later, Damien (from Don Kennedy roofing) calls to see if he could come by at 2pm. So much for a few days, but I leave work and rush home so he can take a look at my roof.

Never in my wildest dreams could I have predicted where this would go next. Damien comes in and explains that I have some damage around my chimney that needs to be resealed and worked on, but that there is a bigger problem. It seems that after a tree limb dented my roof a little, that a squirrel decided to use that opportunity for a new home. The squirrel has removed the shingles in that area and dug through the roof into my ceiling and built a nest. I have cathedral ceilings, so there is not attic space just a gap between the drywall and the roof.

I’m sure the look on my face was priceless. I finally had to explain to the guy why I was so astonished. I mean, you would think I had built an ark or opened up and animal hotel.

So, now I am trying to find someone that will extract the squirrel nest from the ceiling and then patch the roof. It seems everyone wants to just patch the roof. I think this is nuts, since a squirrels nest is made of leaves and twigs. It will rot and bugs will get to it. Then I will have a whole other set of problems.

I also have a squirrels nest in my chimney, so I have the chimney sweep scheduled for Monday to clean out the chimney and repair the cap that is on it. I’m still looking for someone that will extract the squirrels nest from the roof, I am trying to catch the squirrels that are living there, and then I have to have the roof repaired. All the while having to pay for it all myself because the big kicker is that my Home Owners Insurance doesn’t cover anything that is related to “vermin”. So any damage to my home from bugs or critters is my own problem. GREAT!!!!!!