October, 2024 – I started this page early on during the pandemic, and have just now gotten back to writing some more. I’ll leave what I wrote as I wrote it, and then go to the end and update! Hope this makes sense!

Here’s what I wrote:

I just can’t believe it has been so long since I have written anything. Life has been so busy and I just don’t seem to have the time or energy to write. But now, with having to stay inside due to the pandemic, I thought it was time to catch up. I promise I won’t take too much of your time, but do want to touch bases!

I have been taking a couple of online website training classes, so am actually trying out some things I learned. Hopefully those things will improve the experience!

I am still volunteering with The Nashville Food Project. At least I WAS until this pandemic caused them to have to turn the volunteers away for a few weeks. I am now in my third week of not going in and it looks like it will be another almost 4 weeks before we can get back. We moved into a bright, shiny new facility over Christmas 2018, and what a change it was! From a tiny home kitchen to a great, huge commercial kitchen. See our new space? This is a very small portion of what we have to work with. I’ll add more pictures to another page so you can look if you want to.

We have been putting out so many meals from here, it boggles the mind. Last year, we put out almost 265,000 meals! You can read more here. I just love being a part of this endeavor, and feel like I have become part of a family!

During the night of March 2, 2020, Nashville was hit with at least 4 tornados that did so much damage! Two entire parts of town (not neighborhoods – actual sections of town) were almost totally destroyed, as was our local airport (not our International Airport but John C. Tune Regional), and a suburb city, Mt Juliet. The swath was 50 miles! Nashville is nothing if not resilient. Here are a couple of pictures of homes that were hit in East Nashville.

Unbelievable destruction. Our next door neighbors own a lawn maintenance company, and had a building and lot near Tune airport where they kept their equipment, trucks and supplies. They were directly in the path of the first tornado to come through and lost literally everything. They are getting back up and running, gratefully.

Now, back to today!

Fast forward to today (October 2024)! Well, the pandemic didn’t last a few weeks as I thought when I originally started this post – it lasted 3 YEARS! What an experience that was! Luckily, Ray and I were spared from COVID, we got our shots as often as we could – to date we have had 8 each! We did what we could – we masked, stayed home or just took rides in the country in the car to get a little new perspective. Worked well for us!

I am back to volunteering 2-3 days a week at TNFP, and loving it. We are busier than ever, and putting out so many meals! I’m so happy to be a part of this endeavor.

Ray is golfing every day (that the weather permits). He had ankle replace ment surgery a year ago that went really well – so he is doing great. He is a born salesman, so is having a great time selling on eBay, Reverb and now Etsy. In our “spare” time, we go to Estate Sales to hopefully find items for him to sell. He specializes in golf equipment and tools, but doesn’t limit himself.