Grandfather's Funeral

Today at 2 p.m. will be the funeral for my 91 year-old grandfather. When he passed away early Tuesday morning, I felt led to offer my assistance to my mother and her sister to lead (or officiate) his funeral. They accepted my offer and I've about completed an honoring tribute to his life. As I've reflected back of the years of my grandfather's life, it is amazing how much this man accomplished. It is amazing the legacy he left.

Proverbs 13:22 says "A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children" and he left an incredible inheritance in the way he lived his life.

I intend to follow his examples and leave behind a legacy that will inspire my family, too.

CoCoRaHS & Anniversary!

Our local, daily newspaper called and wanted to do a story on CoCoRaHS. For those of you who don't know what that is, you can click on the link for more. Anyway, I agreed to do the story yesterday and whammo, it came out today. You can read it here or click on the post. They put my picture on the front page, but, fortunately, it isn't on the web!

My wife and I celebrate our third wedding anniversary today! I married WAY over my head! :)

Weekend Update

Drove back from Holly Springs, MS today. Went to a family reunion (wife's grandmother). We had a great time. Met alot of people in her grandmother's family for the first time. There were about 50+ family members in attendance.

We ran through several waves of rain as we drove back. The heaviest occurred just west of Nashville on Interstate 40. Winds have been from the west and strong. Our forecast calls for the same ol' same ol' with a slight rain chance and quite warm through the period.

Noticed that it is Lightning Safety Awarness Week. This link has alot of great information.

More later tonight.

Birthday Girl and 100th Post!

Happy 13th to my lovely daughter!

From left to right, Cousin Mikey, Cousin Abbi, The Birthday Girl, Pa, and Cousin Karlyn all eating birthday cake!

This is the 100th post for the Cookeville Weather Guy blog!

The forecast isn't promising much in the way of significant rain. We'll be cooler over the next few days before we enter into a hotter, summer-type pattern.

It's A Girl!

The ultrasound tech confirmed that we're having a GIRL!

Woooo-hooo! :)

Everything looks great with the growth scan and the Doctor was well pleased.

Sunday Night Thoughts

The importance of Memorial Day should not be underestimated.

Regardless of your thoughts on the War On Terror, you must support the troops. It sickens me to see how the left-wing in this country continues to play politics with our fighting men and women. It is shameful beyond belief. Pray for the families of our military. They need our support.

Happy Birthday to my baby sister....is this # 38? :)

And The Winners Are.......

Our daughter (#154) and a good friend of hers (#134) ran a 5K today in our wonderful city. As you can see, they sprinted to the finish line. Her friend finished a step ahead. The great news is they are different age divisions and both finished first in their respective age group.

My father in-law also ran in the race and finished first in his age group! Way to go, Toney...another awesome thing about being 60+.

We are blessed with a BEAUTIFUL Saturday! After morning lows that ranged from 41 at our home and in the 30's in some locations, we've warmed up by almost 25 degrees at 10:15 a.m.

I'll be posting later today about my weather station. Several people have asked me about my setup, etc. The post should answer questions and help others who are interested in setting up their own weather station. I'll make this offer...if you live fairly close to Cookeville, I'm happy to advise you on what to purchase and help get you set up!

Summertime and The Livin' Is Easy!

Our summer-type weather will continue across ALL of Middle Tennessee. Temperatures will rise quickly today into the middle 80's. Some of us, not all, will see scattered showers. Again, a very typical summer pattern.

The extended forecast is for another chance for showers on Friday and the weekend looks wonderful with highs in the 80's and lows in the 60's.

Our garden is growing quickly and I plan to post some nice updated pictures...hopefully a chance to show all of you some before and after pictures. We'll see if I'm advanced enough technologically to do this!

Thanks to all of who are reading my blog...the numbers of you hitting my side continues to astound me...May will be the biggest month ever for this blog site. THANKS!!!! :)

Got Kids??? (and Great Weather)

Would every child want one of these in their backyard??? I know a few adults who would love to have one as well! :) Ran across this 'ship' at Mountain Barn Builders in Clarkrange, Tennessee. The folks up there have a wonderful place. They can build about anything you want for your property. This ship is a kit that comes from a manufacturer and this particular one has all the bells and whistles. A second picture is shown below. I'll include the website for Mountain Barn Builders in tonight's links further down in this post!

How about this great shot of the mountains here in Middle Tennessee? It was an absolutely gorgeous day as we saw highs touch 80 degrees for most of us. This view is from the Alpine Lodge in Cookeville, TN. Yes, you can stay in a motel room with this view. AWESOME!!!!

I looked at the TN Crop Report briefly this afternoon and most of our peach and apple crop is heavily damaged from the Easter morning frost. 75% of the apple crop is rated in the WORST category while 96% of the peaches are in the worst category. That doesn't bode well for the farmers who depend on sales of these crops for their way of life.

Noticed the Greensburg, KS tornado was listed as an EF-5 on the new Enhanced Fujita scale. First F5 Tornado in eight years in the US. At times, this monster tornado was one (1) and one-half (1/2) miles WIDE. Shocking.

Tonight's Links

www.mountainbarnbuilders.com

Center Hill Lake Sunday

***View of my parent's houseboat...The best kind (you go and enjoy without the headaches)***

***LEFT to RIGHT: Christy (friend of our daughter), Kelsey (our daughter), and my Mom***

**View from the back of the houseboat looking slightly southwest....from Cove Hollow Dock near Center Hill Dam.

After a very interesting Sunday morning service at church, we headed to Center Hill Lake for a fun-filled, relaxing afternoon. Our daughter brought a friend and she (our daughter) waterskied! Yes, the water was COLD! I didn't get near it...no way, no how!

Looks like our weather is going to be awesome over the next several days!!! YEE-HAW!

Dad's Award Winner

I'm especially proud of my daughter tonight. She and her classmates competed against another middle school tonight in a Lincoln/Douglas modified style debate. She ended up in second (2nd) place overall. What a great evening we had as a family. My wife and I had a dinner to attend, but we knew it was much more important to go support our daughter in her endeavor. There will be many other dinners to attend. Her school did really well and we are proud of all the kids who competed.

After receiving very little rain of the past several days, we were blessed to receive .65 inches of precipitation in just over 20 minutes today. Our plants really needed more, but we are HAPPY with what we got!

All is quiet on radar for now. The expectation for rain over the next several days will keep chances around 60% in our forecast.

Crazy April in Tennessee & Other Fun Stuff

Interesting Weather for April...

Elk and Buffalo seen in Tennessee...check out the bottom of this post for that info! :)

Our high temperature was 84.3 which occurred today! The previous high temperature for the month was way back on April 3rd. Our low was a chilly 22.2 degrees which happened on Easter Sunday morning April 8th. Incidently, that was the coldest Easter Sunday morning in history. Many trees lost their blooms from that cold snap.

We finished with 2.98 inches of rain. Normal precip for April is right at 4.5 inches...so we fell short by almost 1 and 1/2 inches. We had snow on April 15th this year. Quite an amazing April.

Speaking of amazing, my wife and I stayed at an AWESOME place on Sunday night. It's called the Whitestone Country Inn. You couldn't have asked for a finer place. We stayed in the Eagles Landing room and ate some incredible food! I'll link it at the bottom of this post.

We have family members in Hawaii this week and they are having an excellent time. One day, my bride and I will make that trip. Also, several family members celebrated a relative leaving to enlist in the Marine Corps. It is an honorable person who signs up to defend their country. They are even more honorable during time of war and I appreciate his dedication to his country and fellow countrymen.

The funeral for Sgt. Alex Van Aalten was Sunday. His family will have a private service later for his burial. I pray for the peace of the Lord to be with them.

Our flowers continue to spring forth. We have several new things coming up and finally, more warm weather for us on Tuesday....rain enters our picture for Wednesday! We sure need it.


Today's Links

Whitestone Inn:
www.whitestoneinn.com
My Weather Station:
http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KTNCOOKE10
National Weather Service-Nashville
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/bna/
ABC Channel 2 Weather Blog-Nashville (Elk and Buffalo in Tennessee)
http://www.news2wkrn.com/weather/

Saturday Night

It's a quiet evening here in the Upper Cumberland. My wife, daughter, and I attended the visitation for Sgt. Alex van Aalten. It was quite emotional for all of us. I really feel for his family.....He gave his life for his country at the young age of 21 in Afghanistan doing what he always wanted to do...defend his country. Sgt. van Aalten is a true American hero. I wished I would have known him better.

In other news:
Our garden is coming along nicely. We planted some cherry tomato plants today. They'll mature in about 65 days and will produce ALOT of 1 oz. tomatoes! The squash will come in on or around June 1st. The cucumbers in the third week of June. Sweet bell peppers along with two varities of large tomatoes will be along in the first few weeks of July.

The radio is playing and Toby Mac is belting out "Made To Love"...great tune....currently #2 on the charts right now....Toby's site is: http://www.tobymac.com/default.aspx

You can check out this great radio station at: WAY-FM in Nashville

My wife and daughter attended a dance group tonight called "Cathedral Oaks"...they had a great time.

Looks like 80 degrees for Sunday and possibly 85 on Monday! ***WOW***

Sgt. Alex van Aalten Arrives Home

Friday, April 27, 2007

The body of Sgt. Alex van Aalten arrived back in Cookeville today. A procession led by law enforcement brought him through town to Hooper & Huddleston Funeral Home. It was very touching to see the turnout in our community. As I think of how he served our country, it reminds me of the unselfishness of our military men and women. They serve knowing, full well, of the costs associated with their service.

Our country must come together in support of our troops. I am totally ashamed of the politics being played by the left-wing in this country. Seeking to destabilize and demoralize our young men & women is shameful and inappropriate. They must find common ground with our President and come together so that we may go on and finish the job. Anything less is shameful.

In honor of Sgt. van Aalten, I will support our troops and our commander in-chief as long as these men and women are in harms way. It is the right thing to do and the only thing to do.

Thank you for your service Sgt. van Aalten. My family and I will pay our respects to you on Saturday at the funeral home.

For those of you interested in attending, Hooper and Huddleston Funeral Home is located at 1st Street and N. Washington Avenue in Cookeville. Visiting hours are 3 pm (cdt) to 8 pm. The funeral will be at 2 pm on Sunday at Trinity Assembly in downtown Algood, TN.