Halloween

Fantasy Friday: 10 Ways This Character is Perfect for Halloween Fun

I hope everyone enjoyed the Scary Moments posts. I’m shifting gears to one of my characters today. 

Mandelfred “Manny” Mandeheim is the lead character of The Order of the Dark Rose. Here’s why he makes a great character for Halloween:

  • He’s a spy master and is skilled with quick costume changes.

    “In a silent corner, Manny dropped his threadbare bag of belongings, those on the top consistent with his disguise as a homeless man. In moments, he’d peeled the false knotted beard from his face, then wiped his skin clear of the painted distortions and dirt. He removed his long duster, turned inside out, and festooned with false tears for just such a disguise. Next, he pulled off the dirty shirt, which revealed one beneath it, bright and clean in contrast. Last, he pulled false pant legs from his real ones, then wiped his shoes clean. After stuffing the disguise into his old bag, he brushed his dark hair straight with his fingers.” ~ The Changeling Incident

  • He’s cursed so his age changes often – he can look different from minute to minute. 

“My glimpse of Manny left me agape anew. His face had changed to that of an old man. His wrinkled skin hung loose on his skull, and his gray hair was lank upon his head. But the eyes remained Manny’s undoubtedly. Had the fleer gun done this to him? Or some other magic?” ~ The Disgraced Sniffer

“Manny clicked on the maged torch, revealing the visage of a child of about eight or so. “I seemed to have changed age again. Could you do me the favor of…” A boy’s hand extended the Sizer toward me, the overlong sleeves of his coat pushed up in wrinkles. He stood with trousers grasped in his other hand, so they didn’t fall, the legs a crumpled puddle of cloth about his undoubtedly oversized shoes.” ~ The Night Fiend

“Blindly, I rummage in his coat pocket for the Sizer wand or an Alchemist Needle, the latter on the off chance he did bring one. The latter wasn’t present. I pointed the size caster at what I thought was the correct lump writhing in the mass of clothing at my feet. A cough erupted from my throat as I wiped tears from my eyes. A puff of green smoke billowed from my lips. What had happened to me? I flicked the caster switch with my thumb. silver light flared at my feet, and the clothing shrank around a child’s body—a toddler, if I guessed correctly. “By the black gates of Thuva!”

Manny’s cherubic child’s face turned toward me, and I glimpsed through my half-blinded eyes his all-too-intelligent pupils. His high voice coupled with his vocabulary set my skin crawling at the juxtaposition.” ~ The Rose of the Adversary

  • He doesn’t mind dressing in costumes or disguising himself. Just read the first two cases in the book. 

“He grinned as he hunched in his bum disguise…” ~ The Changeling Incident

“He had donned his big overcoat, several pockets of which bulged from various magical devices stowed in them. On his head, he wore a close-fitting head-cap to which he had affixed the antlers, a strap firmly fastened under his chin.” ~ The Night Fiend

  • Did I mention he’s a master spy? It means he’s very opportunistic and plays along with sudden changes of events. 

But another guardsman stopped us short of the street. His wide-set eyes shifted over our shoulders, then took us in, each in turn. His eyes narrowed. “Got him, did you? Nice trick, that.”

I opened my mouth to respond to the insinuation that we’d murdered our attacker, but Manny spoke ahead of me. “We’ll not speak of it now unless we must.”

The guardsman was stout, his cheeks puffy beneath his brow. He shifted his stubby feet on thick legs. “Just need to confirm it. They said something was to happen. Important to verify it. You know, remove the marked one.”

“You have the password?” Manny leaned on his cane, seeming stronger than earlier.

The guardsman glanced my way, suspicion dancing in his eyes under the steady light of the lamp. “Didn’t know there would be two of you on this one. You tell me the password first.”

Manny’s eyes narrowed in response, and his nostrils flared. He reached into his pocket, drew out the card he’d retrieved from the ground, and held it out to the guardsman. “I think this is enough for the moment, don’t you?”

The guardsman stared at the card as a slow gape formed on his face. “Sorry to bother you, sir. I was just checking, like I was asked.”

“Good enough. It’s done. Now let us pass.” Manny lifted his cane to the guardsman’s arm as if to brush him aside with it. The other man stepped out of the way with a duck of his head. We passed him without another word and gained the street, at which time we both exhaled.

“What was that—”

“Not now. No names. Just keep moving.” Manny set the pace, his aged appearance belying his obvious verve. ~ The Disgraced Sniffer

  • He’s also an arch-mage so changing things into frogs and whatnot are a specialty. 

As we approached the next street corner, a fellow in a rough, gray tweed suit and dark hat with a rounded top crossed the traffic and intersected us. His broad face bore several scars, mostly on his cheeks and forehead.

Manny halted and thrust a hand toward the man as he reached for his pocket. “Stop! Come no closer.” To me, he said without turning his head, “Behind us, Wish.”

With a whirl, I thrust my hand in my pocket for the fleer gun as another burly man in a dark suit strode toward us. His was a narrow-faced, clean-shaven fellow, with his jaw set and a gleam of malice in his dark gaze. He most noticeable feature being a flattened nose. “I pushed my coat pocket forward. “Stay back!”

He kept coming, his bushy eyebrows furrowed beneath his mop of dark hair. He smirked as I backed into Manny. A glance past Manny showed the first man walking slower. Other people on the sidewalk halted or crossed the street with sudden concern in their facial expressions.

Manny pulled a wand. “That’s close enough.”

The first thug paused. “Just delivering a message.”

“I’m familiar with the Kantar’s knuckle-messages. We know we’re late. No reason to harass us.”

“You won’t do nuthin’.” He pushed a step forward with hard stare. The other fellow came within ten strides.

Manny withdrew another wand and murmured a few words so that both glowed. “I’d hate for you to waste your hard-earned money getting rid of a hex. How do you think he’d look as a toad, Wish?”

I pulled the fleer gun discreetly from my pocket and glared at the second man. Qualms about fleering someone bothered me little. “Maybe a rabbit or a turtle?”

Now my foe halted.

Manny chuckled at my terse quip. “Wish does like pets!” He advanced toward the one in the tweed suit. “How about you just walk away before I decide on rat?” ~ The Disgraced Sniffer

  • If you get into trouble, he’s always got a way out – mostly. 

“Yes. Now pick me up and use the wand I gave you. Hurry!”

Groans sounded behind me. Grimsley snarled, “Get off me, you buffoon! Get these fires out before I lose everything!”

“Thief!” A woman’s shout echoed in the basement. Magic sliced around Grimsley and his men outside the doorway. Vyara leapt at them. She whirled her wand, and fire spewed from it like a pink burning rope.

I yanked the caster Manny had given me from my pocket, fumbled the fleer gun and scroll into another pocket, and snatched Manny from the floor. With my eyes still squinting from the magical flash, I whirled toward the door as Grimsley rose like an apparition through the flames. Through my blurry vision, I discerned that he lifted a wand.

“Use it on us,” Manny squealed.

I turned the caster on us and clenched my jaw at the threat of Grimsley and the sudden fear that I knew nothing of what this wand did.

The button flicked under my thumb.

A blur of many-colored lights and smoke swirled around us while a rumble, louder than a tram, shook everything in me.

Darkness welcomed me, and I staggered forward, then slammed into something hard. I groaned and dropped to my knees. Then I slumped to the ground as water dripped all around me. A putrid stench filled my nostrils, my vision still blurred from the trap in the drawer.

“Wish, wake up.” Manny’s childish voice shook me from my stupor as he nudged me.

“Where are we?” I rolled over on the ground.

“You did it!” Small hands tugged at my shirt. “You’ll have to get up on your own. I’m too small to get you off the ground. We’re in an alley.” ~Rose of the Adversary

  • He’s not afraid of dark and creepy places.

Everything around us stood out in the light in a dusty gray. At my feet lay eight irregular objects that bore no significance to my initial gaze. After a few moments, I jumped in revulsion at the realization that I stood among decayed bones. More remains. My glance along the walls revealed additional bones shoved away in narrow, lateral cavities.

“What is this place?” Panic returned in quick breaths as I waved the maged torch around and aimed the fleer gun, wary more dead might rise intact. Anything might happen with magic as a factor nearby.

Manny leaned close to one of the cavities and squinted as he peered within, then straightened and gazed at me. “We appear to be in the catacombs beneath part of the city. An interesting destination, to say the least…” ~ The Feral Name

  • He’s not afraid of the undead. 

At that moment, something grasped my questing hand. I screamed.

A click in the darkness and the command of a spell sent light around us and blinded me for a moment. There lay the glowing maged torch, activated by Manny’s command from the wand.

A skull grinned at me, its jaw loose. But its bony appendages wrapped around my hand with cracking tightness.

I picked up the maged torch and held it aloft. Skeletons lined the walls of a tunnel. Darkness extended in either direction beyond our meager light. Decayed heads swiveled slowly in our direction.

I jumped to my feet and yanked my hand from death’s grasp. A ghostly moan echoed around us. I snapped my mouth shut. That had been me.

The skeletons stirred in glowing animation and stood with ponderous effort.

“Wish, the fleer gun!” From behind me, Manny loomed out of near darkness, his wand pointed. Flame erupted from the point. “It’s a trap!” ~ The Feral Name

  • Monsters are more of a curiosity to him. (confronting the first feral)

We stepped farther away and halted our attack, then watched as the creature died before us in a smoldering mass. We waited, careful it didn’t regain its feet and attack us again. As the beast lay still before us, I realized that my hand trembled uncontrollably.

“What in the Nine Hells of Clo Clana is that?”

Manny tilted his head in curiosity and strode forward as the last of the magical flames died away. “Something created by magic.” He edged closer and poked the creature’s charred face with his wand. “Seems to be real enough, not some spirit.” ~The Feral Name

  • He’s got skills if the unexpected happens – mostly. (“Run!” at the end of FN)

“Wish, I think we really should vacate the premises.” With those words, Manny drew out the single-use caster loaded with a transport spell tied to a specific location. Where that was mattered little to me in that moment. He clicked little switch with a command in his mage-talk.

Nothing happened.

Manny grunted. “Not surprising. Run faster, Wish! We have to get farther from her.” ~ The Feral Name

So there are some good reasons to have Manny around for Halloween. Share this post if you liked it and leave your thoughts in the comments where I’ll reply.

Looking for more about The Cursed Mage Case Files?

An arch-mage can handle almost anything. Unless he’s cursed, lost his job and facing an unknown enemy.

The Dark Rose 700 x 1440 Lightened SMThe Gallantean Empire relies increasingly upon magical technology which cleans sewers, runs trams and much more. Within the capital city of Cal Rindon, magic is pervasive, but not necessarily used without crime involved. The bustling metropolis boasts constant innovations mixed with growing pains. Amid the good lurks the bad with unrest and growing crime.

Arch-mage Manny Mandeheim fell under a curse, watched his fiancé die, and then lost his job as a spy. So what’s an arch-mage to do? Start his own magical investigation service while he works to clear his good name and maybe avenge his lost love. With his very un-magical partner, Wish Ackford, Manny discovers the menace of a much larger conspiracy than he expected looming behind his curse. Suddenly, the limitations from the hex leave him at a distinct disadvantage as he and Wish investigate.

Assassins lurk at every corner or in every tram car. The threat of an unknown mastermind with murky intentions lingers just out of sight. A questionable source offers the hint of a secret order hounding Manny’s footsteps. A murder leads to wrenching discoveries.

Nothing an arch-mage can’t handle…

Unless the curse limits how much magic he can use or kills him outright.

A mixture of Sherlock Holmes and Harry Potter, The Order of the Dark Rose is set in an alternate fantasy world where magic is both commonplace and dangerous. Mysteries abound in this original, new fantasy from P. H. Solomon, author of the award-winning, best-selling epic fantasy series, The Bow of Hart Saga.

Can Manny survive long enough to break his curse? Or will the arch-mage’s hidden foe escape him? Click the Your Favorite Retailer button to enter this high concept world of magic and fantasy to discover more about Manny and Wish.

    

Also leave your ratings and reviews at:

Reviews for The Order of the Dark Rose:

“Magical world-building, brilliant characters, amazing, leaves you craving more, sleight of hand story” – Reviews from Readers Favorite

5star-shiny-web

 

 

 

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Scary Moments: 5 Times Life Felt Like The Apocalypse

We’ve all seen the post-apocalyptic movies and shows. Walking dead neatly created sets which were empty of people. I Am Legend and other movies depicted life devoid of other people. Of course, those are zombie apocalypse genre and we’ll get into those later this week. I guess this subject is good for Halloween.

There’s a fixation with drastic events in the American psyche. There are entire genres of books and films. The word is from ancient Greek and means “Revealing”, and is most associated with The Book of Revelations written by John the Apostle. It famously contains events which add to the entire social outlook of the world based on the events. Oddly, Revelations isn’t really about the dire events, but I suppose how we deal with uncontrollable events reveals much about us.

People prep for extreme events whether for hobby or serious intent. Personally, I’ve been through several weather events in my life that led me to create a certain amount of prep to deal with these situations as necessary.

These past experiences left an impression on my memories. Here are five times life felt like the Apocalypse:

  • 1974 Tornadoes: I wrote about this event earlier this week as one during which I was close to death. The aftermath of the storm left many people without power for days as well as many trees down everywhere. Our street was blocked at both ends. School was dismissed. Dire reports came over the radio. People wandered around looking at what happened. It felt like our slice of the world had been reduced to living life like a hundred years earlier. Eventually life got back to normal, but we cooked from camping gear or the fireplace and it was easy to imagine at time when it’s the end of the world as we know it (TEOTWAWKI for short). This was the biggest tornado outbreak recorded and the stuff of epic movie thrillers. I don’t watch movies about tornadoes, I’ve lived them until…
  • 4/27/2011: This is a date remembered in Alabama, and across the south, for the devastating tornadoes that swept through the region. That morning, death passed by my back door as also noted in my former post this week. This was another event where we were without power for about six days, while cleaning up around the house. It took months to recover. I can remember video of people wandering around Tuscaloosa in shock at the enormity of the damage. There were many other communities with widespread damage and deaths. This was certainly an event that felt Apocalyptic. You could not find items at the store, but I was lucky to get my hands on a bigger, newer, working chainsaw. Generators were nowhere to be found in stores. It was hard to drive anywhere in the area due to all the downed trees. Here are a few links regarding the Tuscaloosa Tornado:
  • 1993 Blizzard: Alabama doesn’t get too many snow events and most of them involve wet snow that turns to ice. These are usually about a day or two of inconvenience and kids out of school as roads are cleared and schools are confirmed not to have burst pipes and heat. We just don’t have these enough to warrant handling these events with a short shut-down in the region. But in late winter of 1993, we got a blizzard which is extremely rare for this region. Cold air swept south under an incoming major storm from across the Gulf of Mexico. Nobody took weather reports seriously the few days earlier, after all, the day of it was in the 60’s and partly sunny. They said it was getting cold and when I saw the radar on the weather, that was and uh-oh moment. We were inundated with a lot of precipitation while the temperatures dropped at least 30 degrees. It was thundersnow with iridescent green-blue lightning. We ended up with about 3 feet of powdery snow (very rare for this region) and the state locked down. I was able to drive around in a 4-wheel drive I owned at the time and it was eerie to drive around without anyone on the road. It was serene, but strangely empty.
  • Snowpocalypse/snowmegddon – this storm in 2014 even got its own apocalyptic nicknames. It started as a snow storm – wet snow – on cold ground and streets and turned into a mass traffic quagmire. The snow surprised local meteorologists in that it stuck. I thought the ground was plenty cold since we’d had several days of dry, cold weather. It started snowing mid-morning after everyone in Birmingham arrived at work. They all started bailing out of work at the same time causing traffic jams. The roads quickly iced over and entire sections of highways were jammed with cars and big trucks. People were taken in at hotels by the droves. My wife and daughter got stuck coming home and walked to a friend’s house for shelter. Somehow, I got in my trusty Honda Pilot with all-wheel drive, got on the interstate and found my direction free of almost all traffic. I cruised at a top speed of 20 mph, climbed a few inclines safely, and made it home. I got off easier than several years earlier when I tried to go to work for an early shift during an ice storm. My rear-wheel drive Ford Explorer slipped one way rear-end first. I got it under control. It went the other way, and I got it under control. the third time it never gave me a chance as it swung the SUV entirely around and I took a giant sled ride down a hill and dropped a rear tire in the ditch. This time, I got home safely, but it felt like an Apocalypse, hence the local name. The pictures look like something from the Walking Dead with snow, wait, that right out of Game of Thrones and the snow-walkers. It makes you think how much art imitates life, or vice versa…
  • Pandemic commute – after the lockdown in March of 2020, I was deemed an essential worker and kept going to my job. The first week was a matter for discussion among us in the cube-farm. We all commented about how creepy the commute was. Driving on empty roads was a welcome change, but we all expected to see zombies wandering the roadways. I suppose all the genre movies and shows have that effect. I’ve been there with snow events, but this was way creepier since it wasn’t a weather event. Seriously, creep factor kept playing tricks with me to the point where a cyclist was mildly alarming. I shouldn’t watch Walking Dead re-runs again.

Bonus Story

I have a lot of adventures as I dredge through my memories. Life’s been far more eventful that it seemed over the years.

Once, before I was married, I was driving late-night to Nashville to visit my soon-to-be wife. The night was frigid in the low twenties and expected to drop to single digits. I was making good time in my old 1980 Plymouth Champ, but the gas level was heading toward empty. But I knew I had enough to make it to my exit to fill-up.

About three miles from the exit, the car sputtered a couple of times even though I had plenty of gas left. Then, it died and I costed to a stop on the shoulder.

The gas line had frozen.

Almost made it.

What was I to do?

I thought of walking, but it was cold so I started running. Not too far along, a sheriff deputy stopped and picked me up. I got a short ride in the back to my exit where I placed a phone call on a pay-phone (I’m really dating myself – hey, I saw one in the middle of nowhere a month or so back). My fiancé drove out and picked me up.

For a few minutes, it was a lonely run on the side of a dark, cold highway.

Guess what? It snowed and it was several days before I could get out to gas up my car. Thankfully, it was in one piece.

That’s all I’ve got for today. I could go on about roadside breakdowns (that’s not the only time I took a run for for a gas station, but maybe another time). Feel free to share your apocalyptic stories in the comments and I’ll get back to you. I’ll be back with a creepier topic later this week.

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Scary Moments: 8 Times I Could Have Died

This week, I’m focusing on Halloween with a few spooky posts.

People visit haunted house events during this time of year. I’ve been to some over the years and was never impressed with these, rarely unnerved by them. I’ve been through my own scary situations enough that fake ones just don’t get to me.

Here’s a list of scary moments that stick out to me:

  • Mauling by dogs – I wrote about this one in a Father’s Day tribute a few years ago so if you want to read the entire story, you are welcome to click the link. In short, I was walking home one Saturday afternoon when I was about eight and was surrounded by about eight menacing dogs. I could have been a mauling victim and died except for my father running from the house and yelling at the dogs and causing them to scatter. Scary moment if you think long about it. Werewolf movies and such monsters in haunted houses just don’t compare to the real thing.
  • Almost shot in the house – I can’t remember if I wrote anything about it, but I walked through the dining room Sunday afternoon as a teenager. I heard the tinkle of broken glass but noticed nothing wrong. Later, we discovered a bullet had come through a window in front of which our china cabinet stood. The bullet pierced the window, the china cabinet (front and back, the front being glass) and lodged across the room in the wall. It was a random shot from a hunter in the woods below our house. The bullet missed me by mere inches. The realization was very unnerving by how random the event was.
  • Fire in the chimney – my sister and I arrived home to a roaring fire in the fireplace and the heat turned up by a family member who left. The furnace cause a swift draw of air up the chimney when we opened the door. I told my sister to get out while I called the fire department. They argued with a kid about reporting a fire in the chimney, but I won that when I told them to just come and that I was getting out of the house after dousing the flames in the fireplace. It did nothing for the chimney which was spewing flames like a rocket. We could have died, but somehow the house was undamaged. Another sobering moment that stands out in my mind.
  • Bike accident – I grew up in the seventies and nobody wore a bike helmet. I rode an old bike with pedal brakes. For those who done know how those work, you reversed your feet on the pedals to brake the bike. The harder you jammed a foot back, the faster you stopped. With a hard one, you’d skid. Footwork was important to slow the bike, so having the pedals horizontal was best for a fast stop. Anyway, our street attracted kids from all over and we could easily have fifty bikes tooling around on the street. I rode down the street at top speed when my older brother turned in front of me on his five speed. I was moving so fast I couldn’t brake or steer clear. I ended up ramping off the front tire. Perfect! We couldn’t have rehearsed it any better. Except, I was unprepared for the sudden flight and landed, falling in my back. I don’t remember hitting my head, but they were watching me all day for a concussion. I easily could have ended up with severe head trauma the way I landed. I was lucky I walked away.
  • Neighborhood shooting – As an adult, I lived a few years in a rather edgy neighborhood. It was mostly fine, but you had to watch for things happening. One evening, we exited a neighbors house to a kid wheeling around the corner on a bike without a chain. The next door neighbor yelled to stop him from stealing the bike, Without a thought, I gave chase. The kid jumped off the bike, pulled a gun, and fired it wildly, then ran away. That was a stop in your tracks moment.
  • Spinouts on the highway during a storm – I used to be a delivery driver during that same time. Summers in Alabama often have thunderstorms that pop-up. It will pour rain and the interstates will be slick as ice if it hasn’t rained for several days. One such storm happened and I slowed my speed in the center lane, especially crossing over another interstate on an S-curved overpass. Suddenly, multiple cars passing me began hydroplaning in circles around me, smashing into retaining walls and bouncing back into the traffic. With a tooth-grinding grimace, I somehow steered clear of all the mayhem and felt like the Millennium Falcon bursting from the Death Star just as it explodes. I could have been crushed, rolled, or knocked over one of the walls. I couldn’t have pulled off a better death-defying stunt if I tried.
  • Tornadoes 1974 – A lot happened when I was a kid, but there was one night when tornadoes struck all across the country. Alabama had a large number of twisters touch down everywhere. We lived in a stone-mortared house on a ridge. If you aren’t familiar, tornadoes will hope ridges and follow valleys. They were coming from everywhere. We had a semi-portable basketball goal on a wooden frame and went out to pull it down, then shove it next to a wall for some cover. During all that, I was looking the right direction when the sky lit up with a massive lightning bolt for several seconds. I saw a massive funnel cloud rolling by in the night. Very scary moment. We took cover in the basement which was like a bunker. Incidentally, that old house was sturdy and had a large tree fall on it in another storm some years later. Aside from some cracks in the interior wall, the house had little damage. House – 1, Tree – 0.
  • Tornado 4/27/2011 – That day a famous tornado churned through Tuscaloosa, AL. It ran on the ground just about the full length of the state into the north Georgia and Chattanooga, TN area. The debris cloud was visible on TV radar and pieces of Tuscaloosa were dropped across the state as far as Chattanooga or further. It was an EF5 tornado and those can suck up pavement. Another one that size ran through the state and flattened a few small towns. But the Tuscaloosa storm has the most filmed footage of any tornado I know of – check out the results of a YouTube search.

What does it have to do with me? Aside from it passing within a few miles of my house, that morning was marred by fast moving squall line of thunderstorms around dawn. Sirens woke me and I let the dogs out as I checked the weather on the TV. When they came back in, I started to check the TV again since the warning was for a storm across the county. Lights flickered and I held my breath, turned to get my daughter out of bed and then the power failed entirely.

The noise of a tornado is like standing next to a freight train. It’s a rattle and hum like you’ve never heard and moving fast. I thought it was straight-line wind as I stared out the back into the near darkness and thought our deck furniture was wrecked. Nope. An EF3 tornado went past the back door. I was standing a mere 20-30 feet from death when it whirled past the house. When I checked outside is when I realized how close to death I had just been.

Tornados lose power when they go through something and this one arrived from a stand of trees on one side. It threw down several trees onto our fence and one swiped along our chimney. No damage to the back deck occurred because those woods took some steam out of the twister. By halfway across the length of the deck, it tore the top of a gum tree out forty feet up. Twenty feet further and it was past the house, regained power, and tossed a massive white oak over like nothing. That’s how fast a tornado regains power.

It was one edge that stretched behind the house several hundred feet. That’s a big twister to dodge. Tuscaloosa was a half-mile wide. I was very thankful to be alive because a lot of people died that day and the date is still remembered statewide.

Bonus Story

As if those weren’t enough, barely a month later, we were traveling back from a funeral in Indiana. It was another bad day where we dodged tornados back to Nashville. It was raining so hard and so much water was down, the big, hanging gullies from the bluff over the Cumberland River were full, raging waterfalls.

We stopped by my youngest brother-in-law’s house to visit, thinking the storms would blow over. Within minutes all the interstates – I-65, I-24, I-40, and I-440 were closed due to flooding and we were stuck. Storms never abated all that night as the system was just stuck like a train of storms rolling overhead and dropping water on Middle Tennessee. 

When we got up, the interstates were open and I said, “If we don’t go now, we won’t get out of Nashville.” I saw from the radar that the rain stopped just south of the suburb of Franklin going south on I-65. We got in my old Honda Pilot and started for an entrance. We couldn’t get out of the neighborhood for all the flooded streets, even finding a police car underwater with the lights somehow still flashing. 

My wife remembered one street and we found water just barely lapping over the center. I drove through and got to the Interstate. It rained so hard, the interstate was standing with inches of water and we drove less than 30 mph. When we finally got to Franklin, the water stopped like someone turned off a faucet. Going over the ridges south of town, the winds were very rough – this was what kept the storm system in place.

Later we found out where we got on the interstate, a small hill had collapsed onto the ramp – literally minutes after we passed. Not only had we escaped that mishap, but we had lived through the infamous Nashville flood of 2011. Yep, we lived through two major natural disasters in less than a month. Now that’s something spooky.

While you’re celebrating Halloween, pause and be thankful in all the fun. Life is precious and can be snuffed out in innumerable ways within mere moments. I’m sure many people have similar stories to mine, but those stick out to me and serve as reminders to take each day with a thankful heart. And, yes, I have more stories than those, but this is long enough.

Let me know your scary close encounters with mayhem in the comments. Please share this post and stay safe!

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