Category: Longform
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Sucking it up
No time to post pictures but if you visit any online news site you’ll undoubtedly be able to see the pictures of Cedar Rapids, IA. When the river crests tomorrow (God willing), it will be about 12 feet above, not flood stage, but 12 feet above the previously-highest measured flood. Twenty feet above flood stage.
We are on high ground here in Hiawatha, but very wet, saturated ground. The water started coming up through the cracks in the basement floor about 1 pm on Thursday, and we’ve been running two Shop Vacs non-stop since then (14 hours now). We’re keeping up with it, but only just. It hasn’t rained for almost seven hours now, so I keep thinking (hoping) that the water level will go down enough that it’ll stay out of the basement. I guess we’ll find out. For now, we’re just praying for no more rain and for these shop vacs to hold out. I doubt they were designed to run this long this hard.
We have an internet connection finally here at home (it was out for 24 hours due to the flooding), so I’ll try to post updates if I get a chance.
And it rained all day...
It’s been a weird year for weather here in Iowa. We started with the snowiest winter on record. Once that melted, we had an unusually cool spring. Now we’re finishing up spring and headed toward summer, and the rain has been nearly unstoppable. Seems like every day is another thunderstorm, bringing an inch (or two) (or three) of rain.
Now the flooding has begun. Already three of the bridges crossing the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids have been closed because the river has reached (or nearly reached) the bottom of the bridge. Mandatory evacuations have been declared for low-lying areas of town. A flood totally took out the railroad bridge up in Cedar Falls. They’ve got a fully-loaded train sitting on our railroad bridge here in Cedar Rapids to try and keep it from being swept away, too. (This picture is of a different bridge in CR.)
A lot of the low-lying areas are well known for flooding, but this one (near Ellis Park on the SW side of CR) is still stunning:
And there’s rain on the way again this morning. And tonight. And tomorrow. It’s gonna get better before it gets worse. Now, friends, fortunately our house is far away from the river, and on high ground; we’re in no danger of flooding; however, we have friends and co-workers who are currently in the process of sandbagging, packing up, and evacuating. Let’s pray that this rain stops, very soon.
The passing of another weekend
I had three things on my to-do list for the weekend as of last Friday afternoon. And though I kept busy all weekend, those three things are still on my to-do list. How did that happen? I suppose I could do like Becky does and add items to my to-do list after I’ve done them just so I can cross them off. But when you use an on-line list that removes completed items from view, there’s not a lot of satisfaction in it.
Still, I managed to get a bunch of stuff done around the house: mowed the lawn, cleaned out the gutters and installed some gutter guard, did the dishes (well, at least unloaded and loaded the dishwasher). Led music for both Saturday night and Sunday morning church services. Took the girls to the park to play in the splash pad. Laura, who last year was too scared of the water to even want to get wet, was running through the sprayers yesterday with great enthusiasm. I foresee many trips to the park this summer.
And now it’s Monday again. I guess I’ll be hitting ‘postpone’ on those tasks a few more times.
Bunk beds
It’s been a couple of weeks now but there was great excitement among the little girls in our house because we bought a nice set of bunk beds at a garage sale and set them up in Laura’s room. Laura is now the proud owner of a “big bed” - a real twin-sized bed with real sheets and pillow. We’ve set up the upper bunk as well (the pictures were taken before it got set up) and while we don’t have any immediate plans to move Addie in with Laura, I imagine it’ll happen eventually.
So it’s time for some before-and-after pictures, well, of a sort. Back in November 2005 when Laura was 16 months old and we knew that Addie was on the way, we set up a new crib for Laura and she wanted to help assemble it. This was the scene:
Fast-forward to May 2008 and Daddy now has two little helpers.
And the finished result:
Bullet Points from Montreal
I’ve been in Montreal since Monday night, and it’s my first trip here, and for that matter, my first trip out of the country. I don’t have any profound essays to write but a bunch of little observations that work most easily as bullet points. So here goes.
- It’s the little things that mess with you. Ordered a Whopper at Burger King the other night (I was craving the fries) and was asked if I wanted “the trio”. What in the world is “the trio”? Ends up that’s what I know better as a combo. [lightbulb goes on]
- The roads are bad. They aren’t marked very well, the lanes are narrow, and the traffic is horrible.
- The other weird traffic thing: rapidly-flashing green lights. As far as I can tell, a rapid green is equivalent to a green left arrow in the US; it’s letting you know that it’s safe to turn left, because the folks opposite you still have a red. Rather non-intuitive, but it works once you get the hang of it.
- Sewing machine stores in shopping malls. Apparently people in Canada really like to sew or something.
- A big report came out today in Montreal that is the result of a year-long commission holding hearings and taking suggestions on how to deal with all the ethnic and cultural issues they have in Quebec. It’s interesting listening to talk radio this afternoon to hear what people have to say about it. The commission’s conclusion is that the worst of the division is more stirred up by the media than by the ethnic groups involved. Figures.
- Of course French is the predominant language here in Montreal, but pretty much everyone I’ve run into switches pretty much effortlessly into English. Still, it frustrates me a bit that they have to; it feels like I’m making them do me a favor rather than being able to just interact with them on their terms.
- Tim Horton’s (a donut/breakfast chain - think a Canadian Dunkin’ Donuts) has tasty food, but no trash cans. Weird. It feels like a fast food, there are lots of tables to sit and eat… but apparently they expect you to just leave your trash on the table. Very strange.
Well, enough of that. Still, it’s been an interesting place to visit. Tomorrow I fly home.
Montreal
So today was the day I finally ventured outside the good ‘ol US of A; traveling to Montreal, Quebec for the next round of SC-213 meetings. No big details, pictures, or etc so far, but it was nice to actually have decent travel this time around. The flights were more or less on time, the lines were short, the rental car big enough (the PT Cruiser has an amazing amount of leg and head room!) and the hotel comfortable.
Now it’s just after midnight and I’m sitting up too late working on an andrewosenga.net redesign. I finally got the layout working more or less how I want it… now it’s time to make it pretty. Well… that can wait until tomorrow.
Muppet Imitations
Apparently this is something that goes by generations, too. I’ve done Kermit (among others) for a long time… (including on YouTube… twice) and now the girls are up to it, too.
Today I decided to wear my Beaker t-shirt. No sooner did I come home this morning (Becky’s not feeling well) than they both pointed at the shirt and asked, “Who’s that guy?” So here they are, doing their best Beaker impressions.
For reference, the t-shirt:
Laura:
Addie:
Tuesday morning this'n'that
I have a couple other posts floating around in my head, but need to gather some thoughts (and pictures) before writing them. So… a little this’n’that, aka bullet points for a Tuesday morning.
- Softball last night was fantastic. Beautiful weather, good competitive game. Oh, and we won.
- Not my favorite: opposing pitchers who whine about us taking walks when they are unable to throw a strike.
- Definitely my favorite: Becky, who struck out (looking!) said whiny pitcher to start the seventh inning.
- My list of projects is getting long. I’ve accomplished some, but others are going to slide right into June without me even touching them. :-(
- Next week: headed to Montreal. Looking forward to it.
- Also next week: Becky’s folks come to visit. This will be two years in a row that they’ve come to visit the week that I’ve been on travel. Hmmm… wonder what I should infer from that?
- These Fractal Drawers might be one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen… at least this week. (Saw them on Boing Boing, then Daniel shared them, too… thanks Dan!)
Starting a new tradition (or, a good excuse for ice cream)
Some weeks ago Becky and I were enjoying a date night with a stop at our local Coldstone ice cream shop when we overheard some college students discussing a plan - a plan we liked so much we decided to turn it into a tradition of our own. It’s really quite simple: the first day in the spring and summer that the high temperature for the day surpasses the next 10-degree mark, we go for ice cream.
It just so happened that our date night weeks ago was on the first 70-degree day of the year. And it just so happened that yesterday was the first 80-degree day of the year. So after getting a bunch of outside work done, we packed the girls up in the van and headed for Coldstone. I figure we have at least two ten-degree trips still coming this season, and if, God forbid, we hit the third (110°F), we’ll at least be happy for the relief!
So here are a few pictures from the night. Oh, and our ice cream flavors:
Addie: Chocolate with sprinkles Laura: Cotton Candy with white chocolate chips Becky: Chocolate & Coffee with cookie dough me: Cake Batter Chocolate with cookie dough
