November 2020

In November Cynthia and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary by going to DSM and staying in our nifty mid-century modern hideaway again. And we visited Peace Tree when we got there:

 

A picture-perfect breakfast:

After a brisk walk around Gray's Lake we explored the new tunnel connecting to Waterworks Park:

All those years living in DSM and we never visited the Salisbury House. So we checked that off the list and it was even better than expected. As cool as it was I still think I like Glensheen better. This place is quite the castle, though. It was built for Carl Weeks, a pharmacist who made a killing making his own cosmetics and selling them in his stores, later distributing them nationwide. The Weeks family didn't have much money prior to their unexpected success, so when they achieved overnight wealth they didn't really know what to do with it all and went a tad overboard. They spent uncontrollably until the cosmetic business declined around a decade later and they lost ownership of the home, donating it to Drake University with the agreement that they could remain as tenants. Drake gradually placed more limitations on how they could live there and which parts of the house the family could access until they eventually moved out and lived in a small ranch-style house nearby.

The entryway was designed to impress and although I didn't get a picture of it from the main floor, I did get this shot from up above in the balcony overlooking the room:

The back stairs coming down from the balcony:

They had an enormous garage and a separate building for grounds keepers and a mechanic. They ended up in the center of controversy when one of the sons raced around the neighborhood in one of the cars late one night and killed another driver.

A Thanksgiving with just the four of us:

One of Cynthia's coworkers asked if I could draw a picture of her childhood home. This is my first completed color pencil drawing in over 20 years:

We found this snake on the trail on one of our walks. He/she was very cold and could barely move. I helped the snake find some soft earth to tunnel into:

Every spring and fall I clear out the Conrad's gutters. This year I installed gutter guards so their gutters wouldn't keep clogging:

Time to put up the tree!

I think this squirrel is ready for winter:

Daniels Park. A few months ago on July 4th we celebrated on this very spot pictured here with friends and family. It will be a very long time before Cedar Rapids recovers from the derecho.

Social-Distancing October

Some random stuff from an unusual October. We stream church services at home and talk to everybody via Zoom. It's a weird time.

Bike rides are a great social-distancing activity. So... we did lots of that:

A lot of cool murals keep popping up around town:

The Warriors games were sparsely attended since it was mostly immediate family members who could attend, plus each student could bring a friend. Check out the rainbow behind the uprights at the start of a game:

There's Rose cheering!

My license plates are being retired after 10 years. I dunno, I feel like the front plate was still OK:

People who take selfies with my phone get their pics posted:

We went on the Cider Stroll for one of our date nights:

Carving pumpkins! A fun family past time where we use knives and drills to put smiles on those pumpkin's faces:

Cynthia's pumpkin:

Emily's:

Mine:

Rose's:

October is breast cancer awareness month and Alliant Tower changes their lights to pink:

Wednesday Addams and a skeleton:

A flapper and I don't know... some dude from the 70s:

After the Derecho

The cleanup after the derecho seemed like it would take years and the piles of tree debris kept growing by the day. Some streets had tree debris piles so large you could hardly see the houses. It also made intersections really dangerous.

Our neighborhood was lucky because we were among the first to have tree debris removed. I think that improved everyone's spirits to see the piles disappearing. All you heard all day every day was the chorus of chainsaws from one end of the street to the other and the rumble of tree debris trucks hauling the piles away.

I had some pictures of tree debris trucks, but I must've deleted them. Instead, here are pics of the growing debris piles along our street:

A completely different skyline stands in stark contrast to the once tree-lined street. We get a lot more sunshine these days:

Then there was the exciting day that Alliant finally removed the old broken utility poles so that Imon could come out and reconnect our internet. We lived off of a hotspot from my phone until then (which actually did a decent job, surprisingly). Aha! I knew I still had a picture somewhere of a tree debris truck:

The Imon guys came along a couple days later. They got out and looked at our dropped line, then started to drive away! I had to run out and yell at them to stop. They said they weren't sure if our line was for Imon or Mediacom. I guess making a phone call or knocking on a door were out of the question. But they got us hooked up again.

Another storm blowing through CR:

Then the tree guys showed up and took down the remaining stuff:

The neighbor's tree took out part of our fence, which worked out OK since it created an opening large enough for the tree guys to get their trucks and equipment into the backyard:

Lily does not care for all the racket outside:

They cut the trunks into 6-foot lengths to make sure the wood could be picked up. since The maximum length the tree debris trucks will pick up is 10 feet, but if the diameter of the wood is too great they can't pick it up. Better to err on the side of caution. 

Grinding out the stumps and the network of roots across the yard:

The only thing scarier than the derecho:

One night Emily and Rose decided to fix up our hair:

Pretty sure you're not supposed to flat iron a beard. Also, it doesn't feel great:

Cynthia and I went on the Tiki Tour through NewBo and Czech Village. That was pretty fun:

Back to school already! It came up fast even though school was delayed by a month due to the derecho. Since the pandemic is still going on they were distance learning, using their Chromebooks to take their classes online.

A Simple Machine

i'm building a simple machine
paper cuts, burning powder
rusty metal and gasoline
it hurts to work as long as i do
cannot stop, my ears still ring
the light comes on, the light goes off
cannot stop, cannot stop
scorching pipes, the glass has cracked
i get so close and then i'm not
the invention of a humble fire
scraping knuckles must succeed
with no reluctance to perspire
try again, make it work
cannot stop, cannot stop
flying fingers, burning eyes
frenetic, palpable, fever dream
gripping hands the grindstone spins
an eden set in hell's domain
repetition must demand its price
a treasury of printed pain
cannot stop, cannot stop
delirium of a laughing youth
a decade set of welted truth
underneath the iron wheel
is a paradise beyond my grasp
reaching until my muscles ache
relentless hours counting pass
cannot stop, cannot stop
and like the machine i begin to slow
the pistons halt, the fire went out
the day is done, but more to go
a weary body calls for sleep
heavy reluctant eyes will close
but what will i do if i cannot stop
cannot stop