Here We Go Again

Cedar Rapids is once again bracing for a large flood, although this time not as severe as the hugely destructive one that swept through in 2008. Still, the same areas will be damaged and people have been evacuated from their homes in preparation for the flood waters. Cynthia and the girls volunteered to help sandbag along 3rd Ave and then I helped sandbag on Saturday. We bagged a few dump truck loads of sand and then ran out of sand, so we began piling the sandbags around houses and businesses in the neighborhood. That went surprisingly quickly with so many volunteers helping, so we started helping people move their belongings out of their basements. It was kind of a war zone and sad to see how distressed people were since many of them had lived through the mess of the first flood. It was exhausting work, but thankfully it was cloudy and cool much of the day. And it didn't rain!

In the evening we went to Cole Herb's wedding reception at the Elk's Lodge. John and Roxi were there, too and it was great to catch up with our old neighbors. And the food was awesome!

Close

i'm so close to something
something so near to me
in the air near my fingertips
just beyond where i can see
buzzing words in my ear as i fall asleep
and in the morning so suddenly
the ghost in the corner of my eye
never where i expect it to be
it scatters the order of my thoughts
only to retreat so hastily
and ripples through cold waters
sending my ponderings into the sea

i know something now
that i didn't know then
the moment is almost upon me
but still i don't know when
it's so close

Back to School 2016

Rose started her first day of middle school at Franklin today. She's got her locker combination memorized and she's ready to go! She will go to school with her friend Laura down the street each day, so that will make the experience easier. I think she's excited about it, although she's trying to act cool, haha.

Next is Emily who goes to school an hour after Rose. If we don't get her in the car soon enough, she'll just walk to school. She's got better things to do than just stand around all day. She's in 3rd grade, you know.

Imon

Cynthia and I walked around downtown catching Pokemon for a while on Sunday and the weather was perfect. Very atypical for August and no complaints from us. There was almost no traffic anywhere and the few people we saw walking around were playing Pokemon Go like us. It has always seemed weird to me how this town shuts down on the weekends. It's not unreasonable for downtown to be quiet on a Sunday afternoon, but even most Saturdays there isn't a whole lot going on in this town. It's still funny to me that half of the traffic signals shut off at 9 pm. Unless you're going to a show, there's not much else to do, heh. You just have to make your own fun (which we're good at). Anyway, it was great to be outside!

Later in the day, Imon had a customer appreciation day at the McGrath Amphitheater, so we brought the girls and had free food grilled by Nelson's Meat Market and free ice cream, too. They got their faces painted and we watched the magic of Ryan Martin. Man, it was great to spend the day outside!

Dramatic poses:

TaDaa!

Rose makes spaghetti! One of the first meals in our new house.

Moving Day

We moved into our new house on Thursday, August 11th, one of the hottest days of summer. The heat index was 104º and the humidity was 90%, so it really felt great. We had lots of help, so that at least made it go quickly. The Buchheits, Conrads, Behans, Cynthia's friends from trivia, and Kari from church all pitched in to haul all of our stuff from the truck into the house. It took two trips with the truck, but we got it all and just as we were finishing the sky opened up and dumped 5 inches of rain over the course of the next several hours. Talk about timing! That was a close one.

We're moved in and unpacking millions of boxes now. It's great to have so much more space!

Weird Al and the New House

Sounds like a cool band name. Last night we went to see Weird Al at the McGrath Amphitheater. I haven't seen him before, but he put on a great show, starting with his entrance as he opened with "Tacky" as he sang in front of the porta-potties off to the side of the amphitheater. He's a lively dude! Especially for a dude who's 56 years old. He doesn't stand still for a second. He closed with "The Saga Begins" and had an entourage of storm troopers join him on stage along with Darth Vader. Then he closed with some bizarre, rapid-fire tribal chant of nonsense that included random shouts, clicks, and farting noises. There's some culture for ya, CR!

Lastly, but more importantly, we signed the final closing papers on our house this morning and we are homeowners once again! The sellers gave us access to the house last week, so we've been painting, cleaning, and making some minor updates before we get moved in. It'll be a huge relief to get moved in and be done with this process. It was worth it, though, to gain quite a bit more space, the girls get their own rooms, we have a big backyard, large kitchen, and even the little things like a dishwasher are pretty cool. Onto the next chapter!