AUGUST 2020

 This is an all-caps AUGUST, not to be mistaken for your typical run-of-the-mill August. An August that won't soon be forgotten. 

It started with the usual bike rides:

We rode to Center Point and back this morning:

Fires in the backyard with friends. A raging bonfire is what you want on a hot August evening:

Lake Red Rock. We met up with a few of Rose's friends and spent the day there. It was a perfect day:

So then August 10th rolled around... it was a normal day when the storm sirens went off. I was in town since I work from home now and when I heard the sirens I looked out the window and there were some dark clouds off in the distance, but nothing significant. But I wanted the girls to understand the importance of taking shelter when the sirens go off, even if nothing happens, so we went down to the basement. The winds kicked up, the power went out, and the whole world came crashing down above us. The concrete floor shook each time a tree fell outside. Rose thought it sounded like furniture was moving around above us, from all the banging and scraping we heard. And it seemed like it would never stop.

When the power went out, the girls put on their goofy Halloween headbands for light, haha:

After about 45 minutes of roaring winds, endless booms and thuds, we ventured upstairs wondering if there was anything left of the house. Turns out the house weathered it very well, but our trees did not. This is the first thing we saw when we came up from the basement and looked into the backyard:

And the view from the front:

We learned a new word: "derecho." The one that hit CR was one of the top 3 or 4 worst ever recorded. It damaged every building in CR and over 1,100 houses were deemed uninhabitable. Ours was the ONLY house on our street with zero roof damage. Not one shingle came loose. No impact damage to the roof, either. We had one broken window and the aluminum siding was dented. Also, the metal chimney was sheared off, but that was easy to replace.

The backyard was a mess, but we can deal with that. It looked overwhelming, nonetheless:

It looked like the trampoline was destroyed, but apparently it bounced back (bah-dum-bum-pssshhh):

Sorry about your fence, John:

Our shed took no damage. Somehow everything missed it. It looks bad from here, but it was actually unscathed:

Our Weber grill that falls over if you look at it wrong withstood the derecho. Go figure. Note the power line laying on it:

The view looking up the hill from the end of our driveway:

A couple of images from around the neighborhood:

We started cutting up broken trees right away and thankfully we had a lot of help. Family and neighbors helped each other out and we cleaned most of it up in about a week. Here's a comparison of our progress early on:

While the cell towers were down my phone decided to make up stuff:

We lucked out and got a tree service lined up to remove the remaining stuff that was too large for us to get, but then...

Alliant Energy swooped in without notice and cut down most of it for us. Free of charge:

That was unexpected and saved us a lot of trouble. The utility pole that supplies our power is behind our property and our broken trees were blocking our service and everyone else's, so Alliant cut most of the damaged trees down. We hauled the stuff they cut out to the curb:

At the end of the day our yard was looking at lot better. We got our power hooked up again and moved back into our house (we stayed with the Conrad's from the evening of the 10th until the power was restored).

Do cicadas even know/care what happened?

Look at this guy pretending he knows how to use a chainsaw:

Cynthia and I took a break from all the hard work to go on a date night in Waterloo:

Also, we got a new washing machine.

July 2020

In July we celebrated Independence Day and spent a lot of time outside. Rose and her friends went swimming and boating:

And we got a new chair. Woo hoo! So much excitement:

Cynthia and I went on bike rides in the mornings before it got too hot:

It's so hot out... just ask this squirrel:

We had a picnic at Daniel's Park with friends and family:

After the picnic we went to watch the fireworks at Kingston. There weren't enough vehicles to transport everybody, but we made it work:

No one cares about this, but giant marigolds originate from Russia. I grew some massive marigolds when I was in 1st grade, so I thought I'd try it again. We'll see how they do:

Now It's June

In June we spent a lot of time outside, riding bikes and relaxing in the backyard.

Since we didn't get to go on our previously-planned summer vacation, we went to the exotic land of Des Moines instead and found some safe, social-distancing things to do. Like going to Zombie Burger:

And Living History Farms. If you don't like the vintage-y looking filter I'm using that's too bad because I really got carried away with it:

It was a hot day and some of the staff were actually baking pies over a wood stove in this house, which (like most of the buildings there) did not have AC. And they were wearing their thick pioneer costumes with long sleeves. That would be a rough job.

The bank was our last stop. I spent a lot of time at the printing shop (which is my favorite place), but of course forgot to take any pictures. 

We drove by our old house. It's kinda sad to see the way the current owners have let it go. We spent 5 years working hard to fix that house up and we hoped the people who came along after us would pick up where we left off. Oh well. Also, what's up with the orange shutters and the painted orange brick?

We were the first ones to stay in this Airbnb which opened for business the day we arrived:

In the evening we paddled around Gray's Lake for a while:

I found this nifty old postcard at the Brass Armadillo:

Father's Day! We grilled salmon on cedar planks and the girls washed my car:

Come What May

Guess what, we survived May, too. The warmer weather helped because we were able to spend more time outside in the sunshine and fresh air. Puts things in a better perspective.

Rose before she got her braces off. I forgot to take an "after" picture, so you'll just have to visit future posts to find other pictures of her smiling:

 

Riding bikes! We rode bikes a lot.

Rose, Cora, and Emily sitting on the sunroom roof recreating the iconic scene from 3rd Rock From the Sun:

More outdoors. Lots of walks. Lots of bike rides.

Cynthia had a socially-distanced birthday in the Conrad's garage. We were very careful, but it's so hard to remain in isolation from everybody. Even still, it was fun and the weather was perfect for it.

We also had a birthday party for her at home, too. Rose and Emily made a cake out of fruit: