Thoughts on the Floods of '08

A beautiful sunset reflecting in the flood waters

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I don't know where to begin. So much has happened since my last post. My brother was rescued while evacuating his mother-in-law in Cedar Rapids on Thursday. We went out during a severe thunderstorm warning to drive 12 miles to get Cool Daddy-O his birthday pizza for supper, and we didn't even use the windshield wipers (didn't get wet either). That was weird. Played a community band concert inside. Some of the songs we played were Blue Skies, Rainbow Connection, The Thunderer....the theme seemed appropriate for the night. As we were playing, the skies were clearing from a very stormy day. I found myself feeling very thankful that our town was dry.

On Friday, we met an author / illustrator of a children's book, saw a magic show, watched artists demonstrating their techniques, ate ice cream for supper, ate lasagna for dessert, drove to a nearby town to see the river escaping its banks, and entertained an out of state visitor.

Today, we had chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, walked around an outdoor art show, sat in an art class with Big Sis, and went to a birthday party for Lil Sis's friend.

Tonight, Cool Daddy-O and I went on a date. We took lots of pictures of the nearby river's escape. We saw a very cool, outdoor, historical, theatrical performance. We ended the evening with dessert at our favorite coffee house and read The Des Moines Register's account of the flooding as we ate.

Usually, by this time of year, Iowa is a giant cornfield with an interstate going through it (or so it sometimes seems). Now, it seems to be an ocean filled with rooftops and trees with an occasional island of rolling hills and high plateaus. I'll close with several pictures I took today.

Cool Daddy-O works here. See that evergreen in the middle of the water? He estimates it is 15 ft tall and there really shouldn't be any water in this picture.

New bridge across the river where Cool Daddy-O works. The river is usually about half this wide. Sounds like this bridge could be closed if the water level rises another 4 feet.

We were treated with a horse drawn trolley ride at the end of the outdoor performance. The narrator told "horse tales" during the ride.

Thanks for sandbagging efforts, we have clean water in our town!