My new toy

I got a Neo, I got a Neo!!!!! Just in time for the trip tomorrow!!!!

I’m so happy!!!

A Neo looks like this:

It is the ultimate writing tool, according to the website. Is it ever!! It is simply a keyboard and LCD screen, and you can type things just as you would at a normal computer.

I’ve been playing around with it for a couple days now, and I love it! It works for class, for jotting lists down, everything! It will work to jumpstart my writing.

At least now, I don’t have to keep lugging around two or three notebooks at a time. Seriously, I was doing that. Plus, I sometimes can type faster than I can physically write. Just depends on the ideas.

Tomorrow, we’re going to Illinois to visit relatives and Dad.  I cannot wait to go!!!!!

The Day(s)

If you were interested, I’ve now got a Facebook page because my brother did and my sister now does.  You can look me up if you like; shoot me an e-mail or something.  Always on the lookout for blogging buddies!

Classes are going really well.

In my composition II class, everyone liked my idea for my paper.  My paper is going to be on the right-to-die issue, remember.  So I have some good rebuttals coming from it, like “What is the difference between no rescusitation and assisted suicide” and “Could you go to Oregon just to die”.  Like Brian, my paper also wasn’t coming together until last night.  So, it’s going to fly.  Whew.

My sociology class, while informative, almost isn’t worth going to anymore.  Most of the time, the only people you hear from are people from the Marion center (where the teacher is physically located), and they are so blustery in how they talk and overblown in their opinions (of themselves), no one else can get a word in edgewise.  It’s very disheartening.  Like today, all we basically talked about was pornography; it was supposed to be educational, as in ‘pornography and how it affects sociology’, which would be interesting, but the emphasis was on just the pornography part of it because the Marion center people kept bringing it up.  Not remotely amusing.  I’ve been catching myself falling asleep in that class, and actually wishing I was at work instead!  That’s a scary thought!

Speaking of work, Boss B come back from Europe tomorrow.  Huzzah for him; well, he needed the break.  We haven’t heard from him in two weeks.

I find myself getting back into scanning a lot easier than before.  Yeah, the office is slowly but surely becoming paperless.  It’s really cool.  It’s another job where Amy and I prepare files and then scan them into the computer and eventually put them on discs for the attorneys to find.  I love preparing and I love scanning.  It kills time because you get so involved with making sure everything is perfect - eventually you look up and it’s an hour gone by and you didn’t even know it!

This weekend we’re going to Illinois for 4th of July!  Yay!  Hopedale fireworks!!  Plus we get to visit relatives.

All in all, life is good.

Here’s your music mix for today, courtesy of my MP3 player (’Random’ can be your friend):

The Toasters, “Kablam! Theme” (This is the first song everytime.)

Marilyn Manson, “Personal Jesus”

Silverchair, “Abuse Me”

The White Stripes, “Icky Thump”

Cliff Eidelman, “Remembrance” (from the “Now and Then” soundtrack)

Vanessa Carlton, “White Houses”

Queen, “Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy”

Bruce Springsteen, “Glory Days”

Nina Storey, “Crown”

Green Day, “When I Come Around”

Anna Nalick, “Catalyst”

ABBA, “Dancing Queen”

Enya, “Only If”

Phil Collins, “I Wish It Would Rain Down”

Alien Ant Farm, “Smooth Criminal”

Van Halen, “Humans Being”

Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Under the Bridge”

Queen, “We Are the Champions”

And then I arrived at work.

Friday Blonde Moment Funny

Even my dad would groan at this one.

So the other day, Amy and I am listening to the radio, and the song “Flashdance (What A Feeling)” comes on.

And I said, “Oh, Donna Summer.”  As in, Donna Summer sings this song.

And Amy goes, “(my full name here)!!!  It’s Irene Cara!!!”

I’m not blonde, but sometimes I have my moments.

(That’s a joke, son.)

Friday Wrap Up

Cedar Rapids is on the road to recovery. The river crested last week, and has settled back in its banks by this time right now. Overall, 1,300 city blocks were affected. Now cleanup is in full swing, and there is a unique system of labeling houses that are safe or too damaged to go into. If it’s got a green paper on the front door, it’s a safe home; if it’s yellow, there’s minor damage; if it’s pink, it’s seriously damaged; and if it’s purple, then the house is damaged beyond repair and needs to be demolished.

I usually catch the bus after class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and it was weird going downtown after the flood subsided. You would go from one neighborhood all nice and neat and suddenly encounter flood damaged yards and homes. It was very sudden, the change. All the sandbags and debris, and the mud stained streets. And the Penford bridge was destroyed, and I got to drive right by it. Driving by Penford and driving on 8th Street was as close as I got to the actual downtown area, which is still cordoned off, but from news footage, it’s a total mess. Don’t know how many homes and businesses are going to have to be razed.

There is hope, though. There is always hope. People are going to move back in and rebuild. Life will go on. That’s the way people are - they rebound. Cedar Rapids will rebuild and, by this time next year, we’ll be prospering like it never happened. But we’ll never forget it either.

Keep watching us, because it will happen.

Angela, my new therapist, suggested that I take up rock climbing. Since I loved climbing trees when I was a kid, she said rock climbing might be the way to go as an adult. We’ll see.

Classes are going very smoothly. I’m surprised, actually. Well, I mean, it’s not been nearly as stressful as I thought it would be.

Over the Fourth of July weekend, we’re going to go visit grandparents and family in Illinois. Can’t wait for that to happen!

I’ve decided I want my own online radio show, like my father has.

Everything’s going so well - I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. I don’t want to get too comfortable with any routine or anything.

Weird, huh?

It’s quiet

Well, not really.  I can hear police and fire sirens from my window.

But it is quiet.  It’s very still in Cedar Rapids tonight.  The calm before the storm.  The humidity is on the way up, you can tell.  Your hair sticks to the back of your neck just so.

Yeah, we’re supposed to get more rain tomorrow.

Like I said, the menace continues.

We’re also trying to figure out at home what we’re going to do about taking showers and getting the weekly laundry done.  We already did a load of handwash dishes, which Mom felt guilty about doing but it needed to be done.

This was our hurricane.  This WAS our Katrina, like the man said.  And it’s going to be felt for days and weeks to come.

But for now, it’s quiet.

Good night.

Now we’re losing water

Sure, the flood waters are receding, but now we’re losing water.  As in drinking water, and all that stuff you take for granted like flushing the toilet, taking a shower, feeding pets, etc.

According to the news this morning, Cedar Rapids has a day and a half of water left.  Total.  Period.

They’re calling on everyone to conserve water as best they can, but when you have idiots like the guy across the street who was hosing down his driveway yesterday, that’s a far prayer to be answered.

This is a bad situation.

I think there was a rumor, too, about power being shut down throughout the city as well.

Joy.

And the menace continues….

Unbelievable

Hello from a very waterlogged Cedar Rapids.

It’s a bad situation. As of right now, the river has crested, but downtown is covered in at least ten to twelve feet of water. Everything is closed downtown, and even the interstate is closing. It’s bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.

One of my co-workers, Linda, had to evacuate her house, along with 25,000 others in the 500 year flood plain area. The office has been closed for two days, today because of the shutting down of the interstate, and yesterday because of local flash flooding. It was a bitch to get home yesterday from work, let me tell you. Very nerve-wracking.

I can tell you that my family and I personally are safe. Life had gone on in its usual way. We lost power a couple of times yesterday, but it was very brief times. We live about two to three miles from the major flooded area, but its still scary to see it all unfold on television. I mean, it’s two miles away but still literally at our doorstep. I mean, we’re 35 blocks away from downtown, but the flooding starts just 20 to 25 blocks away.

Mom surmised that it would have to take a month or two of straight days of six inch rainfall for the river to rise enough to flood all the way to our house.

Still, it’s a scary and humbling experience. I never think it couldn’t or wouldn’t happen. I can’t understand anyone who thinks it couldn’t happen. It could. Mother Nature, and the Lord, works in mysterious ways. We just got lucky on our side of town, is all.

Not that the communities surrounding us got a break. Vinton and Palo in particular - they were both evacuated, and are likened to ghost towns now. And Parkersburg and New Hampton - both of them were tornado-hit a few weeks ago and now have to contend with flooding of their own.

And my brother Matthew had been up since 1:30 this morning; he just now got back from transporting people all over the area to safer places. He assisted Mercy Hospital with their evacuations. He’s been busy along with the other Special K drivers.

The paper’s front page today says it all:

Puts it in perspective.

I used to work at United Fire and Casualty, which is on Second Avenue. It’s under water. I can’t imagine they are going to be able to save the microfilm department, which is where Bonnie and Caroline worked.

My beloved library is under water, too. And so is the bus station, which I frequent twice a week coming back from classes at Kirkwood. And the courthouse is flooded, so no work can really be done at the office because there’s nowhere to go for it.

It amazes me and my family the number of people who didn’t leave their homes when they were told. It amazes us the number of people trying to get their boats downtown to tour the flooded areas. It’s bad enough watching it on television. I can imagine the musty smell of the water, full of gasoline and dirt and whatever other flotsam and jetsam. Why would you want to tour it?!?

There really are no other words.

It’s just been an unbelievable experience. And it isn’t over yet.

Friday Hillbilly Funny

(Last one, I swear.)

The word for the day is….

….tired.

Today would have been a good day to stay in bed, but I didn’t.  So there.

I’m so hung up on Keane right now, it’s not even funny.  I’ve been thinking their songs all day.

Changing mood

To heck with it…I’m EMOTIONAL!!!!