That Stinks!

The flood waters are receding and the danger appears to be over. Now the cleanup begins and will continue for weeks and maybe months. Mom and I went downtown earlier this week and drove on one of the roads that was flooded. As we looked out onto the river from the Court Avenue bridge, we were amazed at all of the debris that had washed up against the pedestrian bridge and was trapped there. This wasn't all little branches and limbs, but included a couple of gigantic trees. It will require some kind of crane to remove these.

When I leave work to go home, there is a distinct odor just east of the bridge where the water sat for so long. We can't help but wonder just how much waste material was in the water because so many treatment systems overflowed and discharged raw sewage into the rivers. Remember the spot in Nebraska along the interstate where we could always smell the cattle lot? We aren't that bad, but can certainly notice a difference in the air.

We are so grateful that we were spared personally from the flood devastation and pray for those who experienced the full impact of the deluge. I hope never to see anything like this again.

500 year flood?

In 1993 Des Moines experienced a terrible flood, resulting in the loss of drinking water in the city for twenty days. We have considered the flood of 1993 a 500 year flood. I was confident I would never see anything like that again.

Here it is fifteen years later, in 2008, and we are experiencing even worse flooding. How did 500 years pass so quickly? The explanation around the water cooler at work is that we caught the tail end of the last 500 year cycle in 1993, and are starting out the new 500 year cycle with another flood!

This time we are in no danger of losing our water supply, thanks to the work done following the last episode. The levees around the water treatment plant are much higher and the equipment and buildings are safe. Unfortunately, many homes and businesses are not safe. They are inundated with water -- again.

There is flooding all over the state. The following photos, which are printed in the Des Moines Register, show what is happening in downtown Des Moines (you can see Court Avenue under water). The rivers will crest some time this weekend, so what you see here is not the worst we will experience.

Where is a ten year old when you need one?

I hate technology. Last night I was downstairs watching the NBA Finals and surfing channels during commercials. For some reason, one channel with no transmission was apparently programmed into the scanning function. I got tired of seeing the "snow" on the screen when switching channels, so decided to go into the onscreen menu and remove the unwanted channel.

You probably already know the outcome of this little adventure. Now the remote won't scan through the channels at all. I guess I'll give up watching basketball. Or I'll only watch what happens to be playing on ABC. I'll be darned if I will get up and down to switch channels manually. Perhaps I can attach a string to the remote and throw it at the buttons on front of the television and change channels that way. I can retrieve the remote with the string and won't have to get up at all.

This reminds me of the time I almost threw away my VHS/DVD player because it quit playing DVDs. I knew it would cost more to have it repaired than to buy a new one. But I am of the generation that is reluctant to throw away electronics. Thinking maybe a setting was off, I pushed every button and combination of buttons I could think of -- to no avail. Because Lindsey, who was away at school, was due home soon I decided to have her look at the DVD player before doing anything. After all, we still had plenty of VHS videos we could play while waiting for her to return. Sure enough, when Lindsey got home she took one look at the machine and pushed a button that fixed the problem. It was the same button I had pushed twenty times, but for her it worked.

Someone, please come home. The clock on my stereo is blinking and the clock on the DVD player is off an hour, even though the time zone is set correctly (I swear!).

I hate technology ...

1968

I was 13 years old in April and June of 1968 when two horrible assassinations took place: Martin Luther King on April 4 at age 39 and Bobby Kennedy on June 5 at age 42. We were still in school when Dr. King was killed. He was not as universally revered at that time, in the midst of the struggle for civil rights. Some in our nation, viewing Dr. King as a trouble maker and rabble rouser, were not sorry to see him die and this sentiment was voiced in our classroom discussion in our social studies class. It wasn't that my classmates held this view, but I remember clearly one boy repeating a comment in that vein his parents had made. We were shocked at the murder and didn't know how the country would react.

Just two months later Bobby Kennedy was shot, moments after delivering a speech following his win in the California Democratic primary. School was out by then and I remember being outside helping my Dad pour a concrete extension to the driveway of the house in South Jordan. The impact of this murder hit me harder. I think this was because I thought Bobby Kennedy was almost certain to become the next president, just five years after his brother was assassinated in Dallas and because it followed so closely on the heels of the death of Dr. King. I couldn't quite believe that this was happening in the US. It seemed so savage, as though suddenly the country had reverted to an uncivilized land where life was of no value and raw force held sway. All this took place against the backdrop of the Viet Nam war with the Tet offensive in 1968 making me wonder if we would lose the war. The country was intensely divided and angry, and massive anti-war protests were a common occurrence. It seemed very surreal to keep mixing and pouring concrete when yet another high profile assassination had taken place.

Race riots followed Dr. King's death, reaching to within a few blocks of the White House in Washington, D.C. And the Democratic convention in Chicago turned into a big protest by the Yippies, culminating in the arrest and subsequent infamous trial of the Chicago Seven. It felt like the country was coming apart at the seams.

Here are some of the photos that are seared into my memory from that time.

Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy

Bobby Kennedy, mortally wounded

The most famous of all the Kennedy assassination photos