Listen to a brand new citizen of the U.S.

To the National Media: BACK OFF!!

The summer has gone by very quickly, it seems. I haven't touched my blog since mid June.
FYI, didn't get any water in the house. The pump ran a lot for a while, but we stayed high and dry and got the freezers back in the basement. I decided to write something now because of some thing going on with the national media.

McCain has chosen a women as his running mate. This is incredible. History has been and will be made at the end of this election. We will either have the first black president or the first female vice-president.

News broke today that McCain's choice for his running mate has a 17 year old daughter that is 5 months pregnant. This is what I want to say to the national media:

BACK OFF!!! What is your problem? This very young woman has made a life changing decision, a CHOICE for you Democrats and Independents. She didn't have an abortion, she CHOSE to have the baby and is hoping to marry the young man who is the father. You keep harping on about what the conservative Republicans are going to feel about it. Oh, what a horrible thing. I think the Republicans will stand with her and support her in her decision.

Obama has even made a very strong statement that families are off limits. I hope he sticks to that better than he did about campaign financing.

But the media says, Oh, what else hasn't she told us? Ya know, McCain knew about the daughter before he chose Palin as his running mate. If you think you are going to find a squeaky clean candidate, you are living in a fantasy world. Everyone has something, big or small in there closet, including all of you at CNN, NBC, ABC, FOX, and anyone else out there who is waving an "Oh, my God! How can this be." flag.

This young lady made a huge decision that is going to change her life in a major way. She made a CHOICE. That should appeal to a lot of people. She has the support of her family. Hopefully she has the support of the father of her child and his family as well. I do not think this is going to affect Palin's ability to serve as vice-president.

Things happen. A persons integrity is shown and can be judged by what they do after things happen. That goes for Obama, McCain, Palin, Biden, and everyone else in this world of ours.

Rant ended.

RAIN RAIN GO AWAY! FLOOD OF 2008

Well, this has been a he** of a week. It started out all right, I guess. Was painting up in a salon in Cedar Rapids Monday evening. Was in a lot of pain the next day, but good work.

On Tuesday Marco Polo and I went to a gentleman's house to help put his air conditioner back together, and since he was so close, we went to the reservoir to see if it had gone over the spillway. It was inches away. It went over later that night. Thanks Army Cor of Engineers.

Then, Tuesday evening my neighbor who happens to be a deputy sheriff pulled up while I was out in the yard and said we, as in the town of Tiffin, would be getting some water and that sandbagging was going to start on Wednesday.

I live in a duplex type dwelling. Our houses kind of butt up to each other instead of side by side. Makes my place look like a free standing home on the corner. The other part behind me is several yards from this creek that runs the whole length of the street and then some. Usually it is rather quiet and is not much of a threat. Now there is the possibility of the Iowa River backing up into Clear Creek, then backing into this creek and causing a lot of flooding.

During the 500 year flood,(which by the way, happened in 1993. That's a short 500 years.) this area in which I live was still undeveloped. Now, with all the fill and the building and the additional building that Coralville has done. (note: the hill that was moved from the north side of the road to the flood plain on the south so they could build a Lowe's. Plus the mall and other business literally built in the flood plain, not to mention the Marriott) I fear that my street may be in trouble.

Many of us from town helped build a sand bag wall behind the houses lining the creek. Great stretching lifting, cardio and weight workout, but when my heart rate reached 144 I knew I had to stop or drop.

Anyway, the kicker to this is that I have a basement. Not a walk-in, a real basement. We have a sup pump that we recently replaced with a more powerful one, and it is keeping up with the rain water quite well. The problem is that I have two window wells in the basement. If the water starts going through the low place between my house and the house just north of us, it might just think that low spot in the window well would be a great place to go and make an unwanted indoor pool. (no jokes here people, it really isn't funny).

Soooo, I have been sandbagging and putting up plastic. The window well on the north end has coragated steel around it also so that might help. Major kudos to my work buddy Marco Polo who has been helping me in this endevour. He came up with the steel idea. I am hoping we won't have to test it out.

Now, the next job is to get the really important stuff out of the basement. I have two freezers. One if full of beef and the other has home grown chickens, some pork, pizza meatballs pies etc... Those are a priority. Washer/dryer, micro wave oven, actually two, one with a broken door handle,exercise bike, computer, video tapes, books and on and on and on.

I also have a generator to run the pumps in case of a power outage. Yes, I used the plural, pumps. I have a bucket with a whole lot of holes in it in the north window well and if water starts building there, I can pump it out.

My foundation is pretty high, so if I can keep the water from coming into the windows, I stand a real fighting chance. Some other things have been working in the city of Tiffin's favor as well. The Iowa river has a very strong flow and it seems to be literally sucking the water from Clear Creek. The other is not so good for Coralville. A levi was breached near 1st ave so the baseball fields and businesses in that area are getting more water than expected. Bad for them, good for Tiffin. The water can spread out more. At least quite a bit of the area there is baseball and soccer fields.

Poor Cedar Rapids!! Elis Island just looks like someone just dropped a couple buildings in the middle of a very large river. 380 is the only way to get from one side of town to the other. Highway 30 east is closed, 965 between North Liberty and Swisher is closed, Hwy 1 near Mt. Vernon is closed.... It is very difficult to get around.

I don't know how many people read this, but whoever you are, send up a little prayer for the people effected by this flooding going on in Iowa and pray that the rain will stop for a while so things can settle down. I would really like to keep my basement dry. Thanks so much. ;-)

I will try to keep all of you posted.

MATHMAN IS MOVING TO TWIN CITIES

So, I'm flipping through my favorite blogs, checking up on all my favorite reads. Dweezes said something that really tickled me, so I responded. Went to Law and Disorder to read about the pains of tearing up carpeting. Then I went to Mathman.

His wife got a new position in Minnesota and they will be moving very soon. I wanted to comment, but didn't know what to say. I have never met him, but have enjoyed reading his blog and sharing thoughts about things.

I wish you and your family the best of luck in your new life experience. Oh, are you still going to do the biking across Iowa thing?

Hope you keep up the blog, how else will Space Monkey and the rest of us know how you are doing?

Arby's buying Wendy's

When I am at my job of working with a friend of mine fixing up a house in C.R., we usually go to his favorite place for lunch. Wendy's. Now, I really like Wendy's. They have great food, and good selection and I really like there fries.

Now I read that Arby's parent company has finally succeeded in buying Wendy's. Dave Thomas's daughter doesn't seem too happy about it.

They are a great chain, and have a great story behind there beginnings. I worry that they will loose there uniqueness or disappear totally. I would start going to Burger King before I would start frequenting Arby's or the golden arches of McDonald's.

Arby's is all right if all you want is variations on the same theme. McDonald's though, yuck. The last time I was there to have a meal I was really disappointed. I must say though, the fries are still quite good. But one does not live on fries alone. I'm sure you could, but I don't think I could stand it that long.

Wendy's burgers, Chicken, fish and salads are the tops in my book and I hope this will not change them out of existence.

WHAT THE BLEEP IS GOING ON???

So I am at work earlier this week and I get a call from Side Notes. Had I seen the article about the Englert sending a letter to the Johnson County board of supervisors about there concerns of Coralville building a performance space in there fair city. No, I said, but I will read it and check out your post.

WTF!!! I have also read that the Englert was asked for there input, but I agree totally with Side Notes that the letter did not sound like and expression of opening dialogue and more like a whining threat to force Coralville to not build the space.

ICCT originally pledged IN A CONTRACT an amount of 40K with an additional 10k. Along in THE CONTRACT was the agreement that ICCT would be the in house theater for the space and we would have a special price agreement. Percentage of ticket sales and concessions sales were included IN THE CONTRACT.

Later, when things changed and ICCT got shafted, for lack of a better word, the Englert started asking for that last 10K that was IN THE CONTRACT. If the whole in house theater thing was just an agreement, how did they know the amount. They said there was no contract. HMMMMMMMM.

After the Englert closed as a movie theater and someone was planning on turning it into another bar, I took it upon myself to e-mail all of the members of the Iowa City city council and inform them of the economic benefits of having a large live performance space downtown. It would bring wanted patronage to the local restaurants and hotels and it would give people a good reason to come downtown. I also mentioned the possibility of hosting an IACT theater festival which gets held every other year and in which ICCT had participated and won several times. This would bring in money from out of town and from across the state.

The Englert is a fine performance place. I really enjoy being on that stage, and I also enjoy being in the audience. I especially enjoy working with Chris ( you know who you are). You are a super tech person! But the whining has got to stop.

The Englert is there because of all the people ( not corporations) who worked there buts off to raise money, and the people who have there names on the backs of those theater seats. I have my name on one and my husband has his name on another.

It was meant to be a local artist performance space. Most local organizations cannot afford to perform there. ICCT is on a financial tight wire because of the savings they sunk into a place that they thought they would now be able to call home. A real theater.

Coralville and City Circle are no threat to you. Get over yourself.

And......... As long as I am ranting, what about this state wide ban on smoking in Iowa thing? The state finally passes a higher state tax on cigarettes to help fill the state coffers. (don't let them try to fool you into thinking anything else). And then they ban smoking in public places.

Now, I am not a smoker and I like the idea of going out with friends on a TTT and not have to come home smelling like an ash tray. But there is something about this whole thing that I really don't like.

This is a totalitarian law. Sure, smoking is bad for you, and maybe we can get some people to stop smoking and keep the rest of us from being effected by second hand smoke. But, what could be next? New York is trying to stop the sale of fatty foods. Twinkies really aren't good for you, should the state pass a law banning them? Are we going to start legislating when we should start wearing winter coats? You can only buy state sponsored bio fuels. Better make a law that doesn't allow alcohol of any kind in the state because it is bad for you.

Now you may say, the state passed this law to protect our health. I'm sorry but I'm pretty sure most of the state legislature doesn't really care about our health. This is just the state flexing there power muscles.

I want to end with a quote from Benjamin Franklin: Anyone who give up a little freedom for safety, deserves neither freedom or safety.

Bad Week

last week was pretty bad here in the Iowa City area. I'm sure all of you have read or seen the info about the Sueppel family tragedy. I really don't have much to add here, except to direct you to Side Notes for a wonderful writing she found through State 29 that he found on the PC site.

Yesterday I went across the street from my house to talk to a friend. She works at St. Mary's and does a lot of the singing during services. She is not handling it very well. We talked and I gave her a long hug. Told her if she needed to talk again, come on over. She knew the family. Doesn't understand how someone can snap like that, and has come to the realization that it could possibly happen to any one of us.

That is a frightening thought. I may sound like a fool to some of you, but I put my trust in God's grace and pray for strength everyday. I know that there but for the grace of God go I. I know, sounds corny, but that is what works for me.

That's all for now. Hope this week goes better.

JUST A LITTLE NERVOUS

So, once again eastern Iowa has been "graced" with another coating of the white stuff. This time it came down first as very wet snow. Now, it is starting to fluff up and the wind is picking up.

I have cleaned my driveway twice so far today just to stay ahead of the build up. And as usual, the city road cleaners dump a six inch pile of snow at the end of my driveway. Joy.

My reason for my being nervous, you say? Well, a couple weeks ago we woke up to the sound of the power pack on the computer beeping. Seems we lost power in the middle of the night. Not only that, we only lost one "leg" of our power. That means only half of our house had power coming to it. I know that doesn't sound so bad, but the half that went out was the one with the furnace on it. So my husband calls the power company and actually talks to a real live person and tells them our problem. The next morning, the repair crew came out and hooked up what I call "the box" to the house, so now we have power to everything in the house.

Still don't know why I'm nervous? The power has been blinking on and off several times in the last hour and a half. It's still snowing, with the winds whipping around, we are still hooked up to "the box", and I am just praying that the power doesn't go out.

The one saving grace? I have a generator in my garage. ;-)

To quote a comercial that has been playing on the radio in the state of Iowa:
"It's cold. It's real cold. And now that the holidays are over, winter just isn't cute anymore."

Update: the power blinked twice after I hit publish post. AAAUUUGGGHHH!!!

A concern for my hair

So, last week I get a call from a friend of mine I don't hear from alot unless something is going down. She is going to the La James school of cosmotoligy in Iowa City. She asked me if I would be one of her, how should I say it, guina pigs.

I am getting my hair highlighted at 1 on Saturday afternoon. Now, I don't do a lot to my hair. No perms or colors so there shouldn't be a lot of trouble there. The thing is, I think I am like the second person she will be working on. I'm a little nervous, but I am sure it will go well............
I hope.

Oh, I just read that Side Notes took a spill on the ice. Hope your head is feeling better.

Damn it! My spell check isn't working. Please forgive.

GARY DIETRICH 1934-2008

If you have ever driven through Mt. Vernon, or if you live there, you will know of a grocery store that has been in the town for many years. In 1971, it was named Dave and Gary's. Then, later in 1981 Gary became the soul owner and changed the name to Gary's Foods.

It is unusual in this day and age to find a small grocery store in a relatively small town that is surviving, but this one is. Gary sold the store to his children in 1999 and they are keeping it a running success.

He was very well thought of in Mt. Vernon. Known as one of the "best business men you will ever meet". That is what a Mt. Vernon banker said at Gary's visitation last Friday at St. Jude's in Cedar Rapids. BTW, He was a charter member of St Jude Catholic Church.

Why am I talking so fondly of this man? He was my uncle. The youngest of four boys and one girl on my fathers side of the family.

He had a wonderful sense of humor. Always kept you on your toes as to whether he was pulling your leg, or not. Was very lucky at cards, and just an all out wonderful person.

It was so wonderful to see all the people who came to the visitation. The line was long, and the words from people where very heart warming. I learned some wonderful things about him that night. The funeral was a lovely Catholic mass. They have a very contemporary sanctuary that made you feel welcome.

I went to the internment at the cemetery in Marengo. Boy, was that cold. Leave it to Gary to have his funeral on the coldest darn day he could find. ;-)

So if you find yourself driving through Mt. Vernon, stop in at Gary's Foods. Grab a soda or some snacks. Check out the deli and say hello to Denny or Becky, my cousins. Lucy, Gary's lovely wife might be there as well. Pay honor to a man who, without a college education, created a business and reputation that shall last for years to come. I love you Gary. Rest in peace.