I guess I'm just not cut out for dealing with anything the slightest bit stressful. Well, I already knew that. So we had our all-time record flood and it has dropped almost 6 feet since then but now they are saying there is going to be a second crest of the river even higher than the first sometime in April. So we can't calm down or move our stuff back into the basement anytime soon. At least I kind of panicked myself out. When it was really bad I was just sitting up 24 hours a day watching the 24 hour news coverage trying to be ready for the evacuation order. Well it never came. I guess our area is fairly safe. But who knows what will happen when it goes even higher. I don't even understand where all this water is coming from. How is there enough for 2 record floods in one spring? :P The mayor said if we're going down we're going down swingin'... haha... that is not my style... we actually left town for a couple days since traffic was so nuts and we were afraid we couldn't make it out if the evacuation order actually came. I wish I was strong enough to really be a help in fighting the flood but apparently I have less arm strength than the average 8 year old boy or tiny woman half my size :P... I was on the line passing sandbags for just about 15 minutes when I found myself literally unable to lift my arms, let alone lift anything in my arms... They had to ask me to sit out... and yes there were plenty of tiny people who didn't seem to have a problem with tossing 60 pound sand bags down the line... I guess I should have been working out all winter if I wanted to be able to help save the city. I dunno. It's really freaking annoying. Everything was crazy here for like 2 weeks, they shut down my work a bunch of times, and now it is just a waiting game until it gets crazy again I guess. I just hope we are able to put in permanent flood protection *this year* because I won't be surprised if we are having 100-year floods every year from now on. I guess I'll never look at snow the same way again... I didn't know it was so deadly :P. I wasn't here for the 1997 flood so this is all very new and scary :P


Four Replies to stupid water

Scott Hardie | April 4, 2009
I guess natural disasters can happen anywhere, but I would think that blizzards notwithstanding, Fargo is probably one of the safest places you can go if you want to avoid earthquakes and hurricanes and volcanoes and other disasters. And yet here you mention several floods that put the whole city on edge. There really isn't anywhere safe. :-|

Hang in there, Denise. This is stressful, but it will pass.

Steve West | April 4, 2009
Here in DC we get a brush with the occasional hurricane and get slapped with the edge of a blizzard. Nothing overly severe but just enough to make me want to move into a Qantas airplane. Apparently they're the safest place to be according to Raymond.

And from one non-Arnold to another, your muscle strength may not have been up to the task but you were there. Your character strength came through.

Amy Austin | April 4, 2009
I think Qantas is, in fact, the only airline that hasn't had any flight disasters...

Hm... sorry to hear it -- that sucks. Can't add much to the nice words from Scott and Steve, but I think I have to agree with Jackie that it would be pretty great to somehow be able to divert all that water to places in drought (like here and California). The ironic thing about living in drought conditions, though, is that serious problems can arise when the rains do suddenly return! In California, it's rock/mudslides... here, it's sinkholes! Yes, the water table here in Florida has gotten so low that when the surrounding limestone (a relatively fragile rock due to its solubility in water) lacks the support of the diminishing groundwater, things start caving in.

Meh... it's true -- nowhere safe!

Denise Sawicki | April 6, 2009
Thanks much. I guess we'll just wait and see what happens.


Prayer for the Paranoid

Denise Sawicki posts whatever she feels able to post without serious consequences Read more »

Giant flakes of cereal

The big news of today is we found a big flake of raisin bran crunch. I don't know if it's quite as big as the one featured in the coming link but it's pretty big. You can get some idea of what my life is like because I then proceeded to google for "largest flake" and "giant flake". Go »

Londo and Life

I woke up in the mood to write quite a bit but I feel my communication skills have fled me as of late, if indeed I ever had any to begin with. I can only hope someone out there will make some sense out of this. Yesterday was the big day at the convention and it was cool. Go »

Ghost of an Unkissed Kiss

As though I don't look bad enough for sharing information on my lame celebrity crushes, here's a real-life one, albeit a really old one. I'd forgotten that his full name was in the movie we watched the other day and maybe hearing his name was what got me started on this nostalgic path. He's got a common name. Go »

Stupid stuff

Well the most exciting thing to report is I've developed a crush on a TV character. I think this is a pretty clear sign that I need a life. It's not even a remotely original or interesting choice (besides being behind the times) and I don't actually like bad boys dammit :P Go »

Our dog is smart

Our sheltie, Philip, is really smart. Here is his latest Oscar-worthy film, where he shows off his ability to mimic Darrell doing the following actions: turn a circle, stretch, sneeze, lie down, roll over (partway), hop, and speak: link Philip also knows how to read a few words, kind of, though I think he gets bored with it :-). Currently he's in school for agility, which entails learning how to run around a course jumping hurdles and using tunnels and seesaws in a prescribed manner. Go »

Vanity

So, is my new picture OK? Too weird of an angle? I think it is a better likeness than the old one because I look kind of worried and I'm hiding in a hood :P. Go »