If It's Not One Thing...

...it's another.

Last year, we were all about the fires and praying for rain to put them out.

Well, the rains came.  Maybe a year late, but they're here.  You know, you can't always coerce Mother Nature to bend to your will.

I was five when the Big Thompson flood hit and to this day, I get nervous when it's been raining for too long.  Back then, Mom and Dad both disappeared to work.  Dad was a firefighter and was helping with rescue/recovery and Mom was working in the soup kitchens, keeping all of the rescuers fed.

This flood, though much more devastating to property, hasn't claimed nearly as many lives, as our warning systems have gotten better and our rainfall was spread out over days not hours.  I'll never again have faith in the "flood improvements" that will be made.  After the flood in '76, the Big Thompson canyon was improved and we were assured it would withstand another flood.

Unfortunately, the pictures say otherwise:

Highway 34, the most common way into Estes Park

Of course, the technology used to make the canyon flood-proof is over thirty years old.

Back in 1997, Fort Collins was hit with a flash flood that killed a handful of people and caught us completely unaware.  We were all okay, but the kids were very small and Ashinator texted me on Thursday, when we started flooding, to let me know she was feeling very anxious about delivering in the rain.  Maybe anxiety over flooding wasn't quite the tradition I wanted to share with the kids.

Mom and Bill were thought to be completely cut off.  The only ways in and out of Estes Park were washed away (except Trail Ridge Road) and Highway 7, the direct route to their place is no longer existent in certain places.

What used to be Highway 7 (sorry I couldn't get it to resize)

Luckily, they did find a way off the mountain (should they ever decide to leave), via the Peak to Peak Highway (Highway 72), so their guests were able to leave and catch their planes back to Germany.

As devastating as the fires were, this flood I believe to be worse.  Jay and I are mostly dry out in Ault, but here's a quick run-down of the family situation:

• Nebalee, et al are on high ground above the Big Thompson, but surrounded by flooding. The worst Nebalee has had to deal with is brown water, but since she stockpiled water before it turned brown, she's set.
• Junior and his family are on high ground east of I-25, but are pretty much the only neighborhood in his town that are not under mandatory evacuation.
• Deejo's family is high and dry.
• Jay's family is dry, but completely cut off.  There's no way in or out of the town they live in.
• Grandma Nita is dry this go 'round.  She barely missed the flooding in '97, but the flood improvements seem to be working well and keeping her dry.
• The Heathi are all doing well.  Digger and Monster live closest to the river, but they're still out of danger and Ashinator doesn't live anywhere near the flooded areas in town.

As a family, we're especially blessed in this disaster, even with Mom and Bill inaccessible.  They have food, water, and the horses.  Life is pretty good for them right now.

I just wish all of my friends have been as lucky as we have.  Unfortunately, that's not the case.  I've made a small donation to one of the local evacuation shelters, but there's definitely more need than I can help fulfill.  If you have an extra dollar or two to donate to the cause (I hate asking for donations), you can go to Northern Colorado Flood Relief.  Yesterday, I had Ashinator drop off supplies that the evac centers had specifically asked for, but by far, the best way to donate is monetarily so that the centers can purchase what they need.  Here's another place to donate: Larimer County Flood 2013 Long-Term Recovery.

Didn't Quite Dodge The Bullet

Since before Christmas break, everyone around me has been sick.  The other Associate Dean started it all off with a nasty upper respiratory infection that he passed on to a couple of the instructors.  Christmas break came and I escaped the college for a week.  When I returned a whole new virus was circulating; again wiping out instructors right and left.  Then our Dean got sick.  Through it all, my bulletproof immune system stayed strong.  Woo Hoo!

Then RCC got sick.  Some nasty URI again.  I *thought* I'd dodged that bullet, too.  It's been going on three weeks since he got sick.  With a viral incubation period of 10 days to two weeks, I was sure I'd avoided his lung-cookie producing URI.

Monday, I woke up with half a ton of concrete in my left sinuses.  Aw, crap.  I took some of my favorite drug on the planet, Advil Cold & Sinus and felt better.  I still felt a little under the weather, with achy joints and a face full of cement snot.  I went to work out with my trainer, but just went through the motions.  My heart was definitely not into working out.

Woke up Tuesday morning feeling a whole lot better.  Worked out again - one hour on the treadmill.  Still felt mostly good.

Woke up Wednesday feeling human.  Worked out again - half hour on the elliptical machine.  Was bored shitless.  Even with Eloise, I just couldn't stay on the dang thing.

Thursday - a full ton of concrete in both sides of my face.  Great.  Worked my usual fifteen hours, hopped up on cold medicine.  Some Advil variation of their Cold & Sinus.  I wanted my favorite, but I couldn't buy it off the shelf - it has to be purchased via the pharmacy, which isn't open before I have to be at work.

Today.  Well, I can now say that I have not dodged that sickness bullet.

But I gave it a hell of a run for its money.  I've been knee-deep in sick people, both at work and at home since the beginning of December.

I'm even going to blame the snot packing my head for the one-pound weight gain I had this week.  There's nothing quite like attempting to work your ass off only to find that you've *gained* a pound.  Bah!

Ugh! A Slacker Update

I don't know what's happening to my days.  Seems like they're slipping away too quickly.  I wake up, go to work, come home, go to bed, rinse, lather, repeat.  I don't much remember January.  Does anyone?

Ripley got her first ouchie while we were enjoying the unseasonably nice weather.  Before our cold snap, we had some spring-like weather.  Beautiful days in the 60s!  I miss them already.  I digress.  RockCrawlinChef and I were out shopping at Sam's Club and when we got out of the store, we saw this...

They're small gouges, but they go into the plastic on the bumper.  There's no sanding them out and pretending they didn't happen.

My husband loves me - before the cold snap hit, he made a point to "install" a rear window in the Jeep so I wouldn't have to turn into an ice cube.   It was such a gorgeous day outside the Scamp decided to oversee the project from the roof...

RCC pulled out his inner redneck ingenuity and fashioned a rear window out of a shower curtain, duct tape, and nylon cord (and I got a new leather punch out of the deal).  I'm pretty sure Ashinator wishes that we could stitch a window into the Accord - she's pretty sick of the plastic wrap/packaging tape window she's got.

 
It got bitter cold for a couple of days.  I had students pissed off that we didn't cancel school.  All of the public schools were closed, why wasn't the college?  Here's the short answer:

It's only cold!  Man the eff up!

Put on your coat!

Get your ass in the car

and get to school!

I really wanted to channel my inner R. Lee Ermey...


Of course, as much as I wanted to scream that at them, I couldn't.  What I could tell them was that they were adults and able to get themselves to school.  The roads weren't bad; the reason the public schools were closed was that they couldn't have so many kids standing out at the bus stops (to which, I'm sure my Northern readers will laugh) or walking to school.

It warmed up slightly, but not enough for my riding lessons in an outdoor arena.  Being Colorado, it'll be cold again in a couple of days, but I do appreciate the break we get in the weather between cold snaps.

One of my resolutions at the beginning of the year was to lose weight.  Hell, it's on my list every year.  RCC and I have both decided that the forty-plus pounds we each gained when we got married has got to go.  He - the brat - lost 20# in January just by changing his eating habits.  Me?  I lost four.  That's right.  Four freaking pounds!  Can we say pissed off wife?  Yep.  He hasn't even started working out.  He's just eating a bowl of cereal in the morning, a salad with a protein at lunch, and something for dinner.  Pisses me off.  I can't lose weight without blood, sweat and tears.  I wasn't able to join a gym until last week - that crap's expensive.  I bit the bullet and not only joined a gym, but paid for three fifty-minute sessions with a personal trainer.  My first session is tomorrow.  He's going to kick my fat arse and I'm more than a little afraid.  But if it's going to take blood, sweat and tears, I'm willing to give them.  I've got forty pounds to go before my birthday in July.

And in the good news category...
Tara Janzen's newest release, LOOSE ENDS, hit the NYT Best Seller list! This is the third (or is it fourth) time her Steele Street boys and girls have ended up on the list.  I'm so thrilled for her; she deserves it.