Weekend Wrap Up

I had a busy weekend this past weekend.  My mom flew in from Michigan.  Yea! I missed her so much.

On Saturday we cleaned the house to make it presentable.  My mom hadn't seen it yet and it was pretty messy.  Dishes in the sink, stuff piled on the table and my room had clothes everywhere.  If they had hit the road at noon like they said they were going to I don't think we would have gotten everything done.

When my mom finally got here I showed her the house and then we just hung out for a while.  Too long of a while in my opinion because by the time we got to the movie theater the showing of Harry Potter we were hopping to see was sold out.  The next showing was in 3D.  I am not a huge fan of 3D.  Its too much work for my brain, especially in the heat we have been dealing with.  The movie was good though.  A lot of things I didn't remember from the book but, that is to be expected when you haven't read the book since it came out.

After the movie we headed back to Plattsmouth for the night.  First order of business was a trip to Bellevue for Chinese food.  Yum!  I haven't had Chinese since we first moved in and it was awful.  Back to my grandparents after that and then back to my moms to pack up some pictures for my grandparents to bring to her when they go visit.

Up way to early on Sunday.  My grandparents don't know how to be quiet.  I probably could have slept longer but Max woke me up because he had to go see them.  Grandma made omelets for breakfast, they were delicious.  Church after that.  Everyone was happy to see all of us.  Then back to the grandparents after that for family time.  Too soon it came time for me to take my mom to the airport.  I miss her so much already.

Back home after taking my mom to the airport.  My roommate had friends over for a barbecue.  We played an exciting game of phase 10 twist.  The game was taking to long though so we started skipping the twists and repeat phases.  After they left we watched Cyberbully.  My thoughts on that are a whole separate post though.  Amsale Girls after that and then it was off too bed.

O. M. G. The. Heat.

My grandma's twin brother was in town this weekend with his wife, son, and son's girlfriend.  Ok, not in my town but in my hometown.  So of course I went home for the family barbecue.  The high today was 93.  With 77% humidity and a 110 heat index.  The drive home is about an hour.  I don't have air conditioning in my car.  Have I mentioned that before?

My brain is so fried right now that I have already forgotten what this post was about.  Oh yes, the heat.  The drive with no AC wasn't so bad because I got a breeze from having the windows down.  And even though the kids were in and out of my grandparents house that wasn't so bad either.  It was later when we went over to Iowa to fill up my gas tank.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa.

Even though I was back last weekend for the 4th the only trip we made into town was to get fireworks (my roomies parents live south of town and in the country) so I hadn't seen the flooding yet.  When we crossed the Platte River I noticed that you could see the moisture in the air.  It wasn't foggy necessarily but there was definitely moisture in the air.  And yes, I live in Nebraska it is humid all the time but this was a new one for me.  The dew point was 82.  Crazy Business, I tell ya.

And the flooding, the water is actually starting to go down.  but it is still crazy.  Even though I knew they were there it was weird to see the sandbags along the highway.  And there were pumps everywhere to attempt to keep the water under control.

I feel like this post is all over the place and I didn't really update on the flooding. And I forgot my camera so I couldn't take any pictures.  Boo.  But yeah, it was really hot and EXTREMELY humid and my poor poor Max.  I had to give him a cold water bath when we got home because he was so hot.  Ok guys, random post over.  Sorry about all the ands in this last paragraph.  My brain is seriously mush right now.

On the Missouri River flooding

Up until a couple of weeks ago I lived in Plattsmouth.  Before I moved the river was high (I think already above flood level) but it hadn't yer crested the banks.  We definitely knew it was coming.

This is the river today.  The river flooded last year too.  I am almost positive it was not this bad but it was definitely close.  Actually I'm sure it wasn't this bad last year.  Because they didn't sandbag anything.  I do believe if the river hadn't flooded last summer as well it wouldn't be quite this bad this year.  But what do I know.

Here is what the river normally looks like.  When I went back on Sunday for Father's Day I did not stop on Main Street to see for myself what the river looks like.  I can tell you though that I sure am glad that I'm not living in Plattsmouth anymore, even though both of my parents houses aren't in danger of becoming flooded.  I am just happy I don't have to deal with that at all.  Of worrying if I'm going to be able to get to Bellevue or Omaha to go shopping.  Or to do pretty much anything.

My Aunt's house is in danger of flooding though.  I know she has packed up some of her stuff but not everything because she is still living there.  I believe the police/firemen told her that if the levee breaks (I'm not sure which one?)  her house will definitely flood.  Some of the farm fields that flooded last summer never lost all of the water they had gained.  So I imagine it is pretty bad.  For awhile the police were only letting people who lived back there to drive back there (they still might be again I'm not sure.)  And that was/is probably for the best.

Ed: I just read on Facebook that the city workers who work at the water treatment plant are working 24/7 to keep the plant safe.  And since the door is sandbagged shut they are climbing through a window to get in and out.  They are also taking a boat to the plant and back.  I think they have been taking the boat for a while, maybe a couple of weeks.  This new information comes from one of my friends moms.  His dad is a city water plant worker.


Also if you go here you can see a live view of East Main Street.  The camera is mounted on the court house facing East towards the river.  The picture above is just a screen capture I did earlier from the live feed.

So Unfortunate...

Last Saturday, May 14 two boys from my high school were killed in a car accident.  Just 6 days after graduating from high school.  They were both just 18 years old.  I am not sure of the circumstances surrounding the accident.  What I know is that one of the boys didn't grow up here, he was a recent transplant from another part of the state.  Him and the other boy were back to his hometown.  I am thinking they were going to the graduation parties of some of his friends.  While crossing an intersection of two highways they were hit.  Neither were wearing seatbelts.  One boys funeral was yesterday and the others was today.

Because they were only freshman when I was a senior I didn't know them.  Well, I guess I didn't know the one boy who was living here at the time.  The boy who was here while I was still in school was in my art class for 1 semester.  I am not even sure which semester it was.

These are the third and fourth teen deaths our town has had to deal with in the last 18 months.  The first was a suicide in November 2009.  I was away at school when this one occurred but because of Facebook I knew how much everyone was affected.  The second, also a suicide, happened in February 2010.  I was still away at school for this one but he was a classmate of my brothers.  I had a summer job with this boy.  This one hit me a little harder.

On Saturday night I was out to the movies with some friends.  When we got out of the movie the girl had texts from some of her friends saying they were there for her.  She didn't know what they were even talking about. It didn't take her long to figure it out.  She was really close with at least one of the boys.  I wished that I could have done something to comfort her.  All I could do was say I was sorry.

All four of these boys were so loved.  And now everyone has to mourn yet another loss.  I just hope that  we don't have to go through this again for a long time.