Webarnold.net

That’s right folks, we’ve added a new writer here in the halls of Webarnold.net headquarters.  My wife Kirsten will be adding entries to the site from time-to-time as inspiration strikes her.  We are going to be converting this website mostly to be about the goings on in our lives, with the occasional commentary on technology, current events, et al.

So, look for her name on the posts in the coming days and months.

(Secretly I hope this will help me reach my resolution of averaging fifteen posts a month on this site throughout 2008 )

My wife and I happen to live in Eastern Iowa and both of the towns we currently have residences in were affected by the flood, albeit, one not quite as much.

I’m currently living in Cedar Falls, IA, and we had it easy compared to Cedar Rapids and Iowa City/Coralville. Tuesday, June 10th, we received word in our office that UNI would be closing early due to the impending flood. Doom and gloom abounded as people hypothesized that the levies would not hold. Railroad cars were parked atop the rail bridge that crosses the Cedar River near down town. That night, I went and helped with the sand bagging effort for about four or five hours. There were hundreds of people there with me working at two locations - trying to protect the downtown and trying to protect the water treatment plant. Our efforts were successful. The Cedar River never breached the levy to spill into down town Cedar Falls. The north part of town, however, was not so lucky. They were directly in the flood plain and took the brunt of the damage.

As flood waters rose further north and the rain continued to fall, the water level in the Coralville Reservoir rose to unprecedented levels and started to spill forth over the top of the emergency spillway. Of course the release of this extra water played havoc with the river levels of the Iowa River in downstream Coralville and Iowa City. Historic flooding levels occurred there too, affecting a large portion of the campus of The University of Iowa. My wife and my apartment in Coralville is on high ground, thankfully, so the remaining items we had there were not affected. Access to and from the downtown, the campus, and even Iowa City/Coraville/Cedar Rapids itself was affected, however, as interstates I-80 and I-380 both had segments closed due to flooding. Thursday night, June 12th, we decided to have Kirsten try and get out of the area before things got worse. She took northbound I-380 and made it through Cedar Rapids before they closed portions of the road the next day.

Water levels in Cedar Falls have been receding and downtown has reopened. My friends and old co-workers down at Iowa City have been affected for this entire week as the UI campus is on an “essential personnel report to work only” plan. I feel for them especially those whose homes were affected.

I’ve always heard about “the flood of ‘93″ from those who live in Iowa as being really bad. Now I’ve lived through flooding that has been much worse, in a lot of cases, than that in ‘93. God help us in getting all the affected Eastern Iowans up and on their feet again.

The weather would make me believe that we live in Seattle, not Iowa. We had over three inches of rain in twenty four hours yesterday here in Cedar Falls. From what I’ve read, the Iowa City/Coralville area is worse off.

I spent the majority of the weekend working around my mother-in-law’s house. Trimmed her giant hedge down to size, cut off low hanging (i.e. sagging) branches from her spruce tree, cleaned gutters, affixed new and longer down spout pipes to direct water away from her foundation, and even cut up my large tree branches into firewood for her outdoor fire box. Overall, it was rewarding work. It was even nice out on Saturday, hot and sunny at times.

Then Sunday hit and it was one heavy rain shower after another. The weather didn’t keep us from having a fun meal at Pizza Ranch in Waverly, Iowa, with friends and family. Although not the most auspicious showing for the establishment, bad service just can’t hide the fact that they make very tasty pizza.

This past weekend Kirsten and I were invited, by a local pastor and family friend of her mom, on a canoe trip to the Turkey River in NE Iowa. We left the church parking lot with three other couples from the church around 10:30 AM and arrived in Clermont, Iowa, around noon. We ate at the campground from where we launched and then prepared to delve into the river.

My first thought was, “wow! that water is moving fast!” The above-average rainfall this year in our neck of the woods has really made the rivers surge. We launched our canoe successfully down the steep embankment and were off on a race down the river. We were able to slow down and pull off to the side, clinging to a log jam and waited for the remainder of our party to launch.

We made it down the 3.48 miles of river in about two and a half hours with two stops. One for a devotional on a sandbar and another to swim in the cold, swift river water. The first stop is where I pulled out my lower back muscles as I bent over awkwardly to pull our canoe from the river. Yikes! What a bad idea! I’m still paying for that move.

Overall, we had a really good time. It was Kirsten’s first canoe trip and she’s already talking about a second and she even wants to try kayaking! For a girl who’s not too keen on “the outdoors,” or “nature,” she did pretty darn well! She’s a canoeing natural!

It’s funny how moving to a new position in a new environment makes you once again celebrate the little things in life. Like my first password resets yesterday. That’s right, I’m now functioning as a [more useful] team member by taking some of the password reset load from my boss and co-worker.

What’s more, I’m learning to use Mac OS X [Leopard] as my primary machine, learning a new email system and client, and trying to learn a new array of online services provided by my new employer. I like the people in my office quite a bit and am adjusting to life in the Cedar Valley. Today is casual Friday and everyone wore jeans and a hawaiian shirt!

More to come on interesting developments as I have news. Oh, and I’m writing this post using MarsEdit, for which we have a campus license.

Today was my first day on the new job.  I have to say that the people are friendly and knowledgeable, the working environment is nice, and the equipment is great.  I write to you now from a MacBook Pro.  My first real adventure into the Mac kingdom has begun.

Things that happened today:

• Got my laptop’s wireless and ethernet MAC address registered for internet access
• Setup my email account (IMAP) in Mac Mail on the laptop and in Thunderbird on the Windows Vista desktop
• Signed my final paperwork and had HRS copy my passport for identity verification purposes
• Acquired a parking permit (I have to say, the price for parking here at UNI is right)
•  Found a delicious sub sandwich place for lunch on college hill called Sub City
• Got told to take my tie off when I walked in at 7:30AM (summer hours here are 7:30AM - 4:30PM)

Things left to do tomorrow:

• Go to the physical plant and acquire keys to the office and building in which I work
• Acquire a staff photo ID card
• Setup parallels for Mac OS X with Windows XP