All,
I write to you from Council Bluffs as I thought Reagan needed time away from me and the kids after a long 50 hour week. In fact, with drive time, she was gone for 55 hours and that meant I had 55 hours of quality time with Jack and Abby. Just me and the kids. Yes….just us. Lots of fun and lots of alcohol at the end of the day. Before I gave it much thought, I found myself taking the kids for another 2 solid days to give Reagan some alone time. I don’t plan to calculate the hours that this will add to our quality alone time, but I have a feeling I will drink a few more glasses of wine by the time I return. So, with anything I do and then relay on to all of you, I did try to learn some lessons along the way and make some mental notes for this week’s email. So…things I learned this week about being a “Stay At-Home Dad”….
1. I look forward more to new episodes of Dora and Wonder Pets than I do LOST or “The Office”. Yes, sad, I know this. But unlike watching repeats of “The Office” where I can quote the funniest lines over and over, when watching a repeat of Dora, I have to listen to Jack repeat the lines over and over and hear Dora’s shrill voice say things 3 times just so all kids under 10 can understand her. So when a new episode comes on, at least it is new to me and new to Jack, so I hear the lines a few less times. The invention of the DVR does not help as Jack knows how to work it and loves to watch the same episodes saved on our TV over and over. But yes, after this week, I could now tell you all the characters of 6 morning TV shows and would struggle to sit through an adult TV show unless it had kids songs or had a key letter or number that the show focused on.
2. Mall Playgrounds are a good place for Dad’s to size each other up. I went to the mall playground about 3 times over the past week or two and each time, I noticed one other Dad with his kids there too. Unlike the mothers who gather together and chat while drinking their coffee, us Dads sit on exact opposite sides of each other and just stare at our kids and occasionally make awkward eye contact at each other. The simple reason for this is we are trying to figure out the back story of the other Dad. The other Dad is likely a divorced father given his 12 hours of weekday contact time and a mall playground is free, climate controlled, and easy to monitor. Plus your kids think you are the greatest for letting you crawl on a stupid plastic turtle in an island of other plastic climbable animals. However, the Dad could simply be jobless and told his wife that he would go out looking for a job, yet took the kids and is getting away from his wife for the day.You hope it’s one of these two options, because option 3 is the stay-at-home Dad and they are usually not fully stable by about 10 a.m. (trust me I know) and the fourth is a person who is not a Dad at all…just some weird guy watching a bunch of kids play. I think this 4th option is what causes the rest of us Dads stare at our kids as they wind their way through this plastic playland!
3. Two kids can be the easiest or the hardest to take care of. When Jack and Abby play well together, I can get house work done (and of course surf the Net) for hours on end. However, despite the many toys (4,253 at last count), a few toys always end up being first on each child’s list of toys they NEED to play with. When this happens, Abby usually pulls as hard as she can and eventually Jack lets go and screams as if Abby beat him up. Abby meanwhile will stumble back about 12 steps until she finally hits the closest wall and then face plants into the floor, many times missing a carpeted floor and hitting a solid floor. Screaming from Abby begins immediately and father must choose who to go to first. After some shouting, I usually choose the computer and all is well again. That toy returns to the toy box and to the land of “who cares about me” for about 1 month when both kids MUST play with it immediately again.
4. Outside of those 3 big items, I have learned many more things, but I don’t want to waste your Monday (now likely Tuesday) any more than I have already, so I will be brief. Here is a montage of what I have learned in just 55 hours this week: Fruit Loops have addictive properties to children under 2, Abby can go up and down carpeted steps but will tumble down wooden or cement stairs, Jack will repeat most of what I say, I cannot swear anymore, I need to allow for 15 minutes a day to focus on Jack’s poopies and how awesome they are, I need to allow for 15 minutes a day for Abby’s poopies and how gross they are, I must keep in mind the four main food groups (nuggets, peanut butter, milk, and McDonald’s anything), Happy Meals are much cheaper on Wednesdays, and do not plan to do anything important the next day because Murphy’s Law will force the kids to be high maintenance on that day (best plan? Plan and act like you have nothing to do and thekids will allow you to do anything).
I would love to say that this coming week will be different, but my wife won the chance to work the Fourth of July weekend this year, so I am sure I will have a chance to put my learning to the test again, and at the same time, learn even more. I have enjoyed my summer with the kids and wouldn’t change it for the world. With that said, a day at the school with no one else around or a nice glass (who am I kidding, a nice bottle) of red wine at the end of long day finish a close 2nd and 3rd. Enjoy the week and stay dry/safe. Have a Great 4th of July!
Love&Prayers,
Ben
Two things to leave you with:
1. In my random thoughts, I thought what if my life was a movie, who would play me? Then I thought that everyone should do this. So…give it some thought. Pick someone to play you as a child, teen, young adult, middle-aged adult, retired adult. Play this game with your family and friends. I will reveal my actors next week with reasons why I chose them.
2. Reagan and I will be “Bowling for the Apes” again in July. It is a big fundraiser for Primate Protection worldwide and is run by the Great Ape Trust right here in Easter Lake. Click on this link to learn more (Bowling info is on right hand side...feel free to explore the site to learn about the Bonobo chimpanzee...my favorite animal of all time!). And consider sponsoring us this year as we will pledge to match our pledged amount up to $200.
http://www.greatapetrust.org/
Monday, June 30, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Emu Email Episode XXXIX: Don't laugh...I CAN offer guidance
All,
Another week has gone by and the floodwaters are receding in most places. Sadly, they are only revealing the true damage, both monetary damage and emotional damage. The floods are far from over, but the last week gave most parts of Iowa very little rain, so hopefully we can start the healing process now. This week I offer you the behind the scenes look at how I decided to change my career path.... This process actually started 2 years ago when I asked the district to increase our science staff to 3.5 instead of just 3 teachers. I was not requesting a "little person" to join our staff and be the 1/2, but was instead proposing for me to become the .5 position and thus allowing the district to use my wide-ranging and rapidly increasing skills elsewhere. They thought I was silly. So I said, well fine, don't use me, I will stay at home with the kids. Jack and Abby thought I was silly for saying that. When all was said and done, we couldn't find anyone that could replace me, so they kept me full-time teaching science and hired an "older" gentleman to teach science 1/2 time with me. It worked and got us through the year, but with my 3rd year of grad school approaching (commonly known as"do your internship and get the heck out of our program...you have been here to long...but we still like your money), I needed to modify my career so that I could complete my internship. I floated many ideas around and finally an idea stuck. It was not my idea, but it worked anyway. I would become a 1/2 time science teacher at the high school and a 1/2 time Guidance teacher at the Middle School. So, after 7 years of teaching and ranking in the top 10 in years of experience at the high school and in the top 25% in experience in our district, I jumped at the chance to: 1. Move rooms 2. Move out of the best science room into an old Spanish room 3. Move into a room with no running water, no phone, and no windows. 4. Travel over my lunch break (I know, its only 1 mile, but it's still travel! I will submit my miles of course!) 5. And use my 2 planning periods to counsel At-Risk students. Apparently, I have not learned much by being a part of our school bargaining team these past 5 years. However, this will count as my internship and I am excited. I will actually be doing more teaching and "guiding" then I will counseling. I know for some of you, that is a relief. Many of you that knew me before the age of 13, probably would have never imagined me guiding and counseling others, especially in the areas of "anger management", but apparently 2 years of graduate school, $15,000 of school expenses, and 20 years later, I am almost certified to do just that. Now, I said "certified", not "certifiable"! I will actually start my day in the high school with a planning period with the rest of the science teachers. I will use this to plan lessons with our new (and great) science teacher and work with 9th graders who are labeled At-Risk. Again, they are labeled this BEFORE they come to my room, not while there. Although, they could be At-Risk with me to since I have not finished my Master's program yet. After working with these gems that were allowed out of the middle school on the understanding that they would listen to the advice of fine, young counselors like me, I will teach 3 periods of class and then hop in my car with my lunch and eat lunch at our middle school. I am sure some lunch duty will be mixed in there as well (lunch duty: duty #1 that Drake teaches all counselors to never do as it is not a good use of our skills and not a job for a Master's level educator....but a job that counselors do since it gives them kid contact time and allows that out of their room away from the troubles that come out and surface behind closed doors). The district then allows me, I am not sure why, to teach all of the 6th graders and half of the 7th graders about life. Yes....me teach them about life!! Things I will attempt to teach them: responsibility, respect, how to spell my last name (84% of 9th graders do this by year-end...very sad), the importance of collecting random items, and how to manage their first stock portolio. Things I will not teach them: how to bong a beer, how to get into a bar before age 21, how to back up a tractor and wagon (never did figure that out), or how to dance (but I will likely chaperone a dance and attempt to teach them by modeling). In fact, my 6th graders will spend most of the first semester preparing to run a little town at a place called BizTown for one day. I know nothing of this place or my curriculum, but that is what the next 45 days are for I guess. If I manage to survive teaching 9th and 11th graders in the morning and 6th and 7th graders in the afternoon for 180 straight days, Drake will likely let me get my degree and then I will likely have a party and practice most of the items I listed above that I would not teach the students (except for the backing a tractor/wagon up, Reagan won't even let me back the van into our garage!). It will be an interesting year and I am sure a good year full of unique experiences that I will be able to convert into an outrageously long email to all of you. Keep me in your prayers, or at least all of the kids that I try to guide through life next year. I am sure I will screw up at least a few of them for life. Have a great week and please continue to keep all of the Midwest in your prayers as we continue to try to recover and become an actual land mass again!
Love&Prayers,
Ben
Things to ponder this week...
1. Summer has now officially started, so technicallythis is my first EMU of the summer. Also, since thesummer solstice has come and gone (this past weekend),the days are now getting shorter by about 2 minutesper day. Winter is coming in other words...
2. One of my summer/yearly professional goals was tocreate a website for parents/students to use. Give ita look, I obviously have some work to do yet. I highlyrecommend Googlepages to all of you. Believe it ornot, I have never made a webpage before this, nor didI have any clue how (I may use the Internet alot, Ijust don't understand how it got there): http://barryb4384.googlepages.com/home
3. Finally, look at the attached pictures of my kidstoday. Here are my theories of the cause of Abby'sappearance:
a. We had so much fun at DADDY DAYCARE today, thatnoon was as far as she could make it today
b. I finally spent so much time on the computer, Ididn't realize that my daughter fell asleep in herhigh chair
c. I found a way to chemically add Tryptophan in herPB&J sandwich, but added to much (look up that bigword if you don't know what it is)
d. In my effort to save money, turning off the aircaused us all to feel a little sleepy.Enjoy the Monday and the week!
Another week has gone by and the floodwaters are receding in most places. Sadly, they are only revealing the true damage, both monetary damage and emotional damage. The floods are far from over, but the last week gave most parts of Iowa very little rain, so hopefully we can start the healing process now. This week I offer you the behind the scenes look at how I decided to change my career path.... This process actually started 2 years ago when I asked the district to increase our science staff to 3.5 instead of just 3 teachers. I was not requesting a "little person" to join our staff and be the 1/2, but was instead proposing for me to become the .5 position and thus allowing the district to use my wide-ranging and rapidly increasing skills elsewhere. They thought I was silly. So I said, well fine, don't use me, I will stay at home with the kids. Jack and Abby thought I was silly for saying that. When all was said and done, we couldn't find anyone that could replace me, so they kept me full-time teaching science and hired an "older" gentleman to teach science 1/2 time with me. It worked and got us through the year, but with my 3rd year of grad school approaching (commonly known as"do your internship and get the heck out of our program...you have been here to long...but we still like your money), I needed to modify my career so that I could complete my internship. I floated many ideas around and finally an idea stuck. It was not my idea, but it worked anyway. I would become a 1/2 time science teacher at the high school and a 1/2 time Guidance teacher at the Middle School. So, after 7 years of teaching and ranking in the top 10 in years of experience at the high school and in the top 25% in experience in our district, I jumped at the chance to: 1. Move rooms 2. Move out of the best science room into an old Spanish room 3. Move into a room with no running water, no phone, and no windows. 4. Travel over my lunch break (I know, its only 1 mile, but it's still travel! I will submit my miles of course!) 5. And use my 2 planning periods to counsel At-Risk students. Apparently, I have not learned much by being a part of our school bargaining team these past 5 years. However, this will count as my internship and I am excited. I will actually be doing more teaching and "guiding" then I will counseling. I know for some of you, that is a relief. Many of you that knew me before the age of 13, probably would have never imagined me guiding and counseling others, especially in the areas of "anger management", but apparently 2 years of graduate school, $15,000 of school expenses, and 20 years later, I am almost certified to do just that. Now, I said "certified", not "certifiable"! I will actually start my day in the high school with a planning period with the rest of the science teachers. I will use this to plan lessons with our new (and great) science teacher and work with 9th graders who are labeled At-Risk. Again, they are labeled this BEFORE they come to my room, not while there. Although, they could be At-Risk with me to since I have not finished my Master's program yet. After working with these gems that were allowed out of the middle school on the understanding that they would listen to the advice of fine, young counselors like me, I will teach 3 periods of class and then hop in my car with my lunch and eat lunch at our middle school. I am sure some lunch duty will be mixed in there as well (lunch duty: duty #1 that Drake teaches all counselors to never do as it is not a good use of our skills and not a job for a Master's level educator....but a job that counselors do since it gives them kid contact time and allows that out of their room away from the troubles that come out and surface behind closed doors). The district then allows me, I am not sure why, to teach all of the 6th graders and half of the 7th graders about life. Yes....me teach them about life!! Things I will attempt to teach them: responsibility, respect, how to spell my last name (84% of 9th graders do this by year-end...very sad), the importance of collecting random items, and how to manage their first stock portolio. Things I will not teach them: how to bong a beer, how to get into a bar before age 21, how to back up a tractor and wagon (never did figure that out), or how to dance (but I will likely chaperone a dance and attempt to teach them by modeling). In fact, my 6th graders will spend most of the first semester preparing to run a little town at a place called BizTown for one day. I know nothing of this place or my curriculum, but that is what the next 45 days are for I guess. If I manage to survive teaching 9th and 11th graders in the morning and 6th and 7th graders in the afternoon for 180 straight days, Drake will likely let me get my degree and then I will likely have a party and practice most of the items I listed above that I would not teach the students (except for the backing a tractor/wagon up, Reagan won't even let me back the van into our garage!). It will be an interesting year and I am sure a good year full of unique experiences that I will be able to convert into an outrageously long email to all of you. Keep me in your prayers, or at least all of the kids that I try to guide through life next year. I am sure I will screw up at least a few of them for life. Have a great week and please continue to keep all of the Midwest in your prayers as we continue to try to recover and become an actual land mass again!
Love&Prayers,
Ben
Things to ponder this week...
1. Summer has now officially started, so technicallythis is my first EMU of the summer. Also, since thesummer solstice has come and gone (this past weekend),the days are now getting shorter by about 2 minutesper day. Winter is coming in other words...
2. One of my summer/yearly professional goals was tocreate a website for parents/students to use. Give ita look, I obviously have some work to do yet. I highlyrecommend Googlepages to all of you. Believe it ornot, I have never made a webpage before this, nor didI have any clue how (I may use the Internet alot, Ijust don't understand how it got there): http://barryb4384.googlepages.com/home
3. Finally, look at the attached pictures of my kidstoday. Here are my theories of the cause of Abby'sappearance:
a. We had so much fun at DADDY DAYCARE today, thatnoon was as far as she could make it today
b. I finally spent so much time on the computer, Ididn't realize that my daughter fell asleep in herhigh chair
c. I found a way to chemically add Tryptophan in herPB&J sandwich, but added to much (look up that bigword if you don't know what it is)
d. In my effort to save money, turning off the aircaused us all to feel a little sleepy.Enjoy the Monday and the week!
Friday, June 20, 2008
Emu Email Episode XXX: Don't worry...this is not Triple X rated...just the 30th edition
Emuers,
Summer is here but it did not get off to a very good start, sadly very similar to last year. The beginning of the '05 summer saw a former baseball player and CHS grad get killed in a car accident and then not even a month later, a current CHS student and athlete was also killed in a car wreck. Well, this year, we dodged a bullet in late April when one of our finest 10th graders was critically hurt (and may never play sports again!) but not killed due to wearing a safety belt when he collided head on with another car. Unfortunately, on our last teacher day of the year, we all received word that another 10th grader and former student/ballplayer of mine committed suicide at his home during the night. This was a huge shock to all of us as he was one of the happiest and funniest guys we knew. He always helped others and his smile was what many called "contagious". It hit me hard, as any student death would, but harder than some of the others. Others? Sadly, I have taught here for 5 years and stood by as 7 students or former students have died, none by drugs or alcohol. Since Lucas's death, my life has been crazy and it has been a long summer already, but in honor of Lucas, I will do what he always did: find a way to laugh and look at the situation from a positive point of view. So Lucas...here's my best shot at "the positive approach"
** Jack's 7 day virus which saw us visiting doctor's 3 times, almost to the ER once, almost an IV, and a record setting 48 minutes straight of crying. Oh yeah, and an 8% drop in body weight.
**Positive? We are much closer to our insurance deductible, I ate Jack's extra food, and I appreciated my baseball games much more!
** My baseball team. We are now 4-12 overall, 0-8 for the "B" team. We have given up 11, 12, and 15 runs in single "innings" and are attempting to bounce back from a 21-0 loss and an 18-0 loss. By the way...those games were played in 4 innings and 2 innings respectively!
**Positive? Exercise for my players! Increase inself-esteem for the opponents, I have a nice suntan, I appreciate Jack more (he would start on this team), and I now have reasons to drink at 3:00 in the afternoon and do not feel as badly about spiking my gatorade in the coach's box. Also...just yesterday I got to watch the opposing pitcher get the last out and scream "Coach...we won!!!" and then tackle his catcher. Ahh...making the other team happy...there is no better feeling in the world!
**Broken house: AC broke yesterday, Garage door broke 2 weeks ago, water and clocks are still haunted (no joke...no clock on our main floor has worked in the 3 years we have lived here), and we put a box spring through our basement wall when moving it.
**Positive? Got a chance to install a Boeing 747 engine that I got through owning company stock finally in place of our AC. We love it...a chilly 43 degrees at all times inside now. Haven't seen the cats since, we think they got blown through our screen. As for clutter...we just sweep it into the engine and poof...gone! Garage door being broken = permanent garage sale. No takers on the car but our garage surpisingly looks much cleaner. Finally....our hole in the wall....makes a nice spot for a house plant. Also a good place to stuff cash that will be used to pay all the people that will eventually fix our problems. Once these are fixed, things will be looking so good we plan to again address the flooding issue and get all new basement carpet since the last batch (#2) never got treated. I love this happy thing!
**Lastly...since Lucas loved baseball and thought my Royals were horrible....my Royals. They are horrible, but think...
**Positive? Finally, a good chance to break a record: most losses ever. And hey, if I weren't a diehard fan, I wouldn't get so ticked at how bad my teams are and turn to fantasy sports. Now I have a fantasy sport addiction and could care less how my teams do. I have also talked with my wife alot more since she enjoys my nightly "Guess how my 9th grade and the Royals lost today" conversation. I usually swear and throw a remote, but I wake up ready to go again the next day. We thought about having my 9th graders play the Royals for a fundraiser for the blind, deaf, or disabled, but those 3 groups have all beaten my 9th graders this year already so we are tired of helping them! Oh well, think positive....if the Cubs can win once every hundred years, than the Royals should get one here in the next 20-40 years! YEAH! There...positive thinking does help. It's even raining out and ending our 41-day dry spell! We may even get rained out tomorrow which means no wins...but also no LOSSES!!! I pray that I do not have to attend a student funeral in my final 30 years here, especially not for a kid like Lucas who had so much going for him. I will miss you Lucas...take care.
Love&prayers,
Ben
Summer is here but it did not get off to a very good start, sadly very similar to last year. The beginning of the '05 summer saw a former baseball player and CHS grad get killed in a car accident and then not even a month later, a current CHS student and athlete was also killed in a car wreck. Well, this year, we dodged a bullet in late April when one of our finest 10th graders was critically hurt (and may never play sports again!) but not killed due to wearing a safety belt when he collided head on with another car. Unfortunately, on our last teacher day of the year, we all received word that another 10th grader and former student/ballplayer of mine committed suicide at his home during the night. This was a huge shock to all of us as he was one of the happiest and funniest guys we knew. He always helped others and his smile was what many called "contagious". It hit me hard, as any student death would, but harder than some of the others. Others? Sadly, I have taught here for 5 years and stood by as 7 students or former students have died, none by drugs or alcohol. Since Lucas's death, my life has been crazy and it has been a long summer already, but in honor of Lucas, I will do what he always did: find a way to laugh and look at the situation from a positive point of view. So Lucas...here's my best shot at "the positive approach"
** Jack's 7 day virus which saw us visiting doctor's 3 times, almost to the ER once, almost an IV, and a record setting 48 minutes straight of crying. Oh yeah, and an 8% drop in body weight.
**Positive? We are much closer to our insurance deductible, I ate Jack's extra food, and I appreciated my baseball games much more!
** My baseball team. We are now 4-12 overall, 0-8 for the "B" team. We have given up 11, 12, and 15 runs in single "innings" and are attempting to bounce back from a 21-0 loss and an 18-0 loss. By the way...those games were played in 4 innings and 2 innings respectively!
**Positive? Exercise for my players! Increase inself-esteem for the opponents, I have a nice suntan, I appreciate Jack more (he would start on this team), and I now have reasons to drink at 3:00 in the afternoon and do not feel as badly about spiking my gatorade in the coach's box. Also...just yesterday I got to watch the opposing pitcher get the last out and scream "Coach...we won!!!" and then tackle his catcher. Ahh...making the other team happy...there is no better feeling in the world!
**Broken house: AC broke yesterday, Garage door broke 2 weeks ago, water and clocks are still haunted (no joke...no clock on our main floor has worked in the 3 years we have lived here), and we put a box spring through our basement wall when moving it.
**Positive? Got a chance to install a Boeing 747 engine that I got through owning company stock finally in place of our AC. We love it...a chilly 43 degrees at all times inside now. Haven't seen the cats since, we think they got blown through our screen. As for clutter...we just sweep it into the engine and poof...gone! Garage door being broken = permanent garage sale. No takers on the car but our garage surpisingly looks much cleaner. Finally....our hole in the wall....makes a nice spot for a house plant. Also a good place to stuff cash that will be used to pay all the people that will eventually fix our problems. Once these are fixed, things will be looking so good we plan to again address the flooding issue and get all new basement carpet since the last batch (#2) never got treated. I love this happy thing!
**Lastly...since Lucas loved baseball and thought my Royals were horrible....my Royals. They are horrible, but think...
**Positive? Finally, a good chance to break a record: most losses ever. And hey, if I weren't a diehard fan, I wouldn't get so ticked at how bad my teams are and turn to fantasy sports. Now I have a fantasy sport addiction and could care less how my teams do. I have also talked with my wife alot more since she enjoys my nightly "Guess how my 9th grade and the Royals lost today" conversation. I usually swear and throw a remote, but I wake up ready to go again the next day. We thought about having my 9th graders play the Royals for a fundraiser for the blind, deaf, or disabled, but those 3 groups have all beaten my 9th graders this year already so we are tired of helping them! Oh well, think positive....if the Cubs can win once every hundred years, than the Royals should get one here in the next 20-40 years! YEAH! There...positive thinking does help. It's even raining out and ending our 41-day dry spell! We may even get rained out tomorrow which means no wins...but also no LOSSES!!! I pray that I do not have to attend a student funeral in my final 30 years here, especially not for a kid like Lucas who had so much going for him. I will miss you Lucas...take care.
Love&prayers,
Ben
Monday, June 16, 2008
Re: Emu Email Episode XXXVIII: Yes, it is finally a dry day in Iowa
All,
You could just feel it in the air today. People were a little bit happier, the wind felt more refreshing than normal, and the fish that feed at most people's front doors seem to realize that it would soon be time to retreat back to the rivers. I think it took a trip to the suburbs of Milwaukee this weekend to really see how the rain/tornadoes/floods have affected the state, despite leaving a house that has battled the weather for much of the last 2 weeks. So....Reagan, the kids, my parents, and I all navigated through a few detours on our way to Milwaukee. Unfortunately, due to the trip being so long, we never took in some of the worst sites that were just a few miles off of our path: Parkersburg (or sadly what is left after the monster F-5 tornado a few weeks back), Cedar Falls/Waterloo flooding, Cedar Rapids flooding, I-Cubs baseball stadium. So just how bad is the weather here in Iowa and why is it so bad? Well, I tried to dig up some facts...
It all started this past winter with all of the snow we got. Iowa averages 32 inches of snow, but towns like Ottumwa got over 70 inches this past year. I know for those of you who like to ski or live in the mountains, this sounds like a good base for a nice ski run, but for Ottumwa, its called "School in June and babies in September" (hopefully, I don't have to explain the timeline on that one). As I mentioned before, we had 4 snow days, 4 early outs, and 4 late starts. We once had 8 straight school days without the same time-schedule two days in a row. At our house, we had snow hit our deck in the middle of November and we decided not to scoop it off. In March, we finally cleared the snow off of our deck and saw our deck for the first time since that mid-November snow. It didn't even have time to melt during this past winter! Needless to say, all of this snow made for a long winter and a lot of anxious teachers/students/residents of Iowa. We were all looking forward to a great Spring and Summer when it finally began in mid-April. This hope was despite the weather forecasters reminding us that the winter snow was the most since 1993, ironically the famous "year of the flood". Spring in Iowa usually leads to a tornado or two, but as 2008 has showed us, Iowa weather was doing everything to the max. A tornado almost wiped out the small town of Parkersburg (small, but still 4 times the size of Pisgah!). Then a tornado almost hit Pisgah, but again, sadly, it hit a boy scout camp instead and killed 4 scouts and injured countless others. Several people on this email list live in that area and know many of the rescuers and how heroic they were on that night. As for Reagan and I, we stayed up until 4:30 a.m. monitoring our sump pump. We were just 4 days removed from bailing water from our sump pump to a nearby drain for 50 straight minutes using just our 4 hands and 3 plastic coffee cans(good thing my parents give us their coffee cans and drink tons of coffee!). We had saved our basement from massive flooding that Sunday morning, so we weren't about to let it get destroyed in the middle of the night while we slept. Using 2 sump pumps, one indoors and one outdoors in our pond that we could probably stock with walleye and pike on most nights this year, we were able to save our basement again. And we have been dry ever since. Des Moines has not been as lucky as they evacuated parts of downtown and Iowa cities followed suit. So, after all that snow, even more rain has turned Iowa into the 6th Great Lake and put 83 of our 99 counties on the federal disaster list (Congrats to the lucky 16...you will get no money from the government!). We have had almost 9 inches of rain in June alone and we only average 7 inches for the month (and only 34 for the year). Some cities actually have their year's worth of moisture already! As for tornadoes, even the national news are starting to notice a strange year. There have been 115 deaths related to tornadoes this year, but we>only average 62 per year. This is only the 3rd time the U.S. has seen over 100 deaths since 1974 (the year of the biggest 2-day outbreak of tornadoes ever). If we see 20 more deaths this year, it will be the most deaths since 1974. So why all the rain and tornadoes?? Actually, scientists are not blaming it on global warming, but something a little less talked about: La Nina. Not "El Nino", but La Nina has caused this stranger weather pattern. As for the deaths, the tornadoes have hit more populated areas this year, more people live in mobile homes now (7.6% now compared to 3% in 1974), and the stats are skewed due to the Feb. 5th outbreak of tornadoes that saw 87 tornadoes kill 56 people across the U.S. (that is 8% of our average YEARLY tornadoes in ONE DAY, and virtually our ENTIRE YEARLY AVERAGE OF DEATHS due to tornadoes!). When it is all said and done, it is just another year with strange natural events causing death and sadness across our nation. Many will argue over the cause, but hopefully all will try to make our communities safer, more indestructible, and remember those who were hurt or killed in these weather events.
As for us, we are just glad we have made it through the first 6 months of weird weather without any damage or injury. We lost a lot of sleep this past month worrying about our basement, but in the end it didn't flood and that puts us in the minority here in Des Moines and Iowa. And I have yet to fulfill my lifelong dream of seeing a tornado and going storm chasing, but at times like these, I wonder why I would even want to. God has blessed us so far this year and we pray that he continues. One thing we know to be a guarantee: Although this week's forecast is for dry 78 degree weather basically all week, we will soon see more strange weather this year and the news media will still cover it as it is always a captivating story. I just hope Iowa gets out of the news soon. Sunny and 80 doesn't make for exciting news and Iowa doesn't need any excitement right now. Neither do I....I am ready to start enjoying my "summer free of grad school". Take care and stay dry this week.
Love&Prayers,
Ben
Some interesting things to leave you with:
1. So have you seen the picture of the "Little Sioux tornado" come through your email yet?? Well, it wasn't a tornado, nor was it near Little Sioux. Click on this site to see where the picture was really taken and what it is a picture of (hint: the picture is real and really from Iowa)http://www.meteorologynews.com/2008/06/14/fake-tornado-photograph-falsely-attributed-to-boy-scout-camp-storm/
2. Also, want to know where Little Sioux is in relation to Pisgah, the great little town many of the Barrys grew up in/near? This site shows lots of tornado and radar pics, some showing you that the tornado was actually very close to Pisgah. By my estimates, the tornado came within 8 miles of our old house.
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/crnews/display_story.php?wfo=oax&storyid=15319&source=0 (Thanks to Brother Doug for the above 2 links)
3. Finally, a great site for national and local>weather is simply "http://www.weather.com/" If you put your zip code in at the top of the page, you can get local information and radar. If you click on the radar, you can interact even more by seeing time lapse and zooming in practically on your house.
You could just feel it in the air today. People were a little bit happier, the wind felt more refreshing than normal, and the fish that feed at most people's front doors seem to realize that it would soon be time to retreat back to the rivers. I think it took a trip to the suburbs of Milwaukee this weekend to really see how the rain/tornadoes/floods have affected the state, despite leaving a house that has battled the weather for much of the last 2 weeks. So....Reagan, the kids, my parents, and I all navigated through a few detours on our way to Milwaukee. Unfortunately, due to the trip being so long, we never took in some of the worst sites that were just a few miles off of our path: Parkersburg (or sadly what is left after the monster F-5 tornado a few weeks back), Cedar Falls/Waterloo flooding, Cedar Rapids flooding, I-Cubs baseball stadium. So just how bad is the weather here in Iowa and why is it so bad? Well, I tried to dig up some facts...
It all started this past winter with all of the snow we got. Iowa averages 32 inches of snow, but towns like Ottumwa got over 70 inches this past year. I know for those of you who like to ski or live in the mountains, this sounds like a good base for a nice ski run, but for Ottumwa, its called "School in June and babies in September" (hopefully, I don't have to explain the timeline on that one). As I mentioned before, we had 4 snow days, 4 early outs, and 4 late starts. We once had 8 straight school days without the same time-schedule two days in a row. At our house, we had snow hit our deck in the middle of November and we decided not to scoop it off. In March, we finally cleared the snow off of our deck and saw our deck for the first time since that mid-November snow. It didn't even have time to melt during this past winter! Needless to say, all of this snow made for a long winter and a lot of anxious teachers/students/residents of Iowa. We were all looking forward to a great Spring and Summer when it finally began in mid-April. This hope was despite the weather forecasters reminding us that the winter snow was the most since 1993, ironically the famous "year of the flood". Spring in Iowa usually leads to a tornado or two, but as 2008 has showed us, Iowa weather was doing everything to the max. A tornado almost wiped out the small town of Parkersburg (small, but still 4 times the size of Pisgah!). Then a tornado almost hit Pisgah, but again, sadly, it hit a boy scout camp instead and killed 4 scouts and injured countless others. Several people on this email list live in that area and know many of the rescuers and how heroic they were on that night. As for Reagan and I, we stayed up until 4:30 a.m. monitoring our sump pump. We were just 4 days removed from bailing water from our sump pump to a nearby drain for 50 straight minutes using just our 4 hands and 3 plastic coffee cans(good thing my parents give us their coffee cans and drink tons of coffee!). We had saved our basement from massive flooding that Sunday morning, so we weren't about to let it get destroyed in the middle of the night while we slept. Using 2 sump pumps, one indoors and one outdoors in our pond that we could probably stock with walleye and pike on most nights this year, we were able to save our basement again. And we have been dry ever since. Des Moines has not been as lucky as they evacuated parts of downtown and Iowa cities followed suit. So, after all that snow, even more rain has turned Iowa into the 6th Great Lake and put 83 of our 99 counties on the federal disaster list (Congrats to the lucky 16...you will get no money from the government!). We have had almost 9 inches of rain in June alone and we only average 7 inches for the month (and only 34 for the year). Some cities actually have their year's worth of moisture already! As for tornadoes, even the national news are starting to notice a strange year. There have been 115 deaths related to tornadoes this year, but we>only average 62 per year. This is only the 3rd time the U.S. has seen over 100 deaths since 1974 (the year of the biggest 2-day outbreak of tornadoes ever). If we see 20 more deaths this year, it will be the most deaths since 1974. So why all the rain and tornadoes?? Actually, scientists are not blaming it on global warming, but something a little less talked about: La Nina. Not "El Nino", but La Nina has caused this stranger weather pattern. As for the deaths, the tornadoes have hit more populated areas this year, more people live in mobile homes now (7.6% now compared to 3% in 1974), and the stats are skewed due to the Feb. 5th outbreak of tornadoes that saw 87 tornadoes kill 56 people across the U.S. (that is 8% of our average YEARLY tornadoes in ONE DAY, and virtually our ENTIRE YEARLY AVERAGE OF DEATHS due to tornadoes!). When it is all said and done, it is just another year with strange natural events causing death and sadness across our nation. Many will argue over the cause, but hopefully all will try to make our communities safer, more indestructible, and remember those who were hurt or killed in these weather events.
As for us, we are just glad we have made it through the first 6 months of weird weather without any damage or injury. We lost a lot of sleep this past month worrying about our basement, but in the end it didn't flood and that puts us in the minority here in Des Moines and Iowa. And I have yet to fulfill my lifelong dream of seeing a tornado and going storm chasing, but at times like these, I wonder why I would even want to. God has blessed us so far this year and we pray that he continues. One thing we know to be a guarantee: Although this week's forecast is for dry 78 degree weather basically all week, we will soon see more strange weather this year and the news media will still cover it as it is always a captivating story. I just hope Iowa gets out of the news soon. Sunny and 80 doesn't make for exciting news and Iowa doesn't need any excitement right now. Neither do I....I am ready to start enjoying my "summer free of grad school". Take care and stay dry this week.
Love&Prayers,
Ben
Some interesting things to leave you with:
1. So have you seen the picture of the "Little Sioux tornado" come through your email yet?? Well, it wasn't a tornado, nor was it near Little Sioux. Click on this site to see where the picture was really taken and what it is a picture of (hint: the picture is real and really from Iowa)http://www.meteorologynews.com/2008/06/14/fake-tornado-photograph-falsely-attributed-to-boy-scout-camp-storm/
2. Also, want to know where Little Sioux is in relation to Pisgah, the great little town many of the Barrys grew up in/near? This site shows lots of tornado and radar pics, some showing you that the tornado was actually very close to Pisgah. By my estimates, the tornado came within 8 miles of our old house.
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/crnews/display_story.php?wfo=oax&storyid=15319&source=0 (Thanks to Brother Doug for the above 2 links)
3. Finally, a great site for national and local>weather is simply "http://www.weather.com/" If you put your zip code in at the top of the page, you can get local information and radar. If you click on the radar, you can interact even more by seeing time lapse and zooming in practically on your house.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Emu Email Episode XXXVII: 5 months to study up!
Emuers,
And you thought I wouldn't get this out on Monday!I have been without Internet for about 4 days, I am assuming because of the new Midwestern Ocean that has formed over the past week, complete with daily twisters, rivers merging with highways just for fun, and basically weather you only read about in parts of the Bible happening at all hours of the day and night. But, our basement is dry (one of only 23% of basements that are currently dry in Iowa), and since our house is for sale, I will not tell you our "dirty" little secret of how we kept it dry. But enough about the depressing weather affecting us all, how about the big news that happened last week?? I am not talking about Big Brown (who admittedly is given daily treatments of steroids) losing, the Royals splitting 4 games with the Yanks, or the fact that I survived 4 days without my friend, the Internet, I am talking about the fact that we finally have 2 candidates for our next President (sorry, Nadar...you don't count!). This email is not in support of either candidate, you can get that from me in person, but instead encouraging EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU to actually vote, but not until you have studied up on each candidate. To me, the only worse thing than not voting, is voting without any real knowledge of the candidate. Let me help you out....
1. First, visit each candidate's website. I had my students do this in order to research their views on science issues. The websites are pretty much standardized now by the political laws/rules, so they are pretty good. You will notice a similar format for both candidates. I recommend clicking on the issues and reading about each viewpoint.
http://www.johnmccain.com/
http://www.barackobama.com/index.php or go to a "neutral" site, NPR (National Public Radio)to get the candidate's views.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18437398
Disregard Hillary's views, sadly she is no longer with us. She is not dead, simply thrown onto a large heap of political hungry democrats offering anything they can to be VP. Hillary has offered both Bill and Monica for the Veep position, but Obama has asked for a politician to be named later!
2. Watch your email and research your email. Guesswhat?? I have a site for you:http://www.snopes.com/ If you have never heard of this site, you should be ashamed of yourself. My family knows that Doug and I get on people for fowarding stupid emails that are untrue or at least questionable. This site keeps track of all those forwards and the legitimacy of their claims. Guess what you can learn very quickly at this site??? Glade Plugins DO NOT CAUSE FIRES (never have), Bill Gates is not sending us all money because we email each other, your cell phone #s are not being given to telemarketers, and people are not killing you in mall parking lots after having you sample ether-laced perfume. But guess what else you can learn??? About the 2 remaining candidates! Obama has 29 different email "rumors" circulating about him, McCain 15. Let me help you out some: Obama IS NOT MUSLIM!!! This one I find funny since his "old" church that is in the news every week is definitely not Muslim. And if he was Muslim, is that such a big deal?I was born a white, male, Catholic, American....you can call me Mr. Majority. But by the time I am forty, being male will be the only thing that makes me part of the privileged or majority. Muslim is now the #1 religion, overtaking Catholicism last year. Hispanic decent will over take caucasian decent in our country by the year 2015 (according to census numbers), and if you haven't noticed, the U.S. is not really alone in world dominance anymore. One of my favorite facts: China graduates more people from college every year than our country even has ENROLLED in college! The world is changing folks, get used to it. Back to the rumors. Obama does not have plans to bring back slavery...but only for whites, his wife's thesis is not restricted until the day after the election, his occaisional absence of his hand over his heart during the National Anthem is not in protest of our country (to be honest...I always keep my hands behind my back), and he is not endorsed or funded by the KKK or Hugo Chavez. I am not sure how those two are even believable, but I know people who believe it! As for McCain, his current wife's history of addiction is true, but she has recovered and she IS NOT the candidate you are voting on. Also, why the divorce from his first wife? Well, being a POW for 5.5 years and his wife having a near fatal accident put a little strain on the marriage. (And I thought a fight over the grocery bill was bad!) He has no problem with the democratic party. (Is liking the other side such abad thing? I mean working together for one cause???) And actually, that is about all I could find on McCain. Most of his snopes.com stuff is not bad and it checks out to be true. Some people I have talked to swear he will be the oldest president ever and could die at any minute. He would be the oldest president, beating Ronald Reagan out by a few years. Old Ronny didn't do too badly now did he? Just disregard the ol' losing memory and Alzheimer's thing though...that happens! As for his health, he got a clean bill of health, as did Obama. I am a little skeptical however because I cannot remember any candidate not given this clean bill, plus I am on about 2 or 3 pills a day atage 30, I can't imagine these guys are perfect. C'mon...give us something! Acid reflux? Gout? Trouble sleeping? Something! The point is, do research when you see an ad, get an email, or hear something from somebody who heard it from someone else. Its like being in high school again...Don't spread rumors and lies, they are hurtful.
3. Yes....lastly....VOTE! I took part in my first caucus this January and man, how cool was that! Being an Iowan and getting to set the stage for the election to come. Hearing people shout and debate for their candidate instead of checking a box?! And then watching CNN for the next few hours just to see what the nation thought. Record numbers or Republicans and Democrats (and I suppose even Independents, Greenparty, Party of George Barry, etc) have voted, why should we quit now that the last vote is the one that finishes this whole process. We are at War, we are paying $4.00 for a gallon of gas (I paid 88 cents in 1997 in Cedar Falls), Global Warming is threatening our Earth (global temps went up for the 57th straight year. Notice I did not say "why", but you can't argue that the Earth is not warming. 57 straight years!), and we have so many other "minor issues": lack of health insurance and care, food costs rising, economy slumping, other countries in need of our help, my 401K. We need to vote and prove to the world and ourselves that we do care about our country. But don't just research and vote for the President, research and vote for all the races. Senate, governor, representatives, mayor. They all make decisions that affect you, so why not vote the person that would do what you want them to. And when the voting is done, unite together to support the people in charge. Thank them through emails and letters when they do things you agree with, ask them to listen and help when they disagree with you. I guess the moral of this whole Emu is not meant to be funny or make your week go any better, but to remind you of a privilege you have in this country....the privilege to vote. But you also have the privilege of information in our country that you would not get in other countries (China for example). Use this information and spread the correct information. And then vote.
Little long I know, but needed. I for one will not pay attention to much of the media ads for either side as it is just propaganda. I use the Net for my info and Imake sure its neutral or correct information. Enjoy the week...Tuesday is almost here in Central Iowa...and so is the next rainstorm.
Love&Prayers,
Ben
I will not leave you with anything this week as I think I gave enough weblinks and info to keep you busy enough already. Sorry there weren't more laughs this week.
And you thought I wouldn't get this out on Monday!I have been without Internet for about 4 days, I am assuming because of the new Midwestern Ocean that has formed over the past week, complete with daily twisters, rivers merging with highways just for fun, and basically weather you only read about in parts of the Bible happening at all hours of the day and night. But, our basement is dry (one of only 23% of basements that are currently dry in Iowa), and since our house is for sale, I will not tell you our "dirty" little secret of how we kept it dry. But enough about the depressing weather affecting us all, how about the big news that happened last week?? I am not talking about Big Brown (who admittedly is given daily treatments of steroids) losing, the Royals splitting 4 games with the Yanks, or the fact that I survived 4 days without my friend, the Internet, I am talking about the fact that we finally have 2 candidates for our next President (sorry, Nadar...you don't count!). This email is not in support of either candidate, you can get that from me in person, but instead encouraging EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU to actually vote, but not until you have studied up on each candidate. To me, the only worse thing than not voting, is voting without any real knowledge of the candidate. Let me help you out....
1. First, visit each candidate's website. I had my students do this in order to research their views on science issues. The websites are pretty much standardized now by the political laws/rules, so they are pretty good. You will notice a similar format for both candidates. I recommend clicking on the issues and reading about each viewpoint.
http://www.johnmccain.com/
http://www.barackobama.com/index.php or go to a "neutral" site, NPR (National Public Radio)to get the candidate's views.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18437398
Disregard Hillary's views, sadly she is no longer with us. She is not dead, simply thrown onto a large heap of political hungry democrats offering anything they can to be VP. Hillary has offered both Bill and Monica for the Veep position, but Obama has asked for a politician to be named later!
2. Watch your email and research your email. Guesswhat?? I have a site for you:http://www.snopes.com/ If you have never heard of this site, you should be ashamed of yourself. My family knows that Doug and I get on people for fowarding stupid emails that are untrue or at least questionable. This site keeps track of all those forwards and the legitimacy of their claims. Guess what you can learn very quickly at this site??? Glade Plugins DO NOT CAUSE FIRES (never have), Bill Gates is not sending us all money because we email each other, your cell phone #s are not being given to telemarketers, and people are not killing you in mall parking lots after having you sample ether-laced perfume. But guess what else you can learn??? About the 2 remaining candidates! Obama has 29 different email "rumors" circulating about him, McCain 15. Let me help you out some: Obama IS NOT MUSLIM!!! This one I find funny since his "old" church that is in the news every week is definitely not Muslim. And if he was Muslim, is that such a big deal?I was born a white, male, Catholic, American....you can call me Mr. Majority. But by the time I am forty, being male will be the only thing that makes me part of the privileged or majority. Muslim is now the #1 religion, overtaking Catholicism last year. Hispanic decent will over take caucasian decent in our country by the year 2015 (according to census numbers), and if you haven't noticed, the U.S. is not really alone in world dominance anymore. One of my favorite facts: China graduates more people from college every year than our country even has ENROLLED in college! The world is changing folks, get used to it. Back to the rumors. Obama does not have plans to bring back slavery...but only for whites, his wife's thesis is not restricted until the day after the election, his occaisional absence of his hand over his heart during the National Anthem is not in protest of our country (to be honest...I always keep my hands behind my back), and he is not endorsed or funded by the KKK or Hugo Chavez. I am not sure how those two are even believable, but I know people who believe it! As for McCain, his current wife's history of addiction is true, but she has recovered and she IS NOT the candidate you are voting on. Also, why the divorce from his first wife? Well, being a POW for 5.5 years and his wife having a near fatal accident put a little strain on the marriage. (And I thought a fight over the grocery bill was bad!) He has no problem with the democratic party. (Is liking the other side such abad thing? I mean working together for one cause???) And actually, that is about all I could find on McCain. Most of his snopes.com stuff is not bad and it checks out to be true. Some people I have talked to swear he will be the oldest president ever and could die at any minute. He would be the oldest president, beating Ronald Reagan out by a few years. Old Ronny didn't do too badly now did he? Just disregard the ol' losing memory and Alzheimer's thing though...that happens! As for his health, he got a clean bill of health, as did Obama. I am a little skeptical however because I cannot remember any candidate not given this clean bill, plus I am on about 2 or 3 pills a day atage 30, I can't imagine these guys are perfect. C'mon...give us something! Acid reflux? Gout? Trouble sleeping? Something! The point is, do research when you see an ad, get an email, or hear something from somebody who heard it from someone else. Its like being in high school again...Don't spread rumors and lies, they are hurtful.
3. Yes....lastly....VOTE! I took part in my first caucus this January and man, how cool was that! Being an Iowan and getting to set the stage for the election to come. Hearing people shout and debate for their candidate instead of checking a box?! And then watching CNN for the next few hours just to see what the nation thought. Record numbers or Republicans and Democrats (and I suppose even Independents, Greenparty, Party of George Barry, etc) have voted, why should we quit now that the last vote is the one that finishes this whole process. We are at War, we are paying $4.00 for a gallon of gas (I paid 88 cents in 1997 in Cedar Falls), Global Warming is threatening our Earth (global temps went up for the 57th straight year. Notice I did not say "why", but you can't argue that the Earth is not warming. 57 straight years!), and we have so many other "minor issues": lack of health insurance and care, food costs rising, economy slumping, other countries in need of our help, my 401K. We need to vote and prove to the world and ourselves that we do care about our country. But don't just research and vote for the President, research and vote for all the races. Senate, governor, representatives, mayor. They all make decisions that affect you, so why not vote the person that would do what you want them to. And when the voting is done, unite together to support the people in charge. Thank them through emails and letters when they do things you agree with, ask them to listen and help when they disagree with you. I guess the moral of this whole Emu is not meant to be funny or make your week go any better, but to remind you of a privilege you have in this country....the privilege to vote. But you also have the privilege of information in our country that you would not get in other countries (China for example). Use this information and spread the correct information. And then vote.
Little long I know, but needed. I for one will not pay attention to much of the media ads for either side as it is just propaganda. I use the Net for my info and Imake sure its neutral or correct information. Enjoy the week...Tuesday is almost here in Central Iowa...and so is the next rainstorm.
Love&Prayers,
Ben
I will not leave you with anything this week as I think I gave enough weblinks and info to keep you busy enough already. Sorry there weren't more laughs this week.
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