So I'm bit embarrassed by the whole thing, so I won't go into much detail. Needless to say, Allstate, Chapman Auto Glass, and Stiver's Body Shop have been pretty good about the whole thing. Stiver's did estimate the repairs at one maybe two days...but it did turn into three.
You might recognize my car...
Anyways, I'll put it behind me and move forward.
So apparently in March, I mentioned that I loved the pot and would make Chili soon. I think my definition of soon is out of whack.
Had a lemon pastry from La Mie around lunchtime. My boss had been raving about it...it was like a Danish (only a fluffier, flakier crust) with a lemon and creme cheese mixture...very good.
I'm not so much looking forward to going back to work on Monday, or going back on call on tomorrow. But I guess it is a necessary thing...
I went to the Franklin Avenue Branch of the Des Moines Public Library and got myself a library card. I spent so much time in the library as a child, I think it was time again to get a library...I didn't actually check anything out...cause I had a couple of ideas on what to get...but I had forgotten. Anyways, it was nice to walk around a library again.
Thought this was pretty funny...
I've always thought that perhaps one day I might run for some public office, thinking that perhaps I could do some good or another. When it comes down to it, being in some sort of public office requires you to be personable and attend a lot of meetings...neither of which I excel at.
My friend Jenny Matta is running for School Board in Cedar Rapids, and it would be interesting to get that sort of inside track as to what goes on with all of that, if she were to win.
We took a short trip to Cedar Rapids this past weekend. I'll skip over the first part of our trip and just summarize the rest.
Saturday around noon, we spent a bit of time with Joseph and went and got some BBQ (it was pretty good, Nicki's BBQ, Joesph's favorite in CR). Saturday night we spent time with the Mattas, Clif, Scott, Dan and Marisa, and Dan's parents. It was nice to see everyone and spend time with Taylor and Cali (the Matta's Girls). Got home late Sunday afternoon. Just a short trip, to get out of the house.
Before we went over to spend some time with Joseph (rest of the family was at a family reunion in Wyoming), we headed to downtown Cedar Rapids to see what was still going on down there. We've seen a lot of things on TV and on websites, but it really didn't hit to the same place of the heart. It was kind of removed. It was shocking to see some of the things that I remember from my childhood, more or less, mostly destroyed. The sewing/cloth place where Shannon and I got parts of her and the flower girl's wedding dress, was basically gone...the building was boarded up...and...well...doesn't look like it was coming back. We saw lots of trash, crumbling power infrastructure (one power sub station looks like it was about to collapse in on itself), broken wires and loads of cleaning trucks, fans, large scale portable generators.
Looking down the edge of the riverbank and you can see how much the water had to come up to trash, not only the parking meters, but the first floor of the library, beyond. I know that Clif, who was working in Florida when the floods were happening, said that most people just didn't get how big of a deal it was...
I remember when they moved from the old library (which is now an art museum, I think), to the new one, and I spent huge amounts of time. I watched movies, reading books (hundreds of books). I remember taking the bus from my parents, and spending a good chunk of the day down there, and sometimes I would take the bus home with my dad (or get a ride when mom picked dad up). It was my way to get away from the crowded house...it was quite, well air conditioned and had nice comfy places to read. It broke my hear to peer into the windows and see what remains of the first floor of the library. Seeing the land and possible structural damage to the building... Just heart breaking.
The Paramount Theater also go hit hard...and I went to several of the Cedar Rapids Symphony performances when I was young (My dad's company donated money to them, I think, and always had tickets...which apparently almost nobody but my parents wanted). The CR Symphony can be credited with my early love of music (almost all kinds).
We took a few pictures, and headed over to my parents to see Joseph.
After two days without my RSX-S, my car is now back in my possession and I got to say that the scratches are gone and the bumper looks like it did before.
Props to Acheson Auto Body West for getting it it restored back to it's original beauty.
Sunday evening, we're downstairs being lazy, watching some DVR'd things. And we both hear a loud thump against the basement window closest to the front of the house (near the northeast corner). I get up to investigate, and there is a tabby cat (stray I'm assuming) and in her mouth is a fairly large bunny rabbit (lots of clover in my yard, so we have lots of rabbits). She looked shocked to see me and quickly jumped out of the shallow window well and started to drag the kill away from our house. Shannon got up and went to the other window (near the southeast corner), to see it drag it further down the dead end.
Certainly not something I expected to see...
So after one of the worst days of my working life (I'd like to say...but work policies prevent me from doing so...but I'll just say that the SAN admin that setup my drives deserves a swift kick in the butt....but he doesn't work here anymore), I headed over to the Gateway Market to find something for dinner...and in walking around I started thinking about what to make for Adam's Birthday Party (for us, not to share). So lamb burgers it is! Found a wonderfully smelling cheese that I think will fit with the lamb well...I'll do the prep before we go there and then cook 'em up on the grill.
I think I'll make some cookies to share..or something...haven't decided yet
Anyways, knowing that I don't have to go back to work until Monday (took Friday off)...has helped relax me quite a bit.
So in waiting at Chris and Holly's to go over to the movie theater to see Hellboy 2, apprently Dave's parking break failed..and well...his car rolled back down the hill on the driveway...and ran into my front bumper...
The damage doesn't look too bad (in the dark).
I guess we'll see what the professionals say...
But it is kind of funny...you'd think that the first accident in my car would happen...I don't know...while I was in it...
After Shannon got back from giving Spunky a shot of insulin (Chris & Holly's huge kitty), we headed down to the Western Gateway Park to go to the Friday's shot of 80 - 35.
We missed the Des Moines Boyz and a bit of Ingrid Michaelson. I actually liked some of her music, so I may end up buying a CD. We hunkered down and watched Andrew Bird, who put on a good show, even though I prefer to see them in a group...but in watching it, it reminded me that I still need to get a Martin Dosh album or two (probably starting with one).
Then The Flaming Lips took the stage. With a combination of giant balloons (pushed out into the audience), huge confetti cannons, encouraged sing alongs, a big ball to get tossed around the crowd on, and a round screen behind them they put on a visually stimulating show. Going though a lot of music that I know and a bit that I wasn't as familiar with, it was probably one of the better shows that I've been to. Shannon enjoyed the spectacle of it too. It was a fun way to spend the 4th.
On both nights there were sets of painted ladies. Where they were wearing boy shorts and the rest of their body was spray painted (nipples covered with tape). It was interesting...
On the 5th, I was scheduled for work at 5:PM, but being that I didn't have much to do, I headed down at around noon. And found out that the morning shift was full, with nothing to, I headed back home and headed back down again around 4. I eventually got assigned to go work at a ticket booth selling tickets for water, soda, red bull, and ice cream along with tickets for beer (much more popular). The selling of tickets was not too exciting, but people kept buying in bursts. Over the night there were a few highlights. One less then sober individual gave me a 10$ tip (not that I was taking tips, but he wouldn't let me not take a tip). So I then proceeded to use that and others, to round out peoples money so they could get 3 tickets, rather then two.
There was a little girl that got a missile pop and proceeded to hold the Popsicle by the Popsicle switching off hands and when she'd switch, she'd wipe the off hand on her shirt and then switch back and wipe her other hand. She did this until she was showed how to hold it by the stick. I got to say that it was very cute.
About an hour and a half before the show was done, a guy came up and bought 100$ worth of tickets (30 beers). I was stunned, but who am I to say no?
At some point, we were told to just give away the frozen things (since they didn't want to have left overs). So the kids of some of the people helping at the booth (I think one was a principal at one of the local Des Moines schools), went out with boxes of ice cream sandwiches, lemon cups, etc, and would come back in 5-10 minutes with an empty box. It was pretty amazing.
While the volunteer thing worked, for the most part. I think most stations were covered. However, they needed to have things better organized on the front end. There was a lot of confusion about where to get the volunteer meals, where the assignments were (I would've taken the mini-map, X'ed where they were supposed to be for every person). When and were they made assignments. I showed up, they told me to wait, and then others showed up and they started sending them out to do things, so I got back in line and got assigned to do what I did. I would've made a clear distinction int he booths selling water, soda, red bull and the ones selling beer, and having the the wristbands entirely separate (some places they were, some, not so much). Maybe they didn't have enough people on the top end telling people what to do. They'll get better next year though.
So it sounds like it was a a success. 15,000 tickets Friday and Shannon said the news was estimating another 15,000 today, which probably more then paid for the $650,000 budget for the show (somewhere in the range of $750,000 - 1,050,000). I talked to one of the finance guys and apparently for their sponsorship, Olde Main Brewing Company donated the beer, and DMMC got to keep the profits. Which I applaud them for. And considering I personally stuffed an envelope 3 times with 3 inch or so stacks of twenties and one time when I was off eating another one there handed over a big stack, and we were just one of the many ticketing counters.
For Olde Main Brewing Company, I had, over the two days, tried all the beers that they served. The only one I didn't like was their light beer, which was a lot like bud light...and...well...I'm not a huge fan of bud light. But the rest were pretty good. I had already bought some of their Off Kilter Scottish Ale from Hy-Vee and gotten through most of the six pack.
So it sounds like it was a success. The weather was awesome (2nd day being hotter and a bit more humid then the first, but still fairly pleasant), and I hope it means they'll have one next year too. It's a great thing for Des Moines.