Crazy Iowa Weather

I have no excuse for the lapse in blogging. Remember how I mentioned in the last post that I was coming down with something? Well, between Tuesday and Saturday of last week I had a temperature fluctuating up to 102 followed by chills and a nasty cough (which is still hanging on). I spent a lot of time sleeping and being frustrated about sweating. But I'm through the worst of it--just a cough that won't go away.

Last weekend we headed to Northwood to see the folks and spend Memorial Day and Mom's birthday. Aside from being sick, it was a very pleasant weekend. Played Wii, went out to eat with the folks, rode Maggie, went flying (passed my biannual flight exam), went to a dance party, and hung out with family. Mom and Dad are building onto their house, so we checked out their hole in the back yard (and that's all it is at this point). But the weather was pretty nice and it was good to be on the farm with the fresh air enjoying spring.

Then the weather in Iowa got crazy. There was an F5 tornado that ripped through the town of Parkersburg last weekend. For those of you not familiar with Parkersburg, it's near Cedar Falls--we used to run district track there, though the high school was severely damaged in the storm. Most of the town was hit. Check out the link if you hadn't already heard about all the damage and small town resiliency.

It rained here in Ames this week, but I didn't think it was anything incredible. Yesterday, Ames was flooded. There's only two small(ish) creeks that run through town, but much of ISU campus and Duff (a major business/restaurant area) was closed at least part of the day. Rick got home just before Highway 30 was closed west of I-35. What a mess. Check out stories at the Des Moines Register or the Ames Tribune. KCCI has good pictures. We had no problems out here on the west side of town.

Today is nice and sunny--hopefully that will help the waters to recede. Going to a barbecue tonight and heading to hear some friends play in their jazz band here in town tomorrow afternoon. And reading and reading some more. Hope everyone has a great weekend!