Oh My Goodness

About 5 am a severe thunderstorm struck our area.  Alarms started going off everywhere, my police units couldn’t see in front of them to drive, I had guards out trying to find cover, we lost power and county set off their sirens without notifying us.  What a mess.

I know I did several things wrong during this massive incident but am not sure what all it is.  I will let my replacement know and she can evaluate the calls and let me know what I need to do differently next time.  This was my first major weather incident since working here so it was crazy.  I relied heavily on my Lieutenant to know what to do and pretty much followed what he said.  Hopefully that was correct.

I hope my replacement comes in early enough to discuss it because I can’t stay late when I have to be back in at 3pm.  She doesn’t have a trainee today but I bet it is still a hopping day for her with continued problems due to the storm.

Yes, it was crazy and I was a bit under pressure - but overall, I had a good time with the emergency.  I work well under pressure as a rule and even better when the pressure is weather related because I love natural disasters…not what they do to people but the awesome force they wield.

Hills had straight line winds which caused a lot of damage from what the county is saying over the radios.  No one was  hurt though so that is always good! Whew, glad it is over now and I can go home shortly!

Deforestation of Brazil

According to May figures, deforestation in the Amazon of Brazil has seen a slight decrease over the month of April.  The government places the slow down on the boom of other agribusiness such as soybeans, beef and sugar.  Brazil desires to position itself as an agriculture powerhouse capable of solving not only the food crisis but the energy crisis as well through the production of different crops.  So much so that he has made no qualms about the crops being more important to the government then the deforestation of the Amazon.

However, the point here is that the deforestation did decrease in May.  So what are the figures, you may ask?  In May, roughly 420 miles of the forest disappeared due to logging…for perspective, that is slightly smaller then the city of Los Angeles.  That is only slightly less then  in April which saw roughly 433 miles deforested.

I find this rate of deforestation extremely alarming.  The Amazon happens to be the world’s most diverse biospere with 1 in 10 known species can be found in this tract.  That is 1 in 10 known species of plants, animals and reptiles.

Wikipedia reports that: The region is home to about 2.5 million insect species, tens of thousands of plants, and some 2000 birds and mammals. To date, at least 40,000 plant species, 3,000 fish, 1,294 birds, 427 mammals, 428 amphibians, and 378 reptiles have been scientifically classified in the region. Scientists have described between 96,660 and 128,843 invertebrate species in Brazil alone.

Between 1991 and 2000, the total area of forest lost in the Amazon rose from 415,000 to 587,000 km², an area more than six times the size of Portugal, with most of the lost forest becoming pasture for cattle. In February, 2008, the Brazilian government announced that the rate at which the Amazon rainforest is being cut down has increased significantly over the past few months. During the last five months of 2007, more than 3,200 sq. kilometers (an area equivalent to the size of the state of Rhode Island) was deforested during a time when deforestation would normally drop.

People, I could go on for quite awhile about how important the rainforest’s around the world are and how, once again, we are hell bent on destroying our environment but if you are reading my blog it means you have access to the information for yourself.  It is just so disheartening to me how we abuse our environment and our Mother Earth.

Assisted Colonization

Well, we knew it would all come down to this eventually. Afterall, we humans are the smartest of all God’s creatures and thus, colonizing the animal world in our own way should be how it was meant to be right?

Not only should we colonize the creatures how we see fit, we should also decide in an animal kingdom triage sort of way, what species we should let become extinct in favor of keeping other species around in this world of shortening animal habitats. Doesn’t that seem normal to everyone?

Scientists have advised that the species of Sky Island in Arizona is basically “toast” because they don’t know where they would move them so might as well let them go extinct. Who needs them anyway?

“When deciding which species to save and which to watch die, Root said one key is uniqueness. That’s why she said she’d save the odd-looking Tuatara of New Zealand, a lizard-like creature with almost no living relatives, over the common sparrow.”

“The risk of extinction has to be balanced by the potential hazard to the community where a species is relocated as well as the time and cost of making the move, Parmesan says.”

“Ultimately, the decision about whether to actively assist the movement of a species into new territories will rest on ethical and aesthetic grounds as much as on hard science,” she said in a statement.

“Passively assisting coral reef migration may be acceptable, but transplanting polar bears to Antarctica, where they would likely drive native penguins to extinction, would not be acceptable,” she said.

“Conservation has never been an exact science, but preserving biodiversity in the face of climate change is likely to require a fundamental rethinking of what it means to preserve biodiversity,” Parmesan said.

Wow, doesn’t it just make you proud to be a human? And, by the way, whose to say penguins are more unique then the polar bears? I think that is subjective and totally unfair. Let’s relocate the penguins to Alaska or Canada - let the bears have the Antarctica.

Somewhere I’m sure someone has a nice little chart with nice little diagrams of how every thing would benefit if we took over nature. Let’s make the world one big zoo. Does it irk anyone else as much as it does me??

I understand that some species are endanger of becoming extinct but is moving species around a good idea? Shouldn’t we let Mother Nature handle, well, Mother Nature? Have we done much good when we have “accidentally” relocated things in the past? Fire ants spring to mind - they came over from Africa or some such place - now look at how they’ve become an epidemic in the south.

Pretty soon I won’t have to watch the Sci-Fi channel to get my “b” movie horror fix - the reality of what we’ve done to our world will far out due what they can come up with on TV.

If Wishes Were Horses…

My grandmother use to tell me “if wishes were horses, we all could ride” - an old saying that, I suppose, had a much deeper meaning back in the days of horse and buggy.  Yes, she lived through those days!

As I wrote in another post, I’ve been begging God to free me of the normal work week - to let me make a living writing instead of toiling away at an 8 hr shift day like the rest of the world.  So far, he has not answered me.

I don’t think I’m special - I know that most people live in quiet hatred of their jobs and would gladly tell their boss to “take this job and shove it” if only they could.  Lately, I’ve been craving that cabin in the mountains away from civilization and all the messes civilized people bring to each day.  I know that if something happened that my son would move with me, I’d be packing up to go now.  OK, I’m not even unpacked from my move up from Florida so I could be ready, set to go in a matter of hours.

If I won the lotto, buying a cabin in Montana would be on my list of first top five things to do when the money hit my bank account.  I’d call a realitor and tell them to find me my dream cabin NOW.  It would be awesome.  Of course, I’d also be buying a nice beach house in Oregon or Washington just to even things out a bit.

Of course, one would have to play the lotto to actually win…though I think I have a better chance if someone else buys me a ticket…preferably someone with really good luck.

Man, these people are really, really, really driving me nuts! They keep going out in unsafe zones making our officers go out after them.  It is very much a safety hazard and I hope the officer’s get sick enough of it that they start citing people because this is just ridiculous.  What part of a barricade don’t you understand? Do you think it is just an obstacle course we put up to inconvenience you?? I want to slap them silly.

Only 4 1/2 hours to go……sounds like forever.  Just had a person stop in wanting several wrist bands.  She seemed irate when I looked confused.  What are we doing wrist bands for?? I asked.  Well, it seems someone came up with this grand idea of doing different color wrist bands for different levels of security in different “closed” buildings around campus.  She needed green and pink ones for her staff.

Luckily the LT knew about it and sent me in the right direction to get her what she needed.  She certainly wasn’t overly nice about it but I suppose this flooding is wearing on everyone’s nerves.

Headache City

I have to say, I’m becoming a full time resident of Headache City.  I have units running all over the place - trying to keep up with them all is making me a bit nuts.  Everyone wants this door or that door unlocked, plus have car accidents, people going around barricades, general disorderly conduct, and absolute chaos.  Ok, not as bad of chaos as when things were more flooded…but then there were two of us working, not just one. Of course, I know part of it is just that it is my first day by myself and so I’m more nervous too.

I took 3 Tylenol Rapid Release a minute ago - sure hope that helps soon.  There still are no cameras working along the river which is rather disappointing but oh well.  I would rather like to see what is going on over there.

I feel like I should say more about life in general but hey, I can’t concentrate on that right now when I have seven people out on various calls.  I have some work to do right now so I’m going to get to it.  I will try to write at least one, if not two or three, more posts today.

Really?

Today, while visiting my sister at Casey’s, I was floored at how many people came in to ask her questions about roads that were opened or closed - and then not believing her answers.  They ask her for directions, she tells them and they ask “isn’t there another way?” and I want to say “Yes, but we just want the laugh of knowing you are taking the long route.”  What do they think? Drives me nuts.  Had one guy argue for a good fifteen minutes - wanting to know if the roads that were closed, were they really closed? No, dude, we just blocked them off for the fun of it.  People are stupid.

The weather people are saying the river is cresting so should start going down again.  It remains to be seen how much damage is done - but the count for Cedar Rapids alone is over 700 million dollars.  Iowa City/Coralville will be close to that as well.  Hard to say what condition the roads will be in when the water finally does recede.

To say this is a disaster of epic proportions is an understatement at best.  Never in recorded history has the Iowa River risen to these levels.  Of course, someday it will rise even higher and today’s disaster will seem like a cake walk. As my son said, we are looking at, walking around, and experiencing history in the making.

On another front, I’m told I’m out of training but I won’t believe it until I get a schedule showing me on my own.  You know what? I don’t even care.  I have decided to leave this job as soon as I can - try to get back into secretarial work rather then 911 stuff.  I’m just tired of all the chaos - want to work with exacts like charts in Excel and routine things like typing correspondence and doing payroll…stuff that does not involve life and death.

Today I had the urge to move to Montana.  I know, MONTANA, where it is cold and snows eight months out of the year.  But it is beautiful there and I feel like I need some of that rugged beauty in my life.  I’m on the edge of an precipice - I need to make some changes in my life soon or the time will pass and my chances will be done.  In the movie “Hope Floats” the mother tells her daughter that it is the worse kind of extravagance the way she wastes away her chances at happiness.  Well, I need to stop wasting mine and get myself where I need to be both mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally.

Couple Divorced 10 Years Without Their Knowledge

Ok, these inlaws in India were rather ingenious in their attempt to get rid of their new sister-in-law.  Apparently, the brother of the groom was a lawyer and forged divorce documents for his brother because he didn’t like his sister-in-law. 

The groom’s family has violent tendancies and when the bride went to file a lawsuit against her inlaws for abuse, she was told that they were no longer her inlaws and hadn’t been for 10 years.  The couple will be rectifying the problem of the forged divorce as they claim to be quite happily married.

I guess it is good that they are happily married because otherwise she wouldn’t get any of their accumulated wealth for the past ten years.

In other news - Beijing is putting together an official “chant” for their citizen’s to chant at the Olympic games.  Guess they don’t want them coming up with something on their own that might embarrass the country.  I can think of a few chants Americans would come up with that would be less then dignified.

In Texas a woman won a $10,000 prize at a minor league baseball game.  She hopes she isn’t going to need to cash it in soon though as the prize is a prepaid funeral.  Guess she can die now knowing she is going to have one heck of an all expense paid funeral.  Think I’d rather win a cruise.

Iowa City is bracing for flooding that may or may not happen.  The city is also providing sand and bags for people who want to beat the rush and get their sandbags together now.  The University is already starting to sandbag Mayflower Dorm in hopes that, should it flood, they don’t have the extensive damage they had in 1993.  Residents were moved to other dorms last night.

According to the Corp of Engineers, there shouldn’t be a big worry about flooding unless it keeps raining…and raining…and raining.  Oops, what is in our forecast today? Rain? But of course.  I personally don’t think there is anything to worry about but then again, I work on top of a hill and currently reside in a small town far from the river.  I wonder how well the bridges would hold up if we did get the flood waters like those of 1993.  The bridges are all 14 years older now…   If I move to Coralville next month and the water is really high against the bridges, I wonder if claiming to be afraid to cross them to get to work would be a good excuse for missing a few days? Um…probably not.

Wastewater Dumping In Atlantic

This story showed up on the internet today. Apparently three counties in Florida (Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties) have been dumping 300 million gallons of wastewater into the Atlantic DAILY since the 1940’s. Their pipes go out several miles before the dump occurs because, experts say, the ocean dissipates the waste so there is no environmental impact.

Let me quote: “State officials have argued for years that the waste dissipates at sea and causes little or no near-shore pollution because it is quickly carried north in the Gulfstream current. “The human health risks are low because of the dilution involved, and the outfall discharges are disinfected,” said Llewellyn.”

Um, how would you like to live North of Florida along that Gulfstream current? What’s that you say? “To be sure, waste-water sewage outfall pipes are not unique to Florida. Southern California, which also relies on them, is among areas where officials have been accused of treating the ocean like a giant toilet.” OHMYGOD, California does it too?

What the hell is wrong with people? We’d rather ruin our oceans then pay the money it takes to update, and keep updated, our wastewater plants? Give me a break already! We spend fistfulls of money on shit (pardon the pun) that we don’t need but just have to have - yet we are too constipated to spend it on saving our environment?

I’m sorry, this whole thing outrages me. I wrote letters back a few years ago when Florida decided to dump shiploads of nitrates into the Gulf…did it do any good? Probably not but collectively, many citizens working together, got the EPA to not approve new permits requesting to do the same thing. Who knew it was just a drop in the bucket compared to what these counties are dumping EVERY DAY. Ugh, makes me sick. I think we should make the people who agree to doing this kind of thing, drink the polluted water for a year…see if it really doesn’t harm people. Where are the scientific research results on how this practice of dumping raw sewage doesn’t hurt anyone or anything? They don’t have any because they are just blindly saying it doesn’t and hope that no one will call them on the mat about it.

“Marine scientists, however, say the minimally treated effluent is potentially harmful to humans, especially small children, the elderly and anyone with a weakened immune system. They also argue that it is hurting coastal ecosystems since it contains high levels of nitrogen, ammonia and other contaminants associated with the algae blooms that periodically suffocate coral reefs.

“The state has been reluctant to admit that these discharges are affecting the reefs,” said Peter Barile, a scientist at Marine Research and Consulting of Melbourne, Florida. “We’ve had very, very strong evidence but, amazingly, a reluctance by the state to admit this,” he said.”

What do you say we all send Janet Llewellyn, head of water resource management at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, some hate mail??

Dog Rescue

It is a beautiful 57 degrees here in IC and the sun is really shining! So inspiring was the warmth that we decided to take our three dogs on a nice walk. Each dog had a separate leash and separate handler so we could all enjoy the nice day without worrying about the dogs getting tangled.

It is muddy out but we found our way over to the nature trail that is not far from my son’s apartment. My son and his girlfriend let their dogs go once they are away from traffic - I can’t do that with Baxter because he keeps won’t listen to voice commands.

Our path took us around a pond whose surface ice has started to melt due to the warm day. Baxter loves the water but it was Rocco who decided he wanted to try his hand at ice skating. Unfortunately, the ice wasn’t strong enough around the edges to hold his weight. He started falling through and rather then head back to the shore where we were all screaming his name, he took off for stronger ice.

Still, he found patches that weren’t that strong and repeatedly fell through. My son got as close to the edge as he could and gently called Rocco over. Rocco, soaking and tired, came over but while he was still out of reach, he fell through the ice again.

This time there was no coming up for Rocco. His nose came up briefly then he sunk down beneath the ice. We were all screaming by then. My son, not about to lose his beloved dog, kicked off his shoes and literally jumped out to where Rocco had last been seen. He didn’t have to reach far under to find the dog and pull him up. The water wasn’t deeper then my son was tall so he wasn’t in any immediate danger of drowning - though believe me, my heart skipped a few beats. My son managed to grab Rocco around the upper body and pull him to the side of the pond.

My son was soaked from the arm pits down so we ended our short nature walk and headed back home so he could change into dry clothes. Rocco was cold but warmed up on the way back - he seems fine now. My child will probably be alright too, though he was sniffling a lot as he changed clothes.

Let me just say…it was scary as hell and I don’t ever want to see that happen again. I’m glad my son saved his dog - he would have been devastated if Rocco had drowned - and that my story has a happy ending. My son’s cell phone might be history but hey, small price to pay…you know?

Merry Christmas, Mom

“Merry Christmas, Mom” is a phrase I haven’t been able to say to my mother for over a decade. You’d be surprised how such simple things like that can elicit such strong emotions. It’s Christmas time and I wish I had the opportunity to talk to Mom just one more time. But the sands in the hourglass have shifted closing that chapter of my life forever.

I have some bad memories of my childhood, yes, but they seem to have faded into the archive vault in my head - no longer able to hurt me.

Most of my memories now are from the more fun things we’d do - like UFO watching. If you haven’t read “Advantages of…”’s post “Midnight” from 6/28/06, about our UFO adventures, I highly recommend it. You can find a link to his site under “blogroll” on the right of the screen.

I remember searching the paper for disasters - pretty much any kind as long as it was on a grand scale. Finding one for Mom to read to me was a real treat. Yes, I know how that sounds but Mom like disasters and her reading them or telling me about them was one of the few moments we felt really connected.

I’d ask questions about why earthquakes, avalanches, mud slides, etc., happened and she’d tell me to look it up in the encyclopedias we had. If I needed more information, the school library was also an excellent resource. Thus my love of research was born - I loved finding answers to all my questions.

I miss how Mom would laugh - always with her hand covering her mouth as if she was afraid it might explode from her uncontrollably. The real reason, of course, was her embarrassment over the way her teeth looked but we never cared.

I remember nights of cowering on the couch together as we watched another terrifying episode of “Creature Feature” or “Twilight Zone.”

We’d also be found on the couch when episodes of National Geographic would come on about Jacques Cousteu or the great mysteries of the world. Mom and I would try to figure out what great scientists couldn’t - like the theory of Atlantis, the disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle, and how the stones came to be at Easter Island. Of course, the more outlandish the reasoning, the more fun it was.

We’d look at travel books - marveling at the majestic mountains, the Painted Desert, the Grand Canyon and the clear blueness of the oceans. We’d talk about how “someday” we’d see it all.

Of course I could go on and on. Her love of reading and writing inspired the same in her children. She also enjoyed drawing along with an artist on TV and even took a few art classes. She was good though she didn’t think so. That trait was not something, unfortunately, that was passed on to me though I try my hand at it every now and then - trying to will the creative juices within to flow onto the canvas. It never works.

For those of you who really know me, reading this post will make you smile. You’ll realize why I love to go out at night with my telescope to gaze at the stars, why I’m fascinated by the cause of disasters, and a whole slew of other “strange” interests I have…like scary movies.

I am a combobulation of my past - a dim reflection of all the good things my Mom shared with me. We are all, whether we like it or not, a shadow of our mothers to some degree.

I wish I could tell my Mom one more time how much she meant to me and how much I still miss her after all these years. “Merry Christmas, Mom.”