One hell of a weather season

After the devastating flood of the Cedar River here last June, from which we are only now beginning to recover and rebuild, I am horrified to to see that Hurricane Gustav seems to be heading straight for the Gulf coast. Please God, not again. I hope and pray that Gustav will veer off course or by some miracle weaken or pass over this devastated region quickly and thus deliver only a glancing blow. Sometimes all our prayers can't alter the course of nature. In that case it is our duty to do all we can for the victims of unavoidable disaster, as I hope you have done for my city of Cedar Rapids. And as I will do if the unthinkable happens again to the Gulf Coast.

For now, good night.

The face of a professional clown

Have you ever met someone who seems to have been born to be a professional clown? I did, just recently in fact. This woman has a face perfectly suited to that profession. Her eyelids turn down at the outer corners. As a result, she looks as if she's ready to burst into tears, which coupled with a gentle but perpetual frown, only serves to strengthen the impression. Even when she smiles or laughs, which she seldom does, she looks as if she's about to cry. I can easily imagine her wearing that clown makeup: the exaggerated smile, the painted tear drops rolling down her cheeks. The old cliche says that clowns are laughing on the outside and crying on the inside. She seems to fit that old saw perfectly.

In no way is this meant as a criticism of this person who has been very nice to me. Rather it's to point out that I'm endlessly fascinated by people, and she is an interesting person I've met recently. I'm looking forward to getting to know her better and learning why she seems so sad. Or maybe she's not, and I'm totally misreading things. We'll see.

For now, good night.

My beloved library

At the risk of this becoming a blog about nothing but the 2008 Cedar Rapids flood, I really need to alert you to the link I've added to the Cedar Rapids Public Library. When I clicked the link I was filled with hope but also sadness. Hope because the library obviously plans to come back better than ever and provides a secure link to donate to their foundation, as well as a promise to provide a link in the future to donate books online.

Sadness because I clicked on the photos link and was taken on a tour of what this flood did to my library. It was gut wrenching to click on the first photo and see my library underwater and then to click through the rest of the photo tour. I saw empty spaces that were once filled with books, magazines and newspapers, CDs and DVDs, computers, and comfortable chairs. I've said it before, but it bears repeating. It breaks my heart. Nevertheless, I encourage you to take the photo tour. You'll see what my library has become: a shell of its former self. Maybe it will even move you to donate to the library foundation or to donate books when that comes online.

Now the question becomes, where should the new and improved library be located? The current site is just across the street from the Cedar River. There is no guarantee that this disaster won't recur next year or the year after. On the other hand, I've lived in this area for over 30 years; and nothing even close to this has ever happened. I love the downtown library location and its proximity to some low income neighborhoods. This is sure to be one contentious issue among a multitude facing my city in the future.

I'll keep you posted, but for now good night.

TV coverage of the Cedar Rapids flood of 2008

The flood of 2008 devastated my city, my friends' homes, my hospital, my downtown, my public library, even my favorite place to go out for breakfast on Sunday mornings after church. During the flood and into the aftermath one of our local television stations, KCRG, was on the air nearly 24 hours a day without commercial interruption providing news. Things have returned to at least subnormal as opposed to disastrous, but they continue to report on the continuing issues of recovery and rebuilding.

That's why I've added the link to kcrg.com/floodwatch to my blog. The site is a bit busy, but read carefully and you'll find links to photos, videos and stories of what this flood wrought. If you weren't here or just have an urge, as I do, to not relive this catastrophe (God forbid) but to review it, the site is a wonderful resource.

That's enough for the moment so for now good night.

29,000 books

My public library has lost its entire adult collection of 29,000 books to the great Cedar Rapids flood of 2008, and there is a question of whether the children's collection is salvageable. Take a moment to think about that. 29,000 books destroyed, the library contaminated; and nothing I can do to help at least for now.

It breaks my heart. Like all professionals, I'm sure the librarians and other staff felt a sense of ownership about their space. I can't imagine what they're going through. Looking at my own modest library I try to imagine what it would be like if a flood destroyed them all. There are books I've had since young adulthood, books my mom left me after she died, books I've bought and cherished since. I've read them all and many of them multiple times. To lose them all to a flood? Unthinkable. As a friend said to me tonight about his personal library, he'd be sobbing. So would I. My books are like old friends looking back at me from the shelves. They are a comfort in difficult times and therefore irreplaceable.

For now, good night.

Flood of 2008 Part III

So ... I went home and fell into bed about 6:00 AM, dead to the world, after setting the alarm for 11:00 in case they needed me that evening. In fact, I slept so deeply that it wasn't until after the alarm went off that I discovered a message on voice mail telling me that no one would be working on Friday or through the weekend. I never heard the phone ring.

The following days became a concern financially. I work the evening shift, and we weren't needed in the clean up effort at Mercy. I am not a morning person. My usual bedtime is well after midnight, and I haul my butt out of bed around 10:00 AM. I am also slow to wake up and so enjoy drinking coffee and reading the newspaper and checking my email before leaving for work shortly after 2:00 PM, by which time I'm finally fully awake.

The problem was that I wasn't heading to work. I was sitting at home feeling useless. Because of my uncertain work schedule - I never knew when they'd need me to come back on evenings - I didn't feel able to volunteer and make a commitment I might not be able to meet. So the next time I talked to my nurse manager I volunteered to work a day shift to get our unit ready to accept patients again. Then for the next two days Mercy offered a series of educational sessions across the street at a middle school which kindly allowed us to use their facilities. I was able to renew my CPR certification and attended a myriad of inservices that were for the most part very useful. Of course, both sessions were on the day shift. Grr. My unit reopened on Monday 6/30/08. We had one patient who had put off his elective surgery until our unit reopened. An old friend, he told me he wouldn't have it done anywhere but Mercy. We now have 15 or 16 patients, still far below our usual patient census; but it's a start.

More generally, the flood waters have receded which leads me to a rant. I find it somewhat aggravating that because the Cedar River is now below flood stage we've fallen off the national news media radar. If you haven't been following this story on www.gazetteonline.com or on one of the local tv stations web sites you might think everything is hunky dory here in Cedar Rapids. It most definitely is not. Downtown is filthy, as are the surrounding neighborhoods. Trash is everywhere, waiting to be hauled away. As has been said many times at my church, this is not a sprint. It's a marathon. My efforts and those of hundreds of others at Mercy and elsewhere throughout the city were only the starting gun.

We are now in clean up and recovery mode. My beloved public library and the rest of downtown probably won't be able to achieve the "new normal" for at least a year. Homeowners and residents in the 100 and even the 500 year flood plains
are anxiously waiting for word on when or if they will be allowed to rebuild their homes. They are living in limbo. The word here is that all the homes in the 100 year flood plain will be demolished which would mean a FEMA buyout, but that could take up to 2 years. Meanwhile those in the 500 year flood plain deal with even more uncertainty. My friend whose home was flooded up to the rafters lives on the edge of of the 500 year flood plain. She was allowed by the city to go in and clean. Her house is now gutted to the studs and the sub flooring. There it sits while she waits for the gears of government to grind oh slowly.

Next comes the rebuilding mode. Truthfully, I hope and pray that our city council, mayor, and city manager are looking that far ahead in this marathon; but for most of us it's a matter of what we can do right now. I have contributed to legitimate charities and encourage you to do the same. I have provided food to a local program feeding the hungry and volunteer there as well. I made a promise to my friend whose home was flooded to help with painting once she is finally allowed to rebuild. Yet it still doesn't seem like enough.

I'll write new posts as things progress, but for now good night.

Flood of 2008 continued

The flood of 2008 is so truly monumental for my adopted home town of Cedar Rapids that this city will be forever remembered by those who lived through it as a before and after image. It is so overwhelming that for now all I can do is provide a brief overview interwoven with my own small part in it. Also know that the past three weeks have become a blur, so some things to follow may not be exact.

On 6/12/08 I went to work at my hospital at 1:00 PM. It was raining, hard. The news was that the Cedar River was expected to crest at 25 feet, above flood stage but within the limits the levees were able to handle. But it kept raining and raining some more. Then came news that the gauge measuring the river level had been disabled by the increasingly swift current. By around 4:30 the ambulance garage next to the emergency room was flooded. Looking out the windows of my unit where we were doing patient care as usual I could see about 50 people vainly trying to hold the flood waters at bay with sand bags. At that point things ground to a halt.

We still cared for our patients, but there was a sense that things were not going well. About 5:30 an administrator came to our floor and told us to get everything together we needed to care for our patients during an evacuation whether it be medications, IV fluids, bandages, or things too numerous to name. That took about an hour. Then came a long wait. During that time I was asked to run a list of all our patients down to the evacuation command center. After doing that I took a moment to peek out our main entrance where the windows are two stories tall. I was greeted by this sight. Hundreds of people, young and old, were standing in waist deep water outside piling sand bags against the windows while many more were stacking sand bags inside to protect against the onrushing flood. I felt the urge to go help them, but I had things that needed to be done on my unit so I returned. By that time the elevators had flooded, so I climbed the 80 stairs back home.

Then came an even longer wait. While still doing patient care and taking care of things at the nurses' station, it wasn't until about midnight that we were told to get ready to evacuate our patients: prioritizing which ones should be evacuated first, placing wheel chairs outside the rooms of patients who would need them, and most importantly, calmly telling the patients that we might have to evacuate.

Finally at around 3:30 AM came the call that there was a fear that a levee would break and that the flood would overwhelm the emergency generator. We were told to evacuate all our patients immediately. By that time, they had managed to get one elevator out of nine working so immediately became an agonizingly slow process. We lined the patients up in the hallway, the majority in wheel chairs but the most critical still in bed. It took an hour to get them all on the elevators and down to the first floor and another hour to get them half way to the exit, where buses, Humvee ambulances, and regular ambulances from as far away as Illinois were waiting. By that time I had been there well over 16 hours, a double shift. I would have tripled if they let me, but legally they couldn't of course. I protested that I was tired but okay, but after 16 hours I was running on adrenaline as anyone would be. I had to go home.

It's a matter of personal pride that as I left, I heard a chorus of thank you's which started with my nurse manager and continued down the line of my coworkers. But truly, I want to and have thanked not only the people on my unit but my colleagues throughout the hospital. Just as one example, a friend's house was flooded up to the rafters. She evacuated but came to work anyway. When I asked her why she said she had to come. She would rather be helping people than sitting at her in-law's obsessing about her house. Just as importantly, it would have been easy to panic in this crisis, but nobody did. Everyone stayed calm and in the process helped our patients stay calm as well. I am so proud of the way my hospital and everyone who was there that night responded to this disaster. I've always been somewhat cynical about advertising, but in this case it truly was the "Mercy touch."

Writing this is both therapeutic and exhausting. There's much more to tell, but at this point exhaustion has taken over. For now, good night.

Flood of 2008

After 10 days of keeping family and friends updated on the flood and the sure to be long cleanup and recovery process, I am spent. I have worked only one day since that fateful night of 6/12 through the day of 6/13/08. Although fiances are a worry, I know several people who lost everything. Homes, pets, cars, jobs: all are gone. I am one of the fortunate ones. My home is high and dry. For the time being, that is more than enough. If you can afford it, I encourage you to donate to the Red Cross, The Salvation Army, or any charity your church, synagogue, or mosque might recommend. All have been doing a superb job of helping in my city, and all will need more resources as this disaster flows downstream along the Mississippi River.

I promise a more complete entry once I'm finally able to process all this. For now, good night.

Politics

I had vowed never to write anything about politics here, but as the long Democratic nominating process is drawing to a close I have to write this. I am a lifelong Democrat and have never voted for a Republican for President, not out of blind loyalty but because I believe the Democratic party has charted the best way forward for our country. Thus I will be voting for Obama or Clinton, whoever is the nominee, in November.

On the other hand, should McCain be elected, I think I will at least be freed from the eternal campaigning which shoved crap in my mouth and tried to convince me I should not only swallow it but like it or be declared an enemy of my country. To hell with that. McCain will at least be honest with us.

Still, I urge you to vote Democratic in November.

For now, good night.

Honor Flight

As you may have noticed, I've added a link to www.honorflight.org over on the right. It comes courtesy of my friend Wayne in the VBOB group. Wayne recently returned from an all expenses paid trip to see the WWII Memorial in Washington D.C. It was paid for by Honor Flight; and Wayne, in his email to me, was prolific in his praise of them as well as the memorial. I am eagerly looking forward to our next meeting so that I can hear all about it as well as engage in the give and take that is so essential among friends.

Folks, we owe these vets a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid; and by some estimates they are dying at a rate of 900 per day. Honor Flight is aptly named. They are doing what they can to honor them for their service. I urge you to click on the link if you have a relative however far removed who would like to see the memorial. The WWII Memorial also has a website at www.wwiimemorial.com It's very much worth checking out. You won't be disappointed.

For now, good night.

Teaching history

I have fond memories of the advanced placement history course I took in high school, not least because I earned 4 college credit hours by taking the AP history test. Beyond that, the class taught me to think critically and thus to write well. This blog at http://civilwarmemory.typepad.com details the struggles, triumphs, and research of a high school history teacher. I read it regularly and urge you to do the same.
For now, good night.

VBOB

Went to the Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge meeting here in Iowa last week. It was really kind of sad. There were about a half dozen vets there. The rest of the group consisted of wives and what one vet described as second generation members which numbered all of three, one of whom lives in Wisconsin. At the end of the meeting that same vet told my buddy Doug and I that everyone in the group, including us, needed to attract more second and third generation members so that the group doesn't die as the members become unable to attend for whatever reason. So this is a general shout out. Do you know anyone here in Iowa who fought in the Battle of the Bulge or whose parent or grandparent did? If so, I hope you'll respond here; and I'll get back to you.

My friend Wayne was unable to attend, but I forgive him . Thanks to www.honorflight.org he was on an all expenses paid flight to Washington D.C. to see the WWII memorial. I've added Honor Flight to my blog roll. Very much worth a look.

Again, do you know anyone in Iowa who might be interested in joining a VBOB group? If so, please post here. I promise to follow up.

For now, good night.
John

Blog roll

As you may have noticed, that is if anyone is actually reading this, I've added a couple of blogs over on the right side of my blog. The first, "somewhere on the masthead" comes to us from Magazine Man. I've been reading his blog for a couple of years now. He is consistently funny and often thought provoking. I would be a happy man if I could write half as well as he does.

The second comes from "disappearing john" who works as a Registered Nurse in an emergency room. If you want to learn about what it's like to work in health care, John's blog is a good start. He also provide links to many other good nursing blogs. Check it out.

Finally ... oh geez I really need to work on not making my writing sound like a term paper ... I thought I'd clue you in to how my fascination with history began.

My parents always encouraged me to read, but until 6th grade it was mostly fiction. Then Mrs. Halleck, my 6th grade social studies teacher, gave us an assignment to debate who was the better general: Grant or Lee?That sent me straight to the library, and there I discovered the joy of reading and researching history. My opponent's thesis was that Grant was a drunk. My response was that there is some question about that, but the bottom line was, who won the war?
A bit simplistic? Sure, but that's the way an 11 year old mind works. That spark, lit by Mrs. Halleck grew to an unquenchable fire; and the only way to keep the fire in check was to read all the history I could get my hands on. That quest continues to this day. So God bless you Mrs. Halleck. I am forever in your debt.

Enough for now. Good Night.

Addendum: In a shameless bit of self promotion I've added a link to my personal web page dedicated to the veterans of the Battle of the Bulge. I started it about four years ago when a good friend took me to a Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge (VBOB) meeting. His dad fought in that WWII battle, the largest ever fought by U.S. land forces, and regaled his son with more stories of that horrible but necessary war than a still maturing boy should probably hear.

On the other hand, my dad fought in the Pacific navy aboard the USS San Francisco but refused to say anything else about it. My friend knew that I was eager to meet some vets, not out of any morbid desire to hear about death, maiming, and other carnage; but rather out of the need to hear their experiences and how they affected them, something my dad never talked about.

That first meeting was a revelation. My dad died before he was 50. I only wish he had lived long enough to tell his stories in the same calm tone as the vets I met that day. I'm proud to count a few of them as friends, and I encourage you to visit the site. For now, good night.

Understaffed and overworked

There's an old joke about a nurse who is retiring. "What?", she's asked. "Are yo tired of doing the job of two people?"

It doesn't seem so funny to me now. My unit is now so understaffed that we have only 45% of the nurses, techs, and unit secretaries required to properly care for our average daily census of 21 patients. We have been averaging 25-30 patients. As a result, the entire staff has been working both voluntary and mandatory overtime. There's been a lot of discussion on the web about nursing unions, notably at http://disappearingjohn.blogspot.com, but I feel sure that if my hospital were unionized this problem would not be occurring. Not all nursing staff are so fortunate as to have an administration who truly care about them as John seems to. The rest of us are left at the mercy of hospitals who care more about the almighty dollar, whether they be for profit or not for profit, than they do about patient safety or staff recruitment and retention. That's enough. For now, good night.

Cabin fever

This is an oh so tired subject, but this has been the snowiest and coldest winter here in over a decade. I have cabin fever!

I want the spring rains to come and to splash in the puddles like I did when I was a kid. I want to feel the warm sun on my face as the grass turns green, the trees leaf out, and the flowers bloom. I want to bask in the sunshine, go swimming outside, and fish on the river bank. I want to get outside!

I enjoy the change of seasons, but enough is enough.

For now, good night.

VBOB meeting

Christmas is past, and my writer's block is finally gone. So here are my impressions from the last Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge meeting that my buddy Doug and I attended last month.

First, in answer to my question about the value they placed on tactics as opposed to strategy, the vast majority of the vets I talked to responded in the following vein. They weren't concerned about the big picture. Mostly what they cared about was themselves, their fox hole buddy, and their unit. Sound tactics kept them safe, or at least as safe as it's possible to be in the midst of a battle. It was only when they went on leave or after the war that they learned of and criticized the grand strategy. I have learned from these vets and my reading that soldiers complain. They always have, and they always will at least among themselves. They feel it's their right, earned by dint of their submission to discipline and hardship that is absent from civilian life. I couldn't agree more.

Second, the speaker was a copilot on a bombing run who was shot down and taken prisoner by the Germans. He was excellent and was the third speaker we've had who was a POW, one from the Pacific and two from Europe. Their stories were all different. Yet they contained common elements. To paraphrase a short essay by Bill Hall, an ex-POW in Europe:

"The POW experiences hunger, cold (or heat), fear, anger and deep depression that the rest of us can never imagine."

The ex-POW can show you a loaf of bread made mostly from sawdust which at times was his only sustenance, and you are horrified as I was when my friend showed me one that he brought home from the war. But you and I can never really understand what the POW's went through. We weren't there, and thank God for that.

Finally, the members of the group voted to cut the number of meetings per year from four to two. I understand their reasons, but it still makes me sad. I enjoy these meetings immensely. They're not all about sad stories. They're also about seeing these people who have become friends, good conversation, and laughter. Sorry to end on such a sad note, but that's all there is to say. Good night.

Merry Christmas!

I've finally gotten over my writer's block, and I wanted to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very merry Christmas as in celebrating the birth of Christ. Yes, I am a Christian and humbled to be one by the grace of God. What I am not is a fundamentalist or even a conservative. In fact I am a liberal. While I can't quote chapter and verse, I can quote a couple of my favorite Bible passages from the New Testament as attributed to Christ.

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

"As you do to the least of these, so you do to me."

What better expression of the liberal philosophy could you find? I have no intention of starting a political or theological argument here. This is simply my belief and my faith that compel me to follow, as best as I am able, in the footsteps of Jesus. That is one thing that I think all Christians, regardless of their political leanings, can agree on.

Again, I wish you all a blessed and merry Christmas. For now, good night.

Writer's block

Well, this is new. I seem to suffering from writer's block except in responding to writing that touches me personally. I know what I want to write here. I just can't think how to write it. Want to see more of my writing? Post a comment that will compel me to respond. Otherwise I'll be back when I get over this frustrating malady.

Good night.

VBOB upcoming

The next VBOB meeting is this coming Tuesday. I'm looking forward to it, as always, with a sense of anticipation. The subject of the meeting is always a mystery until I get in the car with my buddy Doug. We spend the trip down speculating on how good the speaker will be, which of our old friends (both literally and figuratively) will be there, what we'll have for lunch, and how many books we'd buy at the excellent Borders book store if we could afford it. We also talk at length about work and about our mutual passion for history. Sound mundane? Well sure, maybe to you. But for me it's a highlight. What could be better on a two hour car trip than to spend it talking about the things you care most about?

One question I want to ask at the meeting arises from the book I'm currently reading: "Brothers in Battle - Best of Friends" by William "Wild Bill"Guarnere and and Edward "Babe" Heffron. They both fought in the Battle of the Bulge and the legendary defense of Bastogne. I'm only about half way through the book, but what I'm taking from it so far is this. These two guys, who were the very definition of "grunts", didn't really care about the grand strategy of Eisenhower, Montgomery, or the other Generals. They cared about tactics as laid out by their company commanders and carried out by them in the field because it was tactics that kept them and their buddies alive. I am eagerly awaiting their answers and will post them after I return from the meeting.

I am fascinated by these sorts of historical questions. Another time, I'll tell you how it all started.

For now, although it's early evening here, good night.

Happy 108th to Olive Reilly!

Just a short post to wish a Happy 108th! birthday to the oldest blogger on the web, Olive Reilly. Please click on over to www.allaboutolive.com.au and do the same. I think you'll find her blog as captivating as I do. In fact, I'm going to her blog to wish her happy 108 right now. 108 years old? I just can't imagine it.

For now, good night.