Just stuff

It's snowing here this morning. There's probably an inch or so accumulated so far. It's pretty but I'm so over driving on snow, I hate the thought of it starting up again. And DRAT! We don't have our outdoor Christmas decorations up yet! Oh well, we'll probably just put up our outdoor nativity and a couple wreaths and lights around the doorway. I won't let Andy get on the roof with snow up there!

We had a busy day yesterday.

We went to Andy's families Christmas gathering and had a great meal and then took a tour of poor little Oakville, Iowa. It's the tiny little town that got flooded by the huge 500-year flood in June. The town is only hanging on by a thread and it looks doubtful that it will recover from this disaster. It's really sad. It's the town Andy's brother-in-law is from...he's lived there all his life.

I've never seen anything like it. All the buildings are just sitting there quietly, with water marks on every one, in some cases up above their windows and heaps of reminders of peoples' lives bulldozed into piles in the front yards. There were little FEMA trailers sitting around, some occupied and some deserted. River sludge has taken the place of lawns. Trees were skirted with dead branches as far up as the slimy water reached into them. Foundations washed right out from under some houses and one house sat about 200 yards behind it's foundation, out in a field.

We saw one family taking things out of their ruined house, things that were pretty much trashed. This was 5 months after the flood. People have such strong spirits, sometimes.

We went home from our visit with Andy's family around 6pm, dropped off the dog and then went to my brother-in-law's 40th birthday party. We had fun, saw a lot of old friends and had more great food! We had such a good time.

Plans were made to go see the movie Australia today. I'm looking forward to it.