Last Friday night I gathered some friends together here in Iowa City and had an impromptu Bar-B-Q in the lawn. Angie bought some fancy vegi-brats, while I cooked hamburgers and hot-dogs. We spent the evening marveling about the flooding in Cedar Rapids and the potential disaster encroaching on Iowa City. Just after the sun went down, the Jewish fellow that lives across the street walked over and made an unusual request. He asked if one of us would come over and turn his stove off. In return, he would bring over a 12-pack of Amber Boch to show us his gratitude.

My friends, Seth and Jesse, went across the street and returned shortly with the beer. When we asked why they had to help him turn off his stove, Seth replied that their Sabbath begins at sundown and that by Jewish law, they cannot start or extinguish a flame. Unfortunately, the sun had gone down before the Jewish family had finished cooking, so they were stuck with a heated stove burner.

For the life of us, we couldn’t remember the name of the Jewish man across the street, although we had all spoken with him on occasion. He enjoys walking around the block and we always see him fighting an old lawnmower each time he decides to cut his lawn too short. I finally ran across a picture of him oneline and his efforts during the 2008 flood and now his secret is out. His name is Rabbi Avrohom Blesofsky and he is the co-director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Iowa City. Apparently, he’s been putting in some considerable effort into the sandbagging activities around Iowa City. He is a character and quite a nice fellow.

Well, sandbagging at the Iowa Memorial Union (IMU) has ground to a halt. Not only has Cedar Rapids been in the news, but Iowa City and all the volunteer efforts on the University of Iowa campus. I took a short bike ride around the IMU in an attempt to determine just how bad this could get. The basin area along the Iowa River is going to take a serious hit if the river rises another couple of feet. It’s not just the IMU, Main Library or the Art Building that is at risk, but the water-treatment facility along the Iowa River near Burlington. If that gets flooded, then our water supply will be seriously affected.

More pictures around the Iowa Memorial Union are here.

Well, now it’s known across that land that Eastern Iowa is in a world of hurt. It simply won’t stop raining and the land has been saturated since Spring began. Many of the farmers in the area haven’t been able to plant, as the fields have been too sloppy. Those that have planted are having to plant again. No wonder corn and bean prices are going through the roof.

The kids and I are here in Iowa City and what we’ve been watching around the Iowa River area has been awe inspiring. I just started work in Cedar Rapids and now I can’t even get to work. Not only is I-380 a mess, but the downtown area is under 2 to 3 feet of water. Since my mother went into surgery here at the University of Iowa Hospitals, my sister, Michele, and step-sister, Beth, have been in Iowa City. But, they can’t stay here forever. So, they both plan on leaving Iowa City Friday morning, but as of now, Beth can’t get back to Chicago on I-80 because it’s closed just West of Iowa City. Larry, as well as the rest of the family in Benton County, will also have a difficult trek to Iowa City, as they might close I-380 if the flooding gets worse.

Jared and I have spent a couple days at the IMU on the University of Iowa campus filling sandbags. I’m sure we’ll be shoveling sand for a couple days until this all resolves.

I found a link to a story on the current Eastern Iowa flood here.

Agent Peeps posted some pictures of her building’s evacuation in Cedar Rapids here.

More to come as the week progresses.

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Just received this mass email from from my step-father, Larry, this evening.

Welcome to the Albers Family roller coaster ride! Mary was admitted at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics in Iowa City on May 27th as scheduled. However, several days later, she started having kidney issues, probably due to the dye from her cathiterzation the previous week and her liver was still not getting rid of the toxins as needed. They placed a cathiter in the right side of her neck on Thursday evening to monitor her heart output on both sides. She was moved to the CVICU Unit, which gave her constant care.

Last Friday evening, I was told by the CVICU Cardiologist, who is also a Heart Failure Specialist, that surgery was probably not an alternative and that she had a limited time to live. I contacted all family members and a conference call was held on Saturday morning with a decision that we all meet with this Specialist on Sunday evening at the Hospital. At that meeting, she was asked specifically if surgery was at all possible and her answer was NO. She then informed Mary about not having surgery and the family was going to work on other solutions such as hospice, etc. This was started during the day yesterday with several conferences involving family members. We contacted Oldorf Hospice House in Cedar Rapids and arranged a meeting involving Mary in her room this morning.

However, I encountered the Surgeon, Dr. Helman, in the corridor last evening and he asked why the Heart Failure Cardiologist aborted the surgery and I gave him multiple reasons including over 50% failure possibility along with other bad case scenarios, even if the actual surgery is a success! He stated that we should possibly re-visit surgery as he had a somewhat different view of her situation. She had gotten better than she was on Friday evening due to adjustment of medication. But he also stated that it would be very, very difficult due to her complicated overall condition.

This morning, Oldorf Hospice House in Cedar Rapids visited with Mary about going that route, but later in the morning, a Social Worker asked her about having surgery, if it was possible. She opted for surgery immediately, so we arranged another meeting with the current Heart Failure Specialist on duty this evening to explain directly to Mary and the family members again as to what future problems she may face, even if she makes it thru surgery and recovery.

She again is steadfast in wanting surgery against very great odds so is being transferred tomorrow morning to the pre-surgery unit. I will let everyone know when the surgery is scheduled, unless something else gets in the way beforehand! I hope this clears up some of the confusion that has been stated around the community the past several days, but ultimately, possible surgery or no surgery is Mary’s decision.

Please keep her in your prayers and thoughts as she is in need of as much spiritual help as possible.

~Larry Albers

It must have been a freak of nature or a massive aligning of the planets that allowed my University of Iowa Spring Break to coincide with my kids school break. But nevertheless, it did happen and my kids and I were allowed a weeks worth of chilling around my parents house for seven days.

As usual, it was a fairly relaxed week in Van Horne. This was a particularly different Spring Break, as we were getting accustomed to the new life my Mom and step-father, Larry, are getting used to themselves following Mom’s release from the University of Iowa Hospitals.

Haley did what she does best: bake. Not only did she mix together a wonderful pan of brownies, but she slapped together a batch of chocolate chip cookies that barely made it through the night without being entirely consumed. I spent a considerable amount of time in front of my PowerBook G4 laptop; programming a Java-based peer-2-peer Chord network simulator. What? Yeah. I’m a geek. Ask me about it later.

The week ended with the kids and I hooking up with the gaming friends (including Brian and Danuuc) of mine at Gamerz in Cedar Rapids. As has been typical since last October, the night was spent fragging our beloved friends in an all-out competition of Battlefield 2. I’m not sure why we like this particular game so much. Perhaps, it’s the right mix of pace and patience. It’s not the ‘twitch’ game that Unreal Tournament is, and not as mind-numbing as multi-player Quake 3 can be.

Jared held his own, switching teams more often than I switch subjects in the middle of a sentence. Well, that’s an overstatement. As the night wore to a close, both Jared and Haley teamed up with me against a more experienced three-person team. We did just fine as far as I am concerned. Apparently, my daughter is a veteran of Gears of War, so her ‘Medic’ persona worked well with my ‘Support’ and Jared’s ‘Sniper’ perfection.

Now if I can only get a job that pays well enough to fortify a basement full of gaming PC consoles.

We can only hope.

I had been looking forward to Dave’s Bachelor Party for over a month when it was announced that we would be spending the night at GAMERZ in Cedar Rapids, instead of the typical night at a strip-club. I, for one, was quite enthusiastic about spending an evening playing multi-player games with a group of fellow geeks. Come on! What could be more fun than a room full of 30 and 40-year-olds screaming at each other,”Who shot me?”, “No, OVER THERE!”, “Turn LEFT!”, “NO! Your OTHER left!”

I haven’t had that much fun since… I don’t know when. No. Wait. Perhaps Abe’s last Halloween Party when Angie performed… hmmmm ….back to the story. Ahem. Most of the night was spent playing Battlefield 2. Fortunately, most the wedding party hadn’t played in quite some time, so the playing field was rather even. The first few hours were spent killing ourselves in numerous (yet hilarious) fashions. Agent Butters walked out the door of a perfectly good helicopter, while I accidentally ejected myself from the cockpit of a MIG-29. The words “Pull ripcord” flashed across the screen as I frantically bashed every button on the keyboard yelling, “Which one?!”. As I plummeted to my digital death, I watched as my jet sailed beautifully into the 3D rendered skies. I’m sure the view from there was spectacular.

I was playing as Corporal in China’s Army, equipped with an anti-tank weapon. Which, I must add, is a nice piece of artillery. When I “re-spawned” back at the base, I noticed that one of the cargo helicopters was tilted on its side; held up at an angle by the twin blades mounted on the top. “Who can’t fly a cargo chopper?”, I yelled over my shoulder. “Oh, you saw that.”, yelled Ryan from behind me. “I think that’s Brian’s fault”, he continued. “Don’t blame me!”, screamed Butters. “I told you I didn’t know what I was doing. Now, hustle your Asian ass over here and shoot somebody!”

The evening continued with couple of games of HALO and some UnReal Tournament 2004. UnReal Tournament is a ‘twitch’ game as far as I am concerned. It’s really pretty to watch, but the game-play is so fast, there isn’t any time for any coordinated gaming. It’s just a free-for-all as everyone jumps and shoots everything in sight.

Somebody mentioned that we should get together and play again as a group. For an evening of fun at an incredibly low price. I can’t argue with that. It was cheaper than a strip-club or going to a bar. I’ve seen bar-tabs four times that much with only half the fun we had at GAMERZ. Sign me up. I want to fragg Danuuc a few more times with a sniper-rifle.

Oddly enough, I am posting this for my own good. Apparently, I am the only person who reads my blog.

WHEN: 6pm (be there 10 minutes prior to start).
DRESS: Casual.
WHERE: St. Pius X Church, 4949 Council Street NE, Cedar Rapids, IA

FOOD: Dinner to follow rehearsal at the Marriott (down the block, across the street)
WHERE: 1200 Collins Road NE (in the ‘Cedar Rapids Room’)