Accomodations at Lazy R Cottages were ideal, one mile from the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park with nearly all imaginable amenities including a hot tub. No way to plug in and amplify music but our iPads and tablets managed to emit with passable fidelity and just enough decibels to be able to talk over the often ironic yet sentimental streaming tunes. We totalled ten adults, four kids and a baby but were missing at least another six adults and six kids to complete the reunion. Already looking forward to the next one!

At Alberta Falls, Rocky Mountain National Park

Double Rainbow on the drive from Boulder to Estes Park

Amazing weekend in Portland and Pacific City with old friends — ten of the folks I lived with from 1995-6 at 106 N. Governor in Iowa City as an undergrad and their significant others + children. And lots of wiffle ball and wine.

Comment on, mutilate, order prints of these photos, etc here.

In the months before my freshman year at the University of Iowa, the Iowa River flooded its banks, closing one dorm for the entire first semester and leaving me with 2 roommates in a double dorm — some doubles were turned into quads, in fact. Fifteen years later, and the flooding is worse — just look at the extensive and graphic slideshows at the Iowa City Press-Citizen website and this timeline of two freakish weeks of rain.

It was clear by midweek (last week) that the flooding would surpass the epic proportions of 1993 — in Cedar Rapids the river crested 5 feet higher than it did in ’93. But — in a typically pathetic show of domestic carelessness by the Bush Administration, it wasn’t until Friday that FEMA declared disaster areas in Cedar and Johnson county (Iowa’s governor declared 83 of Iowa’s 99 counties disaster areas by the end of the week). And today — Sunday — with supplies of drinkable water subsiding and key arteries closed in Iowa City/Coralville, FEMA does not even have an office established in the county. Not even a trailer. And the Iowa River may not crest until Monday night / Tuesday.

Now, summer school has been suspended, and at least 15 University of Iowa buildings have started to flood. Pictured above is the Taco Bell in Coralville that was the site of many cheap feeds and multiple refills of Pepsi back in my undergrad days.

I hope the university and the residents throughout the state get the help and relief they need — it doesn’t look pretty. More good (student) coverage at the Daily Iowan (w/ video too). Live video stream available via KCRG-Cedar Rapids. Viewer-contributed footage via KCRG / YouNews is here and below.

Photo by Corey Schjoth via Iowa City Press-Citizen

There were even pictures of baseball-sized hail posted on flickr. Iowa City Public Access TV had already posted a video (unfortunately, without sound) of the storm passing overhead. This must be what the oft-erroneous phrase “citizen journalism” is all about.
But the greatest surprise came today, when I received an e-mail forward linking to a photo sent to the Daily Iowan, showing the century-old house on the corner of Governor and Jefferson in which I lived along with as many as eleven other friends during a two-year stint of intense debauchery education.

the house looks fine, but ah the symbolism of the twisted one-way signs