Farewell to Friends

A few years ago when I worked at the hospital I met a girl (woman?) and we quickly became very good friends. We don't actually have a whole lot in common, but she is from the same city Narasimha is from (in India) so we kinda had that to go on.

Over the few years I have known her we have had a lot of fun together, and I fell in love with her little boy during the time I spent with him. I got to babysit him almost every day for several months, and we learned a lot from each other :)

Anyways, she has decided to move to the East Coast so she and her husband can both pursue professional opportunities. I am so happy for them and this step, but I do wish I'd still be able to see them whenever I felt like it.

For dinner we went to this great Indian restaurant, with this booth that had a table very close to the floor (eastern). It was cool and the food was delicious.

Best wishes to Sirisha and her family - Narasimha and I will miss all of you :)

Narasimha and I, and Sirisha and her family.

Me and Sirisha

Green Ride

Ok, so I guess if you want to be technical it's actually blue and silver. But I wasn't talking about the color green...I was talking about that new trend our society has of labeling environmentally-friendly things "green." And environmentally-friendly this is...

We bought a new little motor scooter today. For those who may know, it's called a 2008 Yamaha Vino 125. We thought about buying one a few years ago when gas prices started spiking, but couldn't afford it at that time. I think now it's likely we'll make up money spent in saved gas (although that could take a while). This little thing gets over 90 mpg! And, it goes at top speed about 60-65 miles per hour (though comfortably for 2 people you could probably expect 40-45 mph). Not bad.

These things are popular this year - we had to drive a few hours (which is a long ways in Iowa) to be able to find a place that had any left.

It also reminds us of India - there these things are the main source of transportation, from anywhere to single people to full families (I have seriously seen 5 people - dad, mom, and 3 kiddos - on one no bigger than this more times than I could count). The roads are so overcrowded there that having anything bigger than this is in many ways a disadvantage - these weave in and out of traffic very well.

So, this little guy easily fits both of us, and for those times that we just need to make a trip into town, and don't have much to carry going or coming, we can ride this. It will likely function as Narasimha's work car when the weather is good.

And, it's fun to ride - you know, with the wind and mosquitoes flowing through your hair :) It'll have to do for now - someday I fully intend on being a "biker babe" with a Harley :) So, now we both have to start studying for our motorcycle license.

Kinda cute, right? :)

The End of the Flood (for us)

Well, Narasimha did end up staying at work on Friday night. He worked for a few hours on Saturday morning, and by the time he was done, the road was open. He got home right as I was leaving for the baby shower. We made it to our wedding that night.

The water around here has been receding ever since, and moving on downstream, where I hear in southern Iowa they are now getting the brunt of our water.

I don't think anyone in our town sustained massive damage - lots of wet basements but no large-scale destruction. If you have seen the news at all, it is pretty devastating to look at pics from parts of Des Moines, lots of Cedar Rapids, and a good chunk of Iowa City. Not to mention many many other small towns that didn't make the news with the spotlight hanging on those bigger cities, some of which are completely under water.

I am so sorry for those who lost "all" in the flood. My stupid leaky basement doesn't even come close. Yes, it has been annoying, but not life-altering, and I still have a place to sleep, all my personal belongings intact, water to drink, etc. There are many in Iowa (and surrounding states too) who won't be able to say that for a while.

A Wedding, "Old" Friends, and Good Times :)

The wedding I referred to in a few earlier posts was that of a girl friend from high school. She and her new hubby live in Kansas City, so I rarely get to see her. Narasimha and I did get to go to the wedding, which was very nice, and to the reception which was held close to where I grew up. It was a lot of fun, not only to go to the wedding and see her, but also to see all my friends and some of their significant others, and catch up in what seemed to last a very short time but actually went on for at least a few hours.

At the reception most of us sat at a few tables that were next to each other, so after the meal we all morphed into one big group and sat around telling stories and laughing and chatting about what several of our friends who weren't there are up to, and of course sharing stories about what all of us are doing.

It was fun to see everyone - in the group we had a few farmers, a few teachers, a few med students, a law student, an engineer, a couple of business people, a doctor, a few coaches, and probably others I'm forgetting. And me, a "homemaker."

I really did have a good time seeing everyone. I wish it was possible to see people more often, but maybe not seeing them is the way to appreciate time when we do get together.

9 of us from our graduating class.

Flood - Update

As I was writing my last post on Wed. evening, the rain was starting. It must have rained most of the night because on Thursday morning when we got up our basement was seriously soggy. It'll probably take us a week to get it all dry - I think this is the wettest we've had it. We use towels, our steam vacuum, a dehumidifier, fans, and lots and lots of time and effort. I will be jumping for joy when Lowe's calls to tell us that these window wells are in.

Thursday morning Narasimha didn't go into work because he thought the road might close. By noon it still hadn't, so he went for Thursday afternoon. All afternoon we were hearing that our road might close, and the water kept creeping up. He finally did make it home ok yesterday evening but he said the water was partially covering the road and people were just driving through it.

This morning he found out right before he left for work that the road was closed. He had to take an alternate route. Luckily a road that wasn't open on Monday night when he had to take that huge detour now is, so it took him less than an hour to get there (he was late). The bummer is that he is actually On Call this weekend, and has to be able to get to the hospital within about 20 mins of getting called, so unless that road opens up today he will have to sleep at the hospital tonight :(. I tried to go into town so I could have lunch with him, and the road was still closed, and actually more flooded than it was on Monday evening.

If you're following the news at all, they are saying that many big rivers in Iowa are at or above record flood levels, and have still not crested. They are also predicting more rain over the weekend I think. Many of Iowa's bigger cities are under water or close to it.

I have a baby shower and a wedding tomorrow - we'll see if I can make it.

Flood!!!

We live in Iowa, and as you may have read or heard in the news lately, just about the whole state, and much of the Midwest, is dealing with a little (or a lot of) extra water right now.

Our basement has been flooding, but actually not as a result of all this recent flooding that has been going on. We found out that it always has, and that the guy who sold us the house basically lied and said that he fixed the problem, when really he didn't. He did do some work on the house to take care of the problem which he told us about during the sale, but we now know that he didn't find out what the actual problem was before he "fixed" it, so of course it didn't work. And, our neighbor across the street told us that he did know that it wasn't in fact taken care of, because he had problems with it even after the "fix." Basically, when the house was built, the builder didn't attach the basement windows correctly to the house, and seal them, so if water gets to that seam of foundation and window, it just comes right in. Add to that the fact that the window wells were also not made in a water-tight fashion, and basically any time it rains enough to saturate the ground around the window wells, we get water into the house around the windows, down behind the finished walls, and finally soaking up through the carpet/sheetrock. So we have been having water since about the thaw in March on and off, although obviously with all this rain it has been a lot worse lately. We have ordered new window wells, and when installed correctly with the seams filled in, we hope that the problem will be taken care of. We currently have a very classy-looking (kidding of course) tarp tent over the window that leaks the worst, which has actually helped a lot, while we wait for our ordered items.

But, back to the flooding. During the last week our area has had a LOT of rain. Several inches, sometimes in a few hours. Day after day after day it seems like. So on Sunday we were at church, and a guy there said that during the flood of '93 one road managed to always stay open, even in the worst of it, and that road happens to be the road we take into town when we go. Then it rained a lot on Sunday and again on Monday. We live about 5 miles/8 minutes from Narasimha's office. He tried to come home after work on Monday, and our "sure thing" route was flooded over. Yikes. So basically, he had to go way over west and up north and around, and 80 miles and over 2 hours on mostly soggy gravel roads later, he was finally home. We live just a few miles north of M-town, and between our house and town is a river, and a lot of low-lying ground. And, only a few roads that go into town. So we got blocked off. Our road was still closed Tuesday morning, so he didn't even try to go into work. He didn't think he'd be able to go today, but they opened the road right before 8:00 AM, so he headed in. It rained a fair amount today around here, but the road managed to stay clear. Now we are projected to get more rain tonight and tomorrow so he has said he won't go in tomorrow morning, and we'll see where we are by tomorrow afternoon. The problem isn't always just getting in - you have to have some way to get back home too.

So, that's our flood experience so far. We wouldn't have water in the basement if things had been done correctly, so hopefully in a few weeks when our special-order window wells come in we can put this problem behind us once and for all. People have asked if we have a sump pump - we do and it works just fine - it's below our bedroom and I have been hearing it go off regularly. The water doesn't even get close to the top of the pit.

Thanks for those who have asked how we're holding up in our saturated corner. We're still here and still afloat and probably at this point doing better than many who have more water in their basements than we do :) And, Narasimha can't complain - he's gotten a little extra time off work ;)

Hotel Rwanda

Narasimha's employer gives a day off for employee's birthdays. I think you can take it anytime you want, but Narasimha actually took his on Friday since his boards were on Thursday so we haven't spent any real time together for a while, and his birthday was on Saturday. It was nice to have an extra day off - we didn't do much of anything. We did rent a few movies and watched in the evenings this weekend. One of them was Hotel Rwanda.

Hotel Rwanda is a movie that tells the story of a Hutu man, and his Tootsie wife and community of friends, and their mixed children, as they all try to survive the genocide of the Tootsies by the Hutus in Rwanda in 1994. The actual movie I think was done pretty tastefully. There wasn't a whole lot of swearing, and we don't even have a special DVD player. The actual blood-and-guts gore was kept to a minimum, but you do see a fair amount of violence, and lots and lots of dead bodies. I have heard before of the conflict in Rwanda between the Hutus and the Tootsies. I remember being in about Junior High when all this was happening, and they covered it a little on the news show the school made us watch every day in third hour. I do not remember, however, the extreme devastation in hearing about this ever before. The movie showed how massive the killing was, and as sad as that is, add to it how the rest of the world stood by and offered almost no support/relief. The victims kept waiting for the UN, and the US, and no one came. The movie just broke my heart to watch - honestly, I am rarely a "cry-er." There were a few times in this movie that I couldn't help it.

Then that got me thinking - how many times in history have there been "genocide" based alone on some physical feature, or some way that one group of people is different from another (not better, just different). In this movie they said one time that the way they tell the difference between the Hutus and Tootsies is by how wide their nose is. And in the Holocaust, people were practically distinguished by having brown hair and eyes, as opposed to blonde and blue. Think of all the places around the world that massive groups of people have been killed without good reason, or something like the supposed guilt of their ancestors, or even accidentally choosing to live on the "wrong" plot of land. Russia, Germany and Poland, Scotland, the United States even, Rwanda, many many African nations, Afghanistan, China and Tibet, right now in Darfur, Lebanon, Israel. That's not nearly all of them. This problem spans the globe far and wide, from our own back yard to every continent, to many many countries, to millions and million of individual lives around the world.

Even when we know of these things, what do we do? What can we do? So obviously most of us can't just pack our weapon of choice in our suitcase and fly over and fight with the good guy. But politically, can we lean on our government a little to take action and try to stop the fighting? Protect those who have no protection? There was another part of the movie where there was a reporter from a western nation. He went out and video taped the vast devastation, and a woman who was being hunted was saying yeah, send that video back to your country - that will get people caring about what is happening here. And the videographer said unfortunately no, they will see it, and think oh, that's too bad, and then they will go on eating their dinner.

I know from our safe living rooms thousands of miles away, with the smallest of small threat of being shot or killed out of hatred tonight, it is hard for us to get involved. It's hard even to know what's going on with whatever filtered TV news we have available. I guess just watching this movie made me want to do all I can - even if that's not much. I will do research on the internet to find out what's really going on (but not believe everything I read). I will watch different news stations to get the most information, keeping in mind all news is likely skewed or tainted or biased. I will watch International news stations (BBC, etc.) to see if what I'm getting from the American stations is painting a comprehensive picture. In the upcoming elections, I will find out which of the candidates are willing to talk about human rights in other countries, and who desires to keep the best International relations (generally the Dems). When deciding who to support with dollars given to charity, I will research organizations that help people in these grim situations. And last but hardly least, I will pray for those in suffering today. That someone will reach out to them with love, a helping hand, and most of all, the name of Jesus Christ in their moment of suffering and need.

I started thinking, what if someone in our community today picked some random physical/personal attribute that was somehow deemed "superior" and then decided to kill everyone who was different. What if the difference was blue vs. brown eyes, big vs. small feet, the ability to do complex math equations in one's head, or even preference of eating dessert before or after a meal. I know I am being a little facetious. But there are people in our world who have lost their lives for far less. Who would I lose - family, friends, me? Something to think about...

Happy Birthday Narasimha!

Today was Narasimha's birthday. We didn't do a whole lot but I just wanted to acknowledge and say Happy Birthday - I'm not too good at planning stuff I guess. We are thinking about having some people over in a few weeks to celebrate. He probably wouldn't want me to divulge his secret, so if you want to know how old he is, you'll have to get it out of him :)

Golden Opportunity

My brother-in-law (Narasimha's older brother) is an Internal Medicine physician in India. He is a great guy - easy to get along with, kind, loving, funny, and one of the smartest guys you'll ever meet. Unfortunately, in the last few months he has had some bad life situations, and is looking for a place to escape for a while and enjoy himself, all the while giving his time to help others in need. Sort of a change of pace.

He came across an organization that places volunteer doctors in underserved areas for a time, and he is considering going toward the Himalayas, in Northern India, to volunteer some of his time for a few weeks to serve this organization and the local people of the region. While he is there he will be able to enjoy the scenery, escape the heat of the Hyderabad hot season, and have some time to reflect on all that is going on in his personal life.

But, there are still details to be worked out before he will be able to commit to going. Please pray that the details would work out quickly and smoothly, and that he will soon be on his way to North India.

Check out the place: http://www.aarohi.org/. I haven't been able to get it to load yet because of our slow internet, but he tells me the pictures are magnificent.

It's Over (FINALLY)!

I just read that Obama finally received the Democratic nomination. I actually don't care who won, and I have nothing at all to do with the Democratic Party (or Republican Party for that matter - I'm "Independent"), but I am getting tired of hearing Obama and Clinton "sling mud" at each other all the time.

I think Obama is a pretty decent guy (not politically, I don't know what I think about that yet - just personally), and actually I much prefer him to the Clinton family drama. Now I will have to do my research by November.

Now I just hope that the race between McCain and Obama is clean - I think everyone gets tired of all the adds, etc. But it seems a lot easier to take when they just talk about their own positive attributes instead of relentlessly bashing the other guy all the time. Keep it clean people, keep it clean.

Test Tomorrow

Narasimha takes his Psychiatry Boards tomorrow. He has been studying for a while now (I'll be happy when this is over to reclaim our evenings together). We won't know for a while how he did - for a computerized test it sure takes a long time to "grade." And, Psych Boards are a multi-test process, so he won't even be done when this is over. Then he has to start studying for the oral exam. And, for the rest of his career, he will have to do re-cert boards every 10 years (in both Psych and Internal Medicine - which he passed last fall sometime).

He doesn't need to take these to practice as a Psychiatrist - he has actually been practicing since we moved here last July. Before you pass they call you "board eligible" - once he passes he will be "board certified." Basically I think the only thing that changes is that more insurance companies will allow their people to see you. He was board eligible (and able to see patients on his own) when he graduated residency last June.

So please pray for him tomorrow - that he will be well-rested and able to recall the information he's studied. It's an 8-hour test, all on the computer, so also that he would have a good attention span. I hope to be posting the good news that he's passed in the next few months :)