Saturday June 14th.

I have been home since Tuesday afternoon and my thoughts keep going back to all of those people in Iowa. I drove through the state going out and coming back from B&B. The rain and storms started on my arrival and have not stopped since. The restaurant that I had lunch at in Cedar Rapids is under 12 feet of water. I spent an hour on the phone with my friend Cris who lives in Iowa City and she has spent her time since returning from the show sand bagging the levee’s only to see them fail. There are people on roofs with pets and old woman on roofs with oxygen tanks waiting for rescue. The people are banding together and praise be, there are only 2 deaths that are being attributed to the flooding. The other causalities are the Boy Scouts that were caught by the tornadoes in the far west portion of the state. My heart goes out to all of them.

My newly discovered long lost brother Paul has been pulling really hard hours because 2 of the local hospitals had to evacuate. The lucky part for him is that he has a 5-minute walk to work. GO PAUL GO!!! Cris tells me that the National Guard is there in full force and doing a great job. The people Cedar Rapids and Iowa City are banding together and doing all that they can. According to news reports that I just caught seems the say that the water in Cedar Rapids is receding but it will be weeks before the water gets down to flood stage and below. The river crested at 32’, 12 feet above the 1929 flood.

All of this makes my inconvenience of not having my glasses for 48 hours so unimportant. These things bring a new perspective and focus and make us remember what is really, truly important.

My day today is now about really getting back to the tasks that I have before me. I have outlines to write, articles to photograph, orders to fill and mail, a DVD to work on, Pudget Sound to get ready for and somewhere in there I need to find some time for a bit of fun.

The heat is here in full force and I am very pleased by that. I am taking my 20 minutes breaks in my pool and enjoying every moment! I just have to keep my eyes on my goals and try not to get distracted by stupid thoughts or pipe dreams and remember what I have been working for.