» Iowa

Tornadoes Today?

Sherry — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:56:39 +0000

I have a pretty good eye for “green air,” and it’s not looking too good out there! A tornado could really mess up my moving plans…..

I need to do some errands today, but I’m not going out in this. At the very least, we’re in for some thunderstorms. I’ll hold my errands until it’s a bit less ominous out there!

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Video of the Snow; West Des Moines, Iowa, April 3, 2008

Sherry — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 21:09:28 +0000

I took this at about 3:20 p.m. I really didn’t think it would last long or stick. Oh, it’s sticking all right. And still going on. I had to go pick up Charlie in this muck. I took another video I’ll post later. I can’t believe this. It just doesn’t end.

ADDENDUM:

Here’s a video of the snow about 20 minutes later. It accumulated pretty quickly:

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Mother’s Against Nature

Sherry — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 04:23:46 +0000

They did not cancel school today, despite a wind chill, when I woke up, of 37 DEGREES BELOW ZERO. Whatever. Whatever you have to do to keep your little school district going.

But as a MOTHER, I could not, would not, will not, do not send MY CHILD out into the world when it is 37 DEGREES BELOW ZERO. Never ever. No apologies. Nope, will NOT do it. Nothing is worth that.

I can NOT imagine the parent that thinks it is ok to subject a child to that for 2 hours’ worth of kindergarten on a shortened day. Nope.

This Mother kept her child home, warm, safe, and happy on this day, February 20, 2008, when the wind chill reached an official 41 below zero.

Send my five-year-old out in that? You have to be fucking KIDDING ME. He wins. You lose. Go away.

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Isn’t the Snow Pretty?

Sherry — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:30:45 +0000

The Beauty of Iowa

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It’s Cheaper* to Live in Iowa**

Sherry — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:54:45 +0000

I moved to West Des Moines, Iowa, from Redmond, Washington one year ago and have not found it to be a less expensive place to live than where I came from.

Therefore there is no trade-off for the horrificly hot summer last year and un-ending hell of a winter that we’re going through now, or the fact that there is virtually no natural beauty and almost nothing to do outside of the pedestrian.

* Not including hats, gloves, mittens for the kids, winter coats, snowpants for the kids (required for school), boots for the kids (required for school), boots or sturdy shoes with traction for adults, huge heating bills, extra money for gas for letting your car warm up in the winter, special windshield wiper fluid that won’t freeze on the windows, ice scrapers, opportunity hours lost scraping ice and otherwise dealing with snow and ice, salt, snow shovel, wear and tear on your car, house prices that don’t go up so you actually lose money on your home any time you have to replace something like a water heater, etc. – thus you don’t get back your investment, rent in a comparable neighborhood is no cheaper than in the Seattle Metro area, state Income tax (the state I moved from had none), quality food like decent cheeses and wines cost nearly double here, and common food is marginally cheaper but health and beauty products are just high or higher so it evens out (and explains a few things)

** By “Iowa” I am referring to my experience in Iowa in the Des Moines Metro area.

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Not Much of a Storm, I Dare Say…

Sherry — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 23:04:56 +0000

If you’ve been following my video blogging of “the big blizzard” of February 17, 2008 here in West Des Moines, Iowa, I’ll just wrap up the day with this rather anti-climactic post.

The snow stopped, the wind never did pick up very much, and the temperature reached 34 degrees and melted a lot of our snow! Not much of a blizzard, then, I guess. Here is the final video installment:

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Wind Gusts February 17 2008 Blizzard West Des Moines Iowa

Sherry — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 19:44:02 +0000

I took this at approximately 1:20 p.m. It’s not snowing anymore, but the wind is definitely picking up. I would say the gusts are hitting about 20 miles per hour, with sustained winds of about 10 to 15 miles per hour. Watch the dark trees for contrast to see the blowing snow flying around. I most definitely need a better camera for video blogging!

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West Des Moines, Iowa: Blizzard Intensifies Only Slightly by 11:27 am February 27 2008

Sherry — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:40:57 +0000

As you can see in the video, there is a little bit more snow coming down, and we are seeing a few wind gusts, but those are the only real changes since the video I posted this morning that was taken at 9:16 a.m.

They’re saying the snow may taper off soon, and the wind will start picking up later this afternoon. I hope there is still enough light to capture it if we get some of those 50 mph gusts they are predicting. It’s also clear from these videos that I need to get a better video camera if I’m going to continue video blogging!

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Beginning of Blizzard West Des Moines, Iowa, February 17, 2008

Sherry — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:35:55 +0000

Here is what the weather was doing today at 9:16 a.m. in West Des Moines, Iowa. We have a blizzard warning today from 9:00 a.m. until midnight, which covers most of Iowa. We are to expect up to 8 inches of snow, wind gusts up to 50 mph, white-out conditions, and possible power outages.

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Newsflash: Amethysts Are Uncertain of God’s Existence

Sherry — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 20:53:40 +0000

Some days it is a severe undertatement to say that I am just astounded by the sheer quantity and quality of stupidity that surrounds me.

First of all, an assistant professor named Lydia Hartunian said that a misconception about atheists is that people think they don’t believe in God. She said that, actually, atheists are uncertain about whether or not there is a God.

Woah. Ms. Hartunian, people who are not certain of the existence of God are called agnostics. And, in fact, people who do not believe there is a God are called atheists. It is you who are confused. Astoundingly so, for an academic person.

Second, in the news story below which reports this fact, the news writer uses the wrong word and instead of saying “atheists” says “amethysts.” Really, really, really unbelievable.

I guess my third problem with this atheist “movement” is the fact that she seems to be trying to make a religion out of not believing in God. I myself am not a religious person, but I’m not about to join a movement of people who feel the same way about it. That would kind of defeat the point.

Here is the news story, as posted on the KCCI news site:
Amethysts Uncertain of God’s Existence Look for the wrong word within the body of the story (it’s not long).

UPDATE: The news site has now corrected its error.

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