Saturday-3:15pm

We have to hope the forecast (this was from last night) is fairly accurate and it stays cold for as long as possible. Been watching the flood fight 2009 for days.

At night I love to move my gaze over to my newly cleaned fish tank--the de-stresser--hehe! Especially nice with all the tension here on dike watch.
This huge pump was flown in from Montana, I believe. Had to be flown in pieces on three military planes--because of the weight and because the roads to the west were blocked because of blizzards.

The area is still shut down--hospitals, nursing homes, etc, have been evacuated. Schools will be closed all this coming week. The national weather service said the river had crested, but the officials up here aren't convinced. I guess back in 1997 the NWS said it had crested and it rose another foot and a half--and Grand Forks hadn't been prepared for the surge back then.

And the river is moving about five times as fast as it was in 1997. So--the dikes are eroding in some of the snakelike curves in the twisty Red River. They will be gently dropping sandbags by helicopter on the insides of some of the curves in the river to help reinforce the dikes. They actually kind of want people to be around during the day near their homes in the evacuation areas--because the population is our best line of defense on dike watch. But they are not allowed to stay there during the night.

Some areas (like Oakport) have homes that have lost the fight, but the main 48 miles of dikes through town are holding pretty well and are being patrolled. This standoff with the surging river will last for days. These dikes have to hold up for days. So--we wait. Not sure how many businesses will be open now this coming week? No schools. No trash pick up. Dagan doesn't know if he will be going to work or not. Chuck and Michal teach--so they will be off all week.

All weekend here they wanted only flood related businesses to remain open--hardware stores, etc--and have wanted people to stay off the roads. They are building a back-up dike in Moorhead along 8th Street someplace I heard. I even got a call from my worker to check on me yesterday to see if I needed any help. How nice!

So we are thinking positive and praying the weather cooperates! :):) The people up here have been amazing! And many people came from all over to help. Five million sandbags!! People making food and bringing it to the workers. Cookies and fudge always help the spirits, right? The community has really come together and everything has been working quite efficiently. It is truly amazing!! :):)

I got a pretty Easter card with get well wishes from Ruby yesterday--and stamps!

And I sold a book to Howard (new member of the CPB group) and he sent me a check in this gorgeous card!! This is his first attempt at Chinese Brush Painting--gongbi style (detailed and layered). You can see why he can probably put the gongbi book to better use than I--hehe! But I did make copies of all the pages I wanted--never fear. I told him I got what I wanted from it and I can hardly wait to see what he paints!!

His card went right up on my inspiration wall, of course! :):)

Meanwhile--these are the focus of my days right now.

I had never tried these ready-made soups that you nuke. I had the perfect excuse, right?--and it was really good.

But, since yesterday, I have mostly been eating/drinking my cream soups that I made. Sooooo glad I made those!!

I am not close to the flooding areas, but I started to think about how even after they flush the water pipes sometimes like they do, you know--you can have horrible brown water for a day or two. And I decided I would like to be sure I have water for cooking, coffee, cleaning, drinking, etc. I doubt I would ever lose power here--but--well, better safe than sorry, right? I filled up containers last night so that is one less thing to think about.

Put cutting boards over these to keep you-know-who and her cat hair out of them.

Karma was fascinated and went from bucket to bucket tasting them all--hehe!

Nice to have some covered water here and there because of Karma's exuberance for anything out of the ordinary--chuckle!

I've been up and down with the sleeping. The steroids wake me up no matter how tired I am and make my head feel funny--but they are helping with the swelling. And I am taking dwindling amounts each day. I am down to three today, two tomorrow, and one on Monday--so soon I should be able to sleep better.

Sorry--I forgot to say that the weird shadowy shape in my jaw joint (why I had the CTscan)--was nothing to worry about. Just how I "felt" when I looked at it. Probably just fluid from the arthritis he said. TADA!!! And I go back in a week--Thursday, April 2nd.

That's it from Fargo for today from chipmunk cheek--hehe! :):)