I was just cleaning out some furniture I want to donate and I found a pack of carbon paper.

I think that next week I need to start posting reasons why I'm not all that old. I'm taking this business of the kids turning into adults a bit too much to heart.

People keep talking about movies that made their childhoods bearable, and you remember seeing those same movies in first run... with your kids.

( And now for something completely different, there's Psych )

The original was on this afternoon, and for the past hour or so we've been glancing at the Peter Jackson version from time to time as we worked on our laptops. Wow, and I thought Doctor Who tended to drag endings on too long.

She has just announced that Van Helsing sucks, so we are allowing Mr. M to channel surf.

I had to post about the raid on the religious snake-handlers, if only for the quote I used for the title of this post. There was quite a bit of news about snake handling in that region when I lived in Indiana years ago but I thought the practice, if not the practitioners, would have died out by now.

I've seen video of snake-handling services, but I wonder what they did with the alligator.

( Spoilers for The Stolen Earth )

Someone just ordered me to post this, and I obey.

Can FEMA's reputation get any worse? Well, yes.

A Federal Emergency Management Agency housing inspector... [named Vincent Koley] was driving south on First Street SW when he nearly hit Penford employee Tom Kramer in the crosswalk in front of the plant at 10th Avenue SW, police said. Kramer, 54, of Lisbon, was able to get out of the vehicle's way without being hit, and pushed off the side of the car.

Koley stopped the car and jumped out, police said. Kramer told him to slow down and that he was in the cross walk. Koley replied that "he didn't have to slow down, he was with FEMA," police said. The two argued for a minute, and when Kramer turned to walk away, Koley took a golf club out of his car and struck Kramer across the arm, breaking the golf club.

Koley is now in jail, but not the local one. That's still hors de combat due to the flood.

I'll be back to LJ soon, and there will be fic. Things have just been piling up here, and I needed an internet break. Take care, everyone.

( more about the flood )

This is the chapter that should have been posted last week. Sorry for the delay.


Title: Bug on the Cosmic Windscreen

Author: Miss Murchison

Rating: PG

Summary: Spike landed in the BSG 'verse and made a bit of a splash, or at least a splat. He thinks he's there to help, and the bewildered Colonists don't know what to think. This went AU after Pegasus. I may have stolen an idea or two after that, but I've changed whatever happened to fit my plot. For the first time, I'm swiping stuff from Season 3, but it's so altered I'm not sure it even constitutes a spoiler. For one thing, I haven't even watched the episode in question for a year, so I don't remember exactly how much of this chapter matches that story.

revealed as a Cylon on the show doesn't mean that person is a Cylon in this story.

Thanks: to keswindhover and revdorothyl for being such great friends and wonderful betas.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, it all belongs to Joss, ME, and the creators of BSG and all the other stories I reference here. I thank them for creating so many universes for us to play in and enjoy.

Previous chapters are here. (I will get around to posting the more recent chapters on my site soon, but for now the new bits are only on LJ.)

A short Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galactica for those who have never watched Battlestar Galactica is here.


( Forbidding Planet )

I need to read through the next chapter of Bug again and post it, but my eyes aren't focusing properly.

The American Red Cross is running out of funds for its National Disaster Fund. They've been doing great work here, but they have not only the continuing situation here to deal with, but with the flooding that continues as the water flows south.

There are some really stupid people in this city. One of them got frustrated because the authorities wouldn't let him back into his house until it had been declared safe, so he tried to drive through a roadblock. He "bumped" a state trooper with his truck three times, fortunately not really hurting the cop. He's in jail on charges of assault with a deadly weapon. Even crazier, some people on the local websites are calling him a hero and were suggesting that a mob storm the barricades. They have apparently confused HAZMAT teams with the staff of the Bastille. Fortunately, most people are pointing out the idiocy of this plan.

We're still on water restrictions, but they got a second pumping station on line, so we are allowed to bathe every other day. Tomorrow's my day!

I'm enjoying the pictures of the happy couples in California. It's nice to see good news.

The water is definitely receding, but this guy didn't get the memo in time:

He's lying about four city blocks away from the river.

I've been making mental lists of things that we can donate once people are getting back into their homes and need basic supplies, but right now there's very little to do. The shelters report that as soon as they ask for something, they're inundated with shoes, blankets, pillows, clothing, baby strollers, or whatever is needed. People have to wait for the police to declare their homes safe and then be signed in and out as they go to their houses, to avoid looting and to make sure no one slips and falls and isn't missed for days. The process of opening up the neighborhoods will take at least a week. The big fear is that some people may have been missed in the mandatory evacuations, although they went door-to-door and placed reverse 911 calls. So far, there's only been one flood fatality in town.

M:TNG-2 went to visit a friend who lives just above a flood area, and they walked down as far as they were allowed. They report that the National Guardsmen were very pleasant and didn't try to chase them away as long as they didn't cross into the flood zone. (It always makes me laugh when they're surprised that a bunch of bored young men were happy to chat with a group of teenage girls.)

We weren't supposed to get rain today, but we're under a thunderstorm warning and tornado watch.

I'm going to take refuge in fandom pursuits.

Thanks to everyone who commented with good wishes. I'll try to thank people individually as soon as I can.

Bizarrely, it was a beautiful day, at least if you weren't near the flooded areas. The sun's come out, and, even better, the river has crested. They think it will drop to the previous record level of 20 feet by Wednesday. The crest was somewhere between 32 and 33 feet above flood stage. (I still can't wrap my mind around that number.) It probably won't drop below flood stage for a week.

Unfortunately, the water situation is still bad, so I'm trying to figure out ways to use flood water to flush the toilets. I'm saving rain water for plants. (Yes, I may need to water them, because I planted on what a gardener might describe as "well-drained soil." That's probably the only reason some of the poor things didn't drown.) Our domestic hero, Mr. M, braved the stores and bought paper plates, plastic knives and forks, and food that requires minimal preparation. He also managed to find some bottled water to use when the supply that I saved yesterday morning in our biggest stew pots runs out. So we should be okay even if the city water goes out completely, at least until the stores can get in more water.

At the moment, what is normally a 15-mile drive to Iowa City and Interstate 80 involves a 140-mile detour. But I'm sure they'll be getting in supplies from the north. A lot of people have mentioned Katrina, but we're nowhere near as isolated as NO was, and the authorities are doing a much better job. (I was a bit nervous, though, when I heard FEMA was coming to the state today.) Many of the displaced people are from poorer neighborhoods, but they also tend to have deep roots in the community. To give you an idea, 12,000 people were evacuated, and only about 250 wound up in shelters. Animals were rescued as well, and a police force from a community that wasn't affected by the flooding offered to boat in and pick up any pets that had been left behind in the crazy rush of yesterday's evacuations.

Kudos to the police, firefighters, National Guard, and everyone else I see pitching in around here. They had so many people offering to sandbag that in several places they had to turn volunteers away.

Please send good vibes to Iowa City. They're in for a bad weekend.

It's the low, flat building in the right center of the picture. This is a two-story building with a high ceiling on the first floor. This picture was taken yesterday, and it appears that anything on the first floor is completely under water. The river won't crest until later today.

I've bitched a lot about the way the library was run, but the thought of losing almost the entire collection makes me feel ill. No real news is available about how much they managed to move before the flood, but I doubt they considered more than a foot or two of water was possible. Yesterday's flooding was several times worse than predicted.

There is a kids' museum in the lower left of the picture, with an IMAX theater attached in the thing that looks like a silo. Our ground transportation center is on the left. At least they were able to get all the buses out. I know that, because they were using them to relocate the inmates from the jail.

Even more sickening is how many of the poorer neighborhoods are completely inundated.

Personal update: we are stinky, but dry. The sump pump in our basement jammed last night but I was able to fix it, and we should be relatively rain-free the next few days. They're asking us to restrict water use to drinking only and electricity should also be used minimally. I need my computer to work, but we're not running the AC. *holds nose* My hands are improving from the stiffness caused by my repetitive strain injuries, probably because I've been too distracted by the news to do much work.

Deaths from tornadoes are rare in Iowa, or were before this year. I'm frozen with sympathy for the families of the Boy Scouts who were killed and all those who were injured.

I think the storm system dumping water over my head right now is the same one that went through the Boy Scout camp, but it's not spawning tornadoes at the moment. Even if it does, our county has a good warning system, so we'll have notice.

Water is over several levees downtown, our local 911 service is out, and lots of areas of town have no electricity. The local stations are having trouble reporting and their reports consist mostly of announcements and news received via cell phone. No details, but there are water rescues taking place in town. Around the area, there are lots of evacuations, and whole cities without power.

I'm fine. The absolute worst that can happen here is electricity goes out and our basement takes some water because we can't run the sump pump. And the last time that happened in 1993, we still kept the basement dry by bailing the sump pump with buckets and pouring the water out in front of the house.

Stay safe, everyone.

I'd like to go back to this being the place where nothing ever happens, please.

There are calls out for volunteers to sandbag in dozens of places nearby, but there's no way I can answer those calls. The last big flood here was in 1993, and while I didn't get out on the front lines then, I did drive around picking up sandbags and taking them to friends' houses to help barricade basement windows and cover drains. I was obviously younger and stronger then.

Not only can't I sandbag, I haven't been useful in any other way. Shortly after I started work this morning, I realized it wasn't going to be a good day for my hands. The combination of the muggy weather and excessive computer use has left my wrists weak and aching. I emailed the bosses to say I'd be working intermittently, but I didn't even really do that. I only monitored my email and worked the emergencies. I may do a half-day tomorrow as well.

I spent the day reading a bit and watching lots of TV. I even watched The View for a while. The best thing I can say about it is that it wasn't as bad as the episode of Regis and Whoever that the dental hygienist had on while she was cleaning my teeth last week. But that was so bad I started paying attention to the pain of sharp metal scraping my gums to take my mind off the mental anguish induced listening to Whoever talk about family trivia so boring I would have tried to escape her even if she'd been a long-lost relative. Which she could be, for all I know. I hope not.

I have no right to whine about any of this while there are mandatory evacuations in many parts of town. They're advising people in the 500-year flood plain to leave. We had only a little rain today, but there will be more tonight and tomorrow, and the river won't crest until Friday. I don't expect to have any problems with my house, but there is a fairly good chance we could lose electricity or just internet access.

It took me ages to type this. I'm going to try to finish up the next chapter of Bug tomorrow, but if it's late, the fault is with the clouds and my wrists.

There was one good thing to come out of the mess here. See my icon for a rainbow that appeared in the middle of the gloom. (Photography not mine.)

Damn. The big threat earlier this summer was that flooding would be as bad as 1993, when the reservoir south of here flowed over the spillway and pushed aside tons and tons of black Iowa dirt to expose a Devonian fossil field. (Pretty cool, actually. You can stroll along a 375 million year old sea bed.)

But now the flooding may be worse, up to some record set almost a century ago. Streets are closed, there are sandbagging operations near the waterways, and there's talk of closing most of the bridges over the rivers. In '93, they had to close part of the interstate, so that's possible too. Other than the commuting nightmare, the biggest danger is to some homes and businesses very close to the water. *quashes lecture about people who buy in a flood plain*

I'm worried about my poor baby tomato plants and herbs, which I put in late because it was so cold this spring. Now they're being subjected to straight-line winds that the weather terrorists weather guys on TV say may reach up to 100 miles an hour. Not to mention the possibility of godless tornadoes. ( A rude explanation of "godless tornadoes" and why Iowans spend so much time in their basements may be found here.)

We are relatively high and dry, but the storms keep knocking out the internet, cable, or all of the electricity. Blackouts have eaten a couple of LJ posts already. So if I disappear, all is relatively well, at least chez Murchison. Imagine me sitting in muddy, humid Iowa, grousing about the weather, and be glad you're elsewhere.

I just realized I don't want to read my FL until I've seen DW, so I took this test instead:

-34 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Poor (Failure) Take the test!

Gakked from mustangsally78

It would have been worse, except for the marital congress question. And I don't go to bed in curlers either.

There are so many things I want to post about, but I'm trying to keep to my once-a-week schedule, so this chapter takes precedence.


Title: Bug on the Cosmic Windscreen

Author: Miss Murchison

Rating: PG

Summary: Spike landed in the BSG 'verse and made a bit of a splash, or at least a splat. He thinks he's there to help, and the bewildered Colonists don't know what to think. This went AU after Pegasus. I may have stolen an idea or two after that, but I've changed whatever happened to fit my plot. So far, none of my thefts have gone further than the end of Season 2. Also, just because someone has been revealed as a Cylon on the show doesn't mean that person is a Cylon in this story.

Thanks: to keswindhover and revdorothyl for being such great friends and wonderful betas.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, it all belongs to Joss, ME, and the creators of BSG and all the other stories I reference here. I thank them for creating so many universes for us to play in and enjoy.

Previous chapters are here. (I will get around to posting the more recent chapters on my site soon, but for now the new bits are only on LJ.)

A short Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galactica for those who have never watched Battlestar Galactica is here.


( Gods or Monsters? )

I just had a flashback to my childhood. Many times people who argued against interracial marriage would say something like, "I'm against it because if they have a child, what will the poor thing do?"

I'd like a TARDIS so I could travel back in time and say, "Become the Democratic candidate for President of the United States."

I voted today in a local election. By coincidence, I got the same parking space I'd used when I caucused back in January. I remember it because it was a tight fit and the ground was icy and treacherous that night. Today, I slipped in the mud on a muggy, rainy day. The woman who checked me in and handed me my ballot had also been at the Democratic caucus.

On caucus night, I was surprised by the crowd that came to support Obama. Every election cycle for decades, I've heard that younger voters were finally mobilizing and would make a real difference. I'd stopped believing. But that night it happened, with one of my daughters helping organize the Obama preference group. Later, I wrote, "I'm almost afraid of the optimism I now feel. Yes, my candidate came in second. But the two candidates I think of as the best of the Dem's slate came in first, and the turnout was excellent. Participation is a good thing."

I still remember the expressions of shock on the faces of the Clinton precinct captains when they not only didn't win the greatest number of votes, but came in behind the Edwards group I helped captain. (I do not regret backing Edwards. I joined his campaign even though I doubted he had a chance of winning because I believed he was pushing important items onto the agenda. I still think he changed the focus of the campaign for the better with his emphasis on issues like health care and poverty. Besides, I had some great arguments with my family.)

What pains me is that at the caucus Democrats were talking about having an "embarrassment of riches" in our choice of candidates. Discussion was about issues, not personalities. It hurts that what started out, for me at least, as a cheerful experience in pure democracy turned into such a bitter season.

At the time of the caucus, I still believed Clinton was the likely nominee. I also thought that we would not nominate a black man for president, that we weren't "ready." My daughter told me I was behind the times, that attitudes really have changed. I was never happier to be proved wrong. I don't know if Obama can fix even half the things that have gone wrong, but the fact that he ran such a smart campaign gives me hope he can run a smart administration. The fact that so many people supported his campaign gives me hope that they will also support that administration.

And, damn, it hurts to hope. Cynicism is so much more comfortable.

For now, the drama continues. I've been watching the headlines on TPM Election Central all day. ( Just today, they have posted: )

In spite of the contradictory statements from the Clinton campaign, it does look like this is finally it, but it will be interesting to see if Hillary concedes by the end of the week or if she just suspends her campaign.

I was just talking to Mr. M about dinner, and I realized that we have become the kind of people about whom others say, "He's the only one who could live with her without going insane. And vice versa."