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The Town of Vienna LOVES Me!

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:48:07 -0500

Or at least, they must read my blog (which brings my total readership quite possibly into the double digits - okay, maybe not).
The day after posting my whiny commentary on the trials and tribulations of shoveling vast amounts of snowy (yep, I can use my new four-letter word as an adjective) snow, they showed up at the end of the street with heavy equipment and cleared away the snowbergs.
When I drove Zane to school, big burly men were shoveling the sidewalks of Kingsley that hadn’t been included in all of my previous three days’ “clear a path to the bus stop” endeavors.
And when I drove Gavin the opposite direction to preschool and passed Avery and Ana’s bus stop, I found they had removed that snowberg entirely as well.
I love you, Town of Vienna!!!!!
Now, if only you’d come about three days earlier.

My New Four-Letter Word

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:33:15 -0500

{Caution: the following blog post contains a rant that is rude and not that coherent in the first place, so feel free not to read it if you think it might offend you.}
Now that I’ve peaked your interest . . .
SNOW. Yep, that’s my new four-letter word. I plan on using it now whenever I’m really mad about something. Instead of thinking of something mean and biting my tongue so as not to say it, I’ll go ahead and blurt out “Aw, SNOW!”
Avery and Ana’s bus stop is only a block away down Kingsley, a local but heavily used street in our neighborhood. During the morning rush hour (when Avery and Ana meet their bus for school) at least a hundred cars an hour use the street.
And even though it’s only one block, it’s at least double the length of a typical city block. Unfortunately, less than half of the houses on our side of the street have shoveled their side walk. And most have four-foot high berms on either side of their immaculately shoveled driveways.
Rather than have my kids walk in knee-high snow and scramble over several of these snow berms, over the past couple of days since school has started I have literally shoveled over an entire football field’s length of sidewalks and cut a path through a seven-foot tall snowberg at the corner to their bus stop.
When I was almost done with the first house’s sidewalk, this cute little old lady who looked like she was at least in her late 70’s or early 80’s came out with a shovel and started helping me. Now there’s someone who shouldn’t be shoveling their sidewalk (i.e. her neighbors should take care of it) and I was glad to have helped her out.
But then there’s the guy at the end of the street who came out this morning (during my second shoveling stint on the snowberg in front of his house). He was in his PJs at almost 8:00 in the morning and was rolling his garbage can down his immaculately shoveled driveway. Seriously dude, get out of bed at 7:00 and spend the half-hour it would take to clear your sidewalk!
I’ve found that this last stint of heavy snows have divided our region into two types of people, the active shovelers and the lazy “it’ll melt eventually” (i.e. by early July) waiters.
A few of us shovelers were lamenting this fact the other day. I talked to two other people who had also spent their week shoveling other people’s sidewalks and crosswalk entrances so their kids could get to school, to bus stops, etc. In our area, if your road is a main foot traffic thoroughfare to the Metro or to a local school (and many of them are), you should be conscientious enough to at least clear a path past your house.
So someday when I rule the world (or at least Vienna), here’s what I’ll do. . .
I’ll have all of the local governments actually enforce the laws that require people to clear their sidewalks. In such an odd occurrence as a 100-year storm, they could easily give everyone a date by which they have to have their sidewalks shoveled. Say, about the time that the kids need to head back to school.
On the designated date, the local governments can then send out crews with shovels and snow blowers to clear the sidewalks of those who haven’t complied. The owner of any sidewalk the county or towns have to clear should then be charged a nice fee - and I’m not talking something like $20 just to cover expenses because then all the lazy “it’ll melt eventually”s among us will just choose that route. It needs to be something that puts a little pain the in the wallet - like $100. You can save the $20 fines for the dust-farting older people who shouldn’t be out shoveling in the first place.
And the funny thing about this rant is the fact that I haven’t shoveled my front walk. I would gladly do it, but after having done so for all of the previous snows I know it’s useless because the two neighbors to my right will never shovel their own walks and I usually shovel the neighbor’s walk to my left (I did shovel her driveway and the path to her house so she can get out though).
But then again, I also live on a cul-de-sac.

Jeff’s Home!

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 19:21:29 -0500

I picked up Jeff at the airport last night and we got home a little after midnight. He was originally going to stay in SLC for a day or so, but by the time his group got back to the States, I think he realized just how tired he was and booked the first flight back to DC.
And the mystery picture from the last post was the pair of sweat pants I wore while I was trudging through above the knee and sometimes thigh-high snow in the back yard. By the time I was done, they were so frozen solid that they literally could stand on their own.
Denise is the winner of the 10 points - even if she did post the answer on the wrong blog entry!
So Denise, how you going to spend them?

Diary of a Crazy Shoveling Lady

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:39:00 -0500

I think I’ve engaged in snow removal efforts well over 12 hours over the past week and a half. Considering the fact that that’s the only exercise I’ve gotten, I guess I should be somewhat appreciative (half-marathon is in five weeks).
When we had the first two feet of snow fall on us back in December, Jeff quickly enlisted his friend Mike to help shovel all of the snow off of the roof. I came home one evening to see two tiny lights bobbing up and down on the roof. It was Jeff and Mike equipped with shovels and headlamps.
Fast-forward to our last two snow storms where we easily had twice as much weight worth of snow land on the roof and you can imagine that it caused me a little bit of concern. Knowing full well that Jeff would have cleared off the roof after each storm, I would walk past the ever-expanding cracks in our ceiling and just wait for the roof to cave in.
Now, I know you’re thinking, why is Alex so blasted concerned about her silly roof? Well, back when we bought this place, we knew it hadn’t been kept up very well. We knew it was a fixer upper and that we’d have to put a fair amount of money and sweat equity into it. It also doesn’t take a rocket scientist to look at the over hangs of the roof and wonder, with all of the rot and carpenter bee mines in them, just how much this roof can handle before it will fall apart. I figure that there’s at least 6 or 7 tons of snow up there after these two storms.
Even after my initial foray around the outside of the house with a garden rake and a plastic lawn chair (and plenty of stares from the neighbors), I still had icicles and snow pack cascading precariously over the edges of the roof.
So I got creative. Using an old hand railing that I found in the basement (I think it was originally for the stairwell leading into the basement), packing tape (because I couldn’t find a stitch of duct tape in the house anywhere), and some glorified mover’s saran wrap, I put together this ingenious little contraption.

I then used a board borrowed from one of our many IKEA shelving units downstairs as a platform. With all of the snow around the house, I could smush it into the snow and still be about 3 feet off the ground.
In all, I think I was able to clear at least a ton or two (no joke!) of snow from around the outside of the house. Goodbye ice dams. Hello melting!
Ten points to anyone who can figure out what this is a picture of:

Still in Haiti

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:15:59 -0500

Though Jeff was supposed to return to the States yesterday, he sent this email this morning. Hopefully we’ll get him back by the weekend.
We are still here. Our outbound C-17 flight got cancelled. Now we wait while the leaders work on arranging alternate transport.

They think that they will have a charter tonight that will take us directly to SLC. I hope so. Military transport is not known for its comfort. Many of the Airborne guys say that the best part of a C-17 flight is that they usually get to jump out of the plane. The second half of the flight is always much mire comfortable.

Some may be going to the beach today since we have nothing to do. We gave all our supplies away yesterday in anticipation of leaving. None relish the thought of sitting in camp all day.

I hope to go back up into the mountains where it is cooler. A hike would be nice.

Our information is coming in hour by hour. I will let you know when I am leaving.

I miss you all.

Love,

Jeff/Dad

Sent from Haiti

And here are some pics that he posted yesterday. I’m including Jeff’s titles, though I’m not sure if some of them are descriptions, place names, etc. Guess I should brush up on my Creole!
Fritay:

Kenskoff market (okay, that one I can figure out):

Kenskoff:

Pulling One Over on Mom

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:12:07 -0500

Our schedule over the past week or so has been sporadic at best and I’ve gotten totally lax about bed times, baths, etc.
Last night, I finally told the boys that they needed to get ready for bed. Gavin as usual started to fall on the ground saying that his neck hurt, a common malady in our house.
Finally, I told them they had five minutes to put on their bed clothes.
“No, Mom! Three minutes!” Gavin wailed from the other room.
“Okay, fine. Three minutes,” I responded.
Then from the boys’ room I hear Gavin informing Zane in a really loud whisper, “Zane, I totally fooled her! She said five minutes but now we have THREE MINUTES!”
{Giggling from both boys.}
Gavin repeats this several times before I tell him I can hear everything he’s saying.
{Silence.}
Then I hear Gavin’s really loud whisper from the other room. “Zane, she heard everything. Now she knows we TOTALLY fooled her!”
Brain trusts, every last one of them!

White Out

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:12:28 -0500

I woke up this morning to what I thought was a large cracking sound. You know how you feel when you wake up with such a start and your heart actually hurts? Once my half-stupor faded, I realized the roof was still intact and it was probably just something blowing across the roof in the crazy wind outside.
I can’t remember the last time I was in a blizzard. I assume it happened at least once or twice while we lived in Utah or New Hampshire but this is amazing. You can’t see the end of the cul-de-sac. Don’t you just love my wimpy from-the-front-door picture?
I think I’m turning into one of those crazy house-bound old ladies (I’m 38 now, ya know!). You know the kind I’m talking about, the people who hole up in their house and when they do come out to shovel snow, they’re usually wearing some sort of face mask (to protect them from all of the snow dander, I’m sure) or using very unconventional snow removal methods.
After the last snow, I ended up taking a flat garden rake and pulled as much snow as I could off of the eaves of the house. I ultimately found the best method was to stand on an old plastic lawn chair that I’d smushed down into the snow and throw the rake as far up onto the roof as I could reach, pulling it down to cause a mini-avalanche, which often ended up landing on me. By the time I got around to the front of the house, I was getting some pretty funny looks from everyone else who was out shoveling. Can’t figure out why.
So before the electricity goes out, here are some pics from our last snowfall:

I woke to snow up and over the front steps. It continued to snow several inches over the rest of the day. I think we got around two and a half feet.

Word to the wise, if you ever buy an enclosed trampoline, get one with a zippered opening that you can shovel snow out of. I had to throw about two feet worth of snow off of our 15-foot trampoline -- all over the top of the net.

Hey Jeff! Your car needs to be shoveled out when you get home!

Remember this shot from the December snow?

After Saturday’s snow:

And compost central:

Haiti Update #4

Mon, 8 Feb 2010 16:50:51 -0500

Jeff titled the above picture “Happy Birthday.” Does this mean I’m getting 10 Haitian children as a birthday present?
Jeff’s group is coming back Wednesday with an army transport. They’ll fly to South Carolina and then (somehow - I forgot to ask how) get back to SLC. Jeff wants to stay a day or two, as do several others, so he’ll probably be coming back, weather permitting, this weekend some time.
Here’s an update from the UHTF website about what they’ve accomplished on this tour.
Our medical professionals, each linked with invaluable returned missionary interpreters, are performing extraordinary medical services in an exceptionally harsh environment. They have treated hundreds of severely wounded Haitians. Our field teams are providing wound care, infection prevention, appendage amputations, and primary care to infants and children along the side of the road and in refugee camps.

Doctors are treating acute wounds, broken bones, serious illness, infection, and horrendous numbers of amputations. They have also performed dozens of critical surgeries.

Each day over 50 UHTF medical professionals provide the core of treatment services at three Port-au-Prince hospitals. They are joined by these invaluable return missionary interpreters – who themselves have been performing medical functions beyond any reasonable expectation. At the overwhelmed hospitals, best described as somewhat-organized chaos, our doctors are now in charge of two main departments, one nurse is now director of nursing for a several-hundred bed hospital, and one physician is medical director for that hospital. Return missionary interpreters are enlisted in critical patient care and surgery. It is miraculous to behold.

Returned missionary interpreters are seeing wounds so severe some of these doctors have not seen such before, and they are so totally invaluable in translating for doctors and nurses and in giving comfort to frightened patients. The senior physician of a large hospital told me these interpreters are unique in that their language skills are superior to any other interpreters they have, and their love of the people is felt by everyone involved, especially the patients.

Numerous doctors from the U.S. and other countries are broadly applauding these American medical professionals and the return missionary interpreters of the UHTF. A group of Austrian physicians told us tonight this is by far the hardest disaster they ever done; the Army guys tell us this is far more brutal than Afghanistan.

In addition to interpreting for medical teams, the returned missionaries – acting as interpreters – join the US Army at sentry points, accompany US Army ambulances, advise US Navy evacuation helicopters, accompany US Army / World Food Program food convoys, have set at ease large crowds where disorder was potentially disrupting medical services, assist DMAT in emergency patient care, and countless other interpreter duties as requested by UN, USAID, WHO, WFP, Red Cross, Catholic Relief Services, and others.

Every morning at 2:15 a.m. a convoy of US Army trucks heads out, accompanied by several Haitian-speaking returned missionary interpreters. Where military and police feared food riots, these gentle former missionaries with their language and cultural understanding and their great smiles instantly calm the crowds and bring peace and order. These convoys carry rice to huge tent cities. Enormous amounts of emergency food aid are delivered each day.

In the daily coordinating meeting of all outside organizations providing aid in country, the return missionary interpreters are the envy of everyone and our most praised asset. Every group is asking us how they can get a few “Mormon missionaries” to interpret for them; we try to respond to every such request.

The Utah Hospital Task Force is incurring immeasurable goodwill for the United States of America and for the LDS Church.

Here, we’re expecting another snow storm beginning tomorrow which will dump an additional 10 to 20 inches on the area.
The kids will probably be out of school for the rest of the week. I wish I could blog like all the other moms out there about how much fun it is to have all this additional time with their kids, but all I can muster at this point is a hearty yippee.

Haiti Update #3

Sat, 6 Feb 2010 18:17:50 -0500

Jeff’s latest email:
Today was a great day for going around. I took six helicopter flights today. We went to an orphanage to check out some children that were in bad shape. Then someone asked if I knew where Imanii (sp?) in the DR was. I had been there 20 years ago on the ground.

They put me in a copter and had me show them where the hospital was there. Ummmm, I had never been there. But I was what they had. We needed to go get IV kits for children.

I won't go into all the details, but I found it and we got what we needed. Surely some international laws were broken today, but I'm still walking free.

Once back at the airport we ran into Stephen Studdart and his son David and we hired a car and toured the city and all the destruction.

And some pics he’s uploaded.

At a clinic:

Helicopter ride into the Dominican Republic:

So now I’m worried that they won’t be able to get him on Wednesday’s plane to go home.

Here we’ve been pummeled by loads of snow. Shoveling out of this Obama-proclaimed Snowmageddon has been quite the task. I’ve taken lots of pics but I’m too tired to download and post them just yet. I’ll just say that shoveling two feet of snow off of a completely enclosed trampoline (because the opening was just a slit, I had to throw the snow over the top of the 7-foot enclosure) is not fun. Not something you normally consider when buying a trampoline, but if anyone’s in the market for one, get it with a half-moon zipper!

Many thanks to the ward members who showed up to shovel that last several feet of driveway (and the ones who showed up later) to check on me. I even had a couple of offers to go up on the roof and shovel snow. I figure at this point (knock on wood), if it’s still holding we should be fine.

Now, whether or not the kids throw me over the edge during the next couple of days is another matter entirely.

Jeff’s Ears Must Be Itching

Fri, 5 Feb 2010 20:19:04 -0500

Would you believe I just got an email from Jeff? I just posted that last entry, what, an hour ago?
He said they went to a clinic in an area west of PaP. He says that most of the really bad stuff has been taken care of by now but that they’re now seeing more people exhibiting emotional scars from the earthquakes.
People are still afraid to go into buildings and are sleeping in the streets. The lucky ones have tents, while most are under a sheet propped up with sticks. He fears what will happen when it rains for the first time.
He also said he just got asked how much he weighs and that hopefully that means they’re considering him for one of the missions up into the mountains tomorrow. In his words “they are all hush hush, but we all know about them and everyone is lobbying to be one of the interpreters. Though, I am playing it cool and letting my mad skillz as a terp speak for themselves.”
That’s my boy!