"Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody." -Mark Twain

I've been thinking a lot about water these days. It is refreshing. It makes the grass grow. It makes up a good percentage of our body. In some cases, we have to pay for it. Most of all it can be destructive.

All summer it seemed that we were living under the threat of flooding. The Missouri river was several feet above flood stage, they called it the 500 year food. What they didn't mention most of the time is that it could have been avoided for the most part. The Army Corp of Engineers were releasing water from a dam in South Dakota that was too full to accept the spring melt off. All that water traveled down the Missouri and flooded north of Council Bluffs and south of Council Bluffs. I-29 closed for all summer and into fall. When it finally opened the land that was underwater for so long looked like the desert. Gray...as far as the eye could see. DEVASTATION!!! You can still see it in the high water marks on the trees and the absence of all grass and vegetation.

In early August we had a tremendous hail and wind storm hit the Omaha/Council Bluffs metro. Every house in our neighborhood had to have roofs, siding and windows replaced. We called our insurance the very next day and got scheduled in for an inspection. They scheduled us for an inspection several months later. In the meantime, everyone in our neighborhood had construction signs going up in their yards and I kept thinking, what are we going to do? We finally had our insurance inspection, sure enough we needed a new roof, some new siding, new windows and a new garage door. OK, now, time to all construction companies, I have a little to say about this...maybe it will be another post. We finally decide on who is going to do our work and others are getting their work done, We get our shingles delivered, they are perched upon our roof and it is getting colder and colder. I feel like we are a day late and a dollar short. UGH, I think we will be the house on the block with the shingles on the roof and a foot of snow on top.

During the storm, my husband was at work so you guessed it, our vehicle got damaged as well. It needs a new roof, new hood and passenger front quarter panel, along with several other dings to be repaired. We took the insurance papers to our dealership (our car is only 3 years old) and made an appointment. Tomorrow is the day we get that fixed!! Can not wait!

People say when you want to lose weigh, you must drink water. The side effects of that is pretty obvious, what goes in...must come out. So, I have been spending a lot of time looking for a bathroom while on the road. Not an easy feat in some parts of my great state of Iowa.

Pretty soon water will be falling from the sky in crystal form. This means snow days, car accidents, windshield scraping and snow blowers. It also used to mean snowmobiling when I was younger, which is the only think I want to be doing when the snow flies. Although I love a good snow day, I hope that we will get the white stuff in moderation this year.

In closing, water is a necessary evil. I just don't like it when it hurts my house and car, when it causes accidents and makes me compromise my ideal of bathroom cleanliness.