Spring Creek Flood

It's the 10 year anniversary of the Spring Creek flood in Fort Collins. Here are some of the pictures I have from that: FLOOD.

It had rained, mostly drizzled, for days, which was pretty unusual, but not freakish or anything. Strong, quick downpours and the occasional drizzle would be one thing, but this had been going on for a while. I recall being at work at WaterPik, on the second shift. One woman I worked with got a call from her folks, who lived at the trailer park that at that moment was getting flooded away. We didn't know at the time that there was a real flood going on. As she was walking out, somebody said, 'Hey, you know you always wanted beach front property', and there was a good round of laughter.

At the end of the shift I rode my bike home. I was pedaling underwater at a couple of points, though I was never like sitting under water. (This rusted/gunked up my bike seriously btw. Got a whole new one, which I still have, later that year.) Going along Campus West I saw a some people kayaking in the street.

When I got home I got a call from a friend who lived in the NorthWoods apartments, just across the street from Spring Creek on Shields Street. (He worked on the second shift too, and when he got home his apartment was a couple feet deep in water. I picked him up and he stayed on the couch in the living room for a couple of months.) I recall stopping by his place in later days. I was impressed with what a couple of feet of water can do. It knocked over his media center. I think it snafued his computer, his bed, couch, etc.

I went to work early the next day for some meeting with an HR person or something. (Remember I was on second shift so early is like 2 pm.). I drove, as opposed to what I would have usually done, which is biked, and took a different route than normal. At one point I needed to cross a bridge and it had been washed out. By bridge I mean a road that crossed a ditch. In the park around this area, I noticed a recliner and other furniture that had floated down.

Don't recall what route I took, but I made it to work and got in for my appointment. Whatever it was for. (Signing up for flu shots? ) I told the person I was meeting with why I was late and she kind of laughed and acknowledged the flood.

Guess I picked the wrong week to get into the market.

Monday I bought 61.69 shares of mnscx, an index fund (index fund = a mutual fund that is based on an 'Index' such as the Dow Jones Industrial average). The nice thing about them is that they go up and down with the market. You aren't investing in say, oil, or pharmaceuticals exclusively, for example. They supposedly do better in general than more specific mutual funds.

From Monday to now, Saturday, my shares of this fund have lost 11% of their value. One week! Shit. Oh well. I was thinking I should have waited a week for the market too cool down. It had gotten up to 14,000 a new record, you figure it would be due for a (ahem!) correction. The reason I had bought in at this time was that I had just put enough money into my Scottrade account for the minimum amount to buy into mnscx - $1,000. I wasn't looking at the recent surge in the stock market and saying, 'I gotta get into this now!'

Oh well, Not the end of the World. That's the only investment I have besides my 401K. I check my 401k like a couple of times a year and it has been doing fine. I am sure it took it's fair hit recently, but overall I like it's behavior.

West Memphis Three - Fort Collins One

Here's a really interesting story from the Denver Post - Sketchy evidence raises doubt. A woman was killed in Fort Collins in 1987 and the police suspected 15 year old Tim Masters, who lived near where the body was found. Initially, they didn't have much evidence so they didn't bring him to trial. But in 1999 he was brought to trial and convicted. They still didn't have any physical evidence, but they had a psychologist who testified that some drawings of Masters' showed he was the killer (somehow). Guess it's better than the Salem witch trials, but not by much.

Reminds me of the West Memphis Three. In that case they had some quack who testified against three teenagers, accusing them of murder cause they wore black, like Metallica, and drew satanic bullshit on their notebooks.

I'm surprised this stuff is allowed in court. You'd figure that in this day and age we are more sophisticated than that. Apparently not.

Live Earth.

I caught a little of the Live Earth show last Sunday. It was ok. Got to see some groups I liked, though it mostly looked like not my cup of tea. Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran rallied a cheer with 'Everyone who didn't come here on a private jet raise your hands!', and Billy Corgan finished the Smashing Pumpkins set with, 'Our new album comes out on (July whenever). I know you are all going to buy it, not illegally download it like you did all our other albums. Just kidding.'
Nothing like a good concert/show/rally to bring people together, but I don't know that this gig accomplished much. Glad I didn't have to see Bono's doing his save the world shtick.
(Incidentally, the origin of all this, the Band Aid album, only had one female group/artist on it - Bananarama. Kind of odd that that was the case imho. Also, I think Duran Duran might have been the only band on that song that was also on last weeks Diana concert and this weeks Live Earth thing. Not sure though.)

What's in my iPod right now.

Top 10 tunes by playcount on my iPod as of 5:50 pm, 7/11/2007.
10. Skulls - The Misfits
9. Everyday Should Be A Holiday - The Dandy Warhols
8. Reject All American - Bikini Kill
7. Deadbeat Club - The B-52's
6. Does Your Mother Know - ABBA
5. Boogie Shoes - KC and the Sunshine Band
4. Suddenly I See - KT Tunstall
3. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - Devo
2. Up & Down - Scent
1. Rehab - Amy Winehouse