Photo Friday: The Flood

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The heavy rains and storms caused a huge flood in our town. Several people had to be evacuated on the south side of town, some of them by boat, and it sounds like we’re going to lose a few buildings and homes.

Mill Street

Mill Street is still totally submerged. The American Legion Post on the right recorded 56″ of water inside. That wall, built after the last flood, is 42″ high.

I don’t think of flooding when I picture our town. Our elevation is right around 750′, and as you drive west toward Peoria, it drops significantly to a little over 300′ at the Illinois River. However, that water has to start somewhere, and it came rushing out of the fields and quickly drowned out the creeks that keep the town dry during an average rainfall. 5″ of water in one night doesn’t sound like much when you’re talking about a placid pool, but all that water is going to flow—and accumulate—somewhere.

I’m fortunate my house is on the north side of town, which is the higher side of town. We had some water come in through our back door, and at one point the drain quit for a short period of time when the surge overwhelmed the city sewer system. For us it was more mess than damage, though. Downstream, drains and sewer lines backed up into some homes.

We canceled school Thursday due to some flooding at our junior high. My office (and all of our servers) are below ground level, so I stopped in and checked them out, then took a quick ride around town. Several streets were still blocked. The water had receded, but not much.

Mine Carts

Debris shows how the water rose over these mine carts overnight.

There’s more rain coming next week. It’s not supposed to be near as bad, but we’re hopeful most of this will be drained away by then.

Meanwhile, my old stomping grounds in the Chicago suburbs saw some flooding, too. Portions of I-55 (the Stevenson to Chicagoans) were closed, and I saw some photos of neighborhoods I recognized sitting underwater. When storms stretch from Oklahoma almost to Canada and the clouds reach 45,000 feet elevation, nowhere is safe.

Locally and nationally, it’s been a crazy week. It will be nice if things calm down a bit this weekend.

The Deadliest Ad

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The remastered and relaunched version of my debut novel, Deadliest of the Species, has been out a few weeks now. Response has been good, but things have been quiet on the review front.

My publisher worked up a new ad, and it should be making the rounds soon:

She's back, and she's waiting for you

She’s back, and she’s waiting for you

Check it out on Kindle, Nook, or Smashwords (with more to come, including trade paperback). I’ve been waiting a long time for this, and I hope the rest of you find it worth the wait, too.

Already have Deadliest? Great! Thank you very much. If you enjoyed it, be sure to read the extended preview for Winter Kill at the end, or peruse my other work in the side column on my home page. Some of it is even free!

Flood Waters

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No writing or editing tonight. Instead, I’m battling flooding at my back door.

Ready for Flood Warfare, Round 3.

I’d much rather be manning the keyboard

We’re used to getting some water when the rain is heaviest, but tonight we’ve already fought back two floods and the weather is threatening more. The good news for us is the damage is minimal, it’s just a huge mess and a pain in the ass.

Some of our neighbors are not so lucky. The south side of town sits lower, and we’re hearing word of flash floods and evacuations. It has flooded down there at least once before. We’re hoping nobody was injured.

More nasty weather is brewing up over Oklahoma, and it’s supposed to work its way through the Midwest tomorrow and Friday. Here’s hoping it calms down. Between Boston and Texas, there’s been more than enough disaster this week.

Wherever you may be, stay safe, everyone.

Training Around Injury

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I screwed up my left arm in a judo match about two months ago. Nothing went “pop,” nor was there any obvious sign of injury. About an hour after class a muscle in my forearm started to burn. It lasted a few days, but I didn’t let it bother me much. Because I’m a stubborn asshole, I went back to judo class a week later and had another match.

I could feel the same muscle aching during that second match. Once again, an hour later, it hurt like hell. Any pinching motion with my fingers felt like a hot poker to the forearm. It settled a little, going from burning to aching over the course of a few weeks, right up to and through my black belt test.

With the test coming, I couldn’t stop training altogether. Not a chance. So I trained around the injury. I had no trouble with kata. I had to be careful grabbing and pulling, and I put a pad on my forearm for partner work, but I could do just about anything else in class and practice.

The sophisticated medical device I was given to rehab my arm

Sophisticated medical equipment: a giant, snapped rubber band

Flash forward a few more weeks to today and I saw the athletic trainer at my day job. He diagnosed what I already suspected: tennis elbow. He told me keep doing the stretches I found, then suggested adding ice, massage, and some exercises with a giant chunk of rubber band. I asked him if I could keep training, and he told me to keep working around the injury until it heals up (which, unfortunately, could still be a while).

The key is finding out what you can do. Too many people have a small, nagging injury and declare it couch time. This doesn’t do any good. Can’t run? Do some upper body exercises. Hurt your arm? Run. Hangnail? Suck it up, buttercup.

A back injury may be an exception, but there’s generally a way to work around injury. One of our black belts screwed up her knee, so she did kata from a chair, just working the upper body movements. After her surgery, she did kata while staying in one stance to rehab the knee. It paid off: her doctor was shocked at how quickly she healed.

Succumbing to a small injury is just finding an excuse to skip workouts. Cultivate the opposite and find an excuse to work out, and you’ll be able to accomplish more than you think.

Smoke Blog: Kicking Off the Season

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It took until April, but I finally got out to the porch with a cigar.

Breaking the porch chair back in with a RyJ Lonsdale #cigar

Just a short one to kick things off

It’s finally the season where I’ll be able to sit outside with a cigar and the laptop or iPad and get some real work done. I find it’s a lot less distracting that way, and I stay more focused. In my office, it’s far too easy to get distracted by web surfing and finding other things to read.

As for the cigar, the Romeo y Julieta 1875 lonsdale is a decent little smoke. It’s a Sumatra wrapper, near as I can tell from a quick Google search, and I think the small size and tight draw made it burn a little hotter and harsher than I normally prefer. Its larger cousins from the Reserva Real line tend to be a lot smoother and more enjoyable, but I didn’t have an hour to kill smoking a toro or corona tonight.

That’s not unusual for a lonsdale, in my opinion. The size is designed for a quick smoke, something for when I’m in a hurry, or for when I’m working in the yard or washing the motorcycle. A good friend preferred them while on duty as an EMT because he had a much better chance of finishing between calls and didn’t feel bad if he had to chuck it when a call came in.

There are storms on the horizon for this week. After that, we have some nice weather again. Here’s looking forward to a productive Spring and Summer.

Photo Friday: The Pitch

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One strikeout, coming up.

The Pitch

Peoria Chiefs on the way to a 7-2 win

There were a few strikeouts that day, and several home runs sealed the deal. The O’Brien Field fence goes from 310′ at the baselines to 400′ at center field, and a couple balls—fair and foul alike—bounced out onto Adams Street. All in all, it made for an exciting game.

I brought only the 55-250mm lens, and it did the job just fine. One of these days I’d like to get something a little faster, with a large enough aperture to hide that net altogether. Maybe if I sell just a few more copies of Winter Kill and Deadliest of the Species…