Spring is coming?

I really don't like rain. I don't mind a good ole thunderstorm but I really don't like prolonged bouts of dreary rain. It has been raining now for about 36 hours. My backyard is a swamp and my sump pump is earning its keep. The chances of a repeat of last year's flood is very slim though. We still had a lot of snow on the ground last year at this time in addition to the rain than never ended. This year, we really don't have any snow left on the ground and this is the first real rain we've had. Talking about the flood, there are still a lot of houses and some businesses that have not recovered. One restaurant that got about 7 feet of water was just torn down this last week. No great loss. It was a restaurant that we called Peking Barffet (It was really named the Peking Buffet). Somebody always got sick after eating what they called Chinese food. Also, Taco Bell finally got torn down. For months, their sign out front said, "20 years, two floods, we'll be back." Just the other day a Lot for Sale sign went up. I guess they are not coming back. Many cities have just recently passed a local option sales tax to help with flood recovery. It's not quite the problem here in Iowa City as it is in Cedar Rapids. They had over 1000 blocks under water.

For the first time in my 38 years, I am beginning to worry about the economy. For one reason or another, I have always been fairly insulated from swings in the economy but that may not be the case much longer. The University is really feeling the pinch and has already been laying people off, freezing salaries, proposing forced furloughs, etc... I am not so much worried that the University will force me to take an unpaided day or two off every month (since I am paid out of a grant, they really can't do that) as I am that they will decide that they will decrease the amount of money they contribute to my insurance and/or retirement. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

Yesterday, I sat for my AFAA exam. AFAA is one of the governing bodies of the fitness industry. There was both a written and a practical part of the exam. I felt I did fairly well but who knows? I may have really blown it. Being AFAA certified will make me marketable just about anywhere I go. The test required knowledge of physiology/metabolism, anatomy, principles of safe movement, elements of class set up, and so forth. It was a little more difficult than I thought it would be but at least it is done. That was the first multiple choice test I have taken in nearly 10 years.