There's always a bright side.




Since Fargo has begun its 2011 flood fight there has been a whole lot more optimism then the 2009 or 2010 battles. For one, we were much more prepared. In 2009, even though it was not completely necessary, I stayed in the cities with my cousins and school was cancelled for an entire week. Last year, 2010, I remember from midnight to eight in the morning, going down to the Fargodome and filling and stacking sandbags until my arms were too tired to continue, going home to sleep for a few hours and heading over to pile sandbags up in a friend's backyard through the miserable rain while standing in mud that instantly covered any sandbag you didn't catch. We would be found later carrying all of the furniture, electronics, musical instruments, and work out machines up to the top level of their house where it was so packed they couldn't fit one more thing.

This year?



Charlie helping my practice for tennis by running to get the ball for me.



We have that fancy new portable wall that you can see in the left of this picture of Charlie, the school was out sandbagging only one day, we've filled most (or all?) of the sandbags before the water was even seriously threatening us, and Charlie and I have made sure the blocked off road by our house does not have lack of activity for too long.

Though Moorhead is still behind, and some of the smaller places around Fargo are still trying to save their homes from the water, I think over all this year was a great improvement from recent years... But, sadly, they probably wont be talking about how awesome our community is on the national news so much this year...