Of Lincoln and Apartment Hunting

Spent an interesting and exhausting weekend in Lincoln with three recent high school graduates, scouting out the apartment possibilities for their college years. I now feel as if I know Lincoln's neighborhoods intricately!  The ironic development is that after visiting dozens of houses, apartments, and duplexes, the boys decided to put an application into the VERY FIRST complex that we visited. I can't complain too much, though. It was good to have them see what else was out there before they made their choice.

I got a very enlightening lecture from one prospective landlord. It was for a duplex that ended up being in southwest Lincoln, which, after I found out where it was, we weren't interested in seeing. However, as I began answering questions from the landlord about who would be living in it and why they were coming to Lincoln, the landlord said "How about your son find his own apartment? He and his friends need to look for themselves." He went on to say that he had been through this with his own children, and that the boys needed to become independent. I can't say that I disagree with him, it was just an interesting source for a lecture of that kind.

Saturday afternoon, we had had our fill of apartment hunting for the day, so we drove out to Fremont to my daughter's in-laws beautiful home on Woodcliff Lake. The boys were a little apprehensive at first, because they couldn't believe it was going to be any fun, but they had a blast! Woodcliff Lake is a man-made lake that began it's first incarnation as a sandpit. The owner created a unique design - a circular central lake with spoke-like coves coming off of the main lake. Today the coves and outer bank of the lake are lined with beautiful homes, some permanent, some summer residences. There's a large community room and a couple of saloons and restaurants on the lake as well, a perfect place to spend the weekend.

Our host and hostess were wonderful, as always. Lots of food and a couple of pontoon cruises around the lake. 

Again under the category of you know you're in for stomach dropping news when it starts out "honey, I'm OK..." It seems that Friday night a fast-moving severe thunderstorm hit North Platte, with a couple of tornadoes and high straight-line winds knocking out power, uprooting trees and blowing off part of the roof at the Union Pacific Diesel Shop. The Mister generally works in a 6' x 6' glass box on the top of a 60' tower overlooking the service track, orchestrating locomotives onto the right trains. He climbed down the stairs at nearly the height of the storm to take shelter in a locomotive cab. His skin is still sand-blasted from the force of the wind. The wind tossed the tower around so much that a half-full pot of coffee was empty while still sitting in the coffee maker. 

Fortunately, no major injuries and the damage is already being cleaned up. As much as I hate being in storms, it's almost as hard knowing that your family is in one and you can't help them in any way.

Thanks for stopping by. The coffee is always on.