A few observations I forgot to mention before
* There are a lot of ads posted on signposts throughout the city, especially in the ruined areas, offering services for mold removal, house gutting (going in and taking everything, including the drywall, out), tree removal (these can often be seen attached to fallen trees), and such and such.
* About half of the stoplights are still not working. There are many stop signs put up in intersections that could use more than just a stop sign.
I'm sure there's more addendums that I've forgotten, but my mind's a blank, and it's probably just as well.
So on to where we left off...
The past couple days have been going to parades, missing parades because we dragged our heels, visiting friends and family, and missing more parades because we decided at the last minute to spend more time with friends and family. Pretty much a good time has been had by all.
The Endymion parade, which is one of the bigger parades with a formal ball at the end of the route and everything, got postponed on Saturday because of the potential for wind and rain (neither of which ended up happening for any significant period of time). That, apparently, is quite unprecedented, and is likely a sign that the powers that be are still a bit shaken by the harsh weather they had last August. Whatever the cause, a lot of people got bent outta shape by that. Endymion is a fun parade, with fiber optic lighting and stuff (it's a night parade), and lots of people came into the city that day to see it. The up side, however, is that last night, the people got not one, but two big-time parades to see, since Bacchus is the usual Sunday night parade on Mardi Gras weekend. The result was a huge turnout last night, which had to look encouraging from a city recovery standpoint.
M and I went into the city on Saturday to see the Tucks parade with M's cousins and their kids. A tradition among the regular Mardi Gras goers is to set up a ladder with a box bolted to the top, which the little kids can sit in and see the parade and catch the beads and such that get thrown. M and her sister did it when they were little, as did her cousins, and now their kids do it too. They looked very cute sitting up on their ladder with their arms in the air, hoping to snag something. You think I got pictures? You bet I did.
After Tucks, there were no more parades, thanks to Endymion getting postponed, so we hung out in M's cousin's scooter rental/shop for a while and watched the kids climb around on the scooters and pretend to drive. The littlest one just pulled beads out of our bead bags. Then M and I went back, chilled, and had gumbo for dinner.
We were going to go see a few Uptown parades yesterday, but first stopped by to visit M's dad's old friend Ron Swoboda (outfielder for the '69 Mets, if I may name-drop). We just ended up staying there the whole time, munching on party food and talking.
Last night, we went to the Bacchus Ball. We got dressed up in our formal wear (I went with a green vest for my tuxedo, because that's a Mardi Gras color) and headed on out for the Convention Center downtown. Traffic, of course, was lousy. For reasons unknown, the cops blocked off the exit to the Convention Center on this side of the river, so we had to cross the river, turn around and cross it again (paying $1 at the toll booth - maybe that's the reason right there) and use the exit coming from that direction. Good thing we had left early.
We also had to park a few blocks from the entrance to the Ball, a few of those blocks being other parts of the Convention Center itself. As we were walking along the non-Ball portion of the Convention Center, I was sure to remind myself that this sidewalk was where misinformed people were living for a few days (weeks?) in August/September while they waited for transportation out of town that never came because there had never been a plan to pick anyone up at the Convention Center.
The Ball was pretty good. Michael Keaton was this year's Bacchus and led the parade atop his mighty Bacchus float. I didn't get as many beads as last time, but that's OK, since you have to put all that stuff somewhere anyway. Willie Nelson was the featured entertainment, which didn't really lend itself to boogying down, but it wasn't bad either. Sean Astin and Elijah Wood were both there as former Bacchuses (Bacchi?).
Today, we're going back to Mr. Po-Boy and then into the city to see Orpheus. That's all there is today, parade-wise, since it's a work day. Tomorrow is Mardi Gras and two more parades (I think). Then I fly home. This will probably be my last post from New Orleans.
Monday, February 27, 2006
Friday, February 24, 2006
Greetings From New Orleans
As you may have surmised from the subject line, I am writing this from New Orleans. Specifically, Jefferson Parish at M's cousin's house, but it's close enough.
M and I got in yesterday afternoon. The flight was mostly uneventful. We had to fly into Houston (George Bush International Airport - no big surprise that there was a big Fox News store in the airport; I kid you not at all) and get a connecting flight into New Orleans.
Had a catfish po-boy at the coincidentally named Mr. Po-Boy's as soon as we arrived. I was lucky to have M at my side when I ordered, since I wasn't entirely sure what the lady meant when she asked "dressed?" (It means "do you want everything or nothing on it?")
Visited with another cousin and her two little girls last night (a delightful time was had), and then retired for the night in the camper that's parked in the driveway here. There's 6 or 7 (last I counted) college kids staying here too, so we traded in convenient access to a shower for peace, quiet, and privacy.
Today was the day we went into the city. We visited with some friends of M's and went into the French Quarter for lunch with them and M's sister. We saw some devastation (though none in the Quarter itself), and at the time it looked pretty bad to me. After lunch and parting ways with the friends, M and I set out to see M's old neighborhood in the flood zone.
It was sad. We saw M's old Sunday school (what's left of it), M's old elementary school (what's left of it), M's childhood home (ditto), and the house M lived in until a few years ago (all things considered, that wasn't so bad). We were able to walk around inside most of those places, except for the childhood house. I was well acquainted with the smell of mold and mildew by day's end.
When I helped M move out the rest of her stuff the summer before last, I never thought I'd see that house (the more recent house, of course) again. Yet I walked around in it today, thanks to the more recent owners never really occupying the house after they bought it and also to the front door not being locked.
A really can't describe what we saw adequately. I took lots of pictures, so maybe those will convey what it looked like. Suffice to say that I saw a great many neighborhoods without a single person living in them. M's more recent neighborhood had a few people living in them, and we talked with her old next door neighbors for a while. They just moved back a few weeks ago and are living in a FEMA trailer in their driveway while their house gets fixed up inside (and looking nice, so far!)
We also went by the few places that had meaning to me, in my limited experience there. The PJ's where I went to get some pastries and hot chocolate one June morning - washed out and abandoned. The Rite-Aid where M and I stopped to get some last minute stuff before driving the U-Haul out of town with her remaining stuff, and where a few nights before I waited outside of with M's dog while M got us ice cream - also gone.
Our last stop in the tour o' sad was to check out the levee at the 17th Street Canal, where all the flooding began. We were a block away from the levee and picked a street to turn onto to go towards it. At first it appeared we had chosen unwisely and were on a dead-end street ending in a cul-de-sac. Then we realized that the house at the end of the street was, in fact, not supposed to be there. An entire house had washed up into the middle of the street. So we stopped the car and got out to investigate. We got past the house, and sure enough the street did continue to a T-intersection beyond which were some houses and then the levee. After some careful deduction, we came to the conclusion that the empty lot at a corner of the intersection was the original location of the displaced house. In its place was a badly beaten VW Bug.
Actually, we saw 3 VW bugs, all old-style, in that general area and in various states of disrepair. A red one by where we parked was just really dirty, as will happen when submerged in muddy water for a while. The one in the middle of where the house used to be was pretty bad. Another one down the street to the left of the intersection had its entire front end and top ripped off (the whereabouts of the missing front end remains a mystery to me). I'm going on the assumption that it was a VW bug in the relatively recent past. I don't think I got a single picture of that car, thanks to battery-related interruptions with my camera.
Anyway. As we got closer to the intersection, and could see more and more of the levee, we came to realization that we had stumbled upon the exact location of the levee break. Cars were passing by slowly, as the occupants took pictures or just looked. Every house in the area looked like a bomb had hit it. Along the line of houses in front of the levee, across the street from where the road block house used to be not so road blocky, there was a roof. Just a roof and a few feet of wall. The road block house still had its roof, so this roof did not belong to that house. Was the pile of rubble behind the roof the rest of the house, or just debris from its neighbors, all gathered up? Dunno.
The road block house's next door neighbor had a car parked on its side. By that, I mean the car was on its side, parked on the side of the house. In this case, that sentence there works in both contexts. Both the side of the car and side of the house.
We went back to our car and noticed that the house we had parked next to had kinda been ripped in half. It had a brick exterior, and it looked like the house had been yanked away from the brick wall that had once been attached to the front of the house. I think you'd have to see the pictures to see what I mean, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.
So we left the scene. A nearby church had on its marquee the upcoming events to be held in late August. August 2005.
Driving home, we passed the radio tower that had been knocked over by the tornado that went thought the area a few weeks ago.
We never went down to the Lower Ninth Ward, where the devastation is said to be the worst (it's certainly the area that the media paid the most attention to). Seeing the places M grew up was really enough for us.
So now we're back at Cousin D's house. Our mud-caked shoes have been rinsed off, and our mud-splattered jeans are in the wash. Everyone else staying there are off seeing tonight's parades. We have yet to see any parades, and tomorrow's thunderstorms may prevent seeing any tomorrow. But we're going to the Bacchus Ball Sunday night, so that will be fun. Future posts will be, hopefully, of a happier nature as I relate any interesting parade stories that may arise.
And if I think of anything else about today that was interesting, I'll be sure to add them in the comments section.
M and I got in yesterday afternoon. The flight was mostly uneventful. We had to fly into Houston (George Bush International Airport - no big surprise that there was a big Fox News store in the airport; I kid you not at all) and get a connecting flight into New Orleans.
Had a catfish po-boy at the coincidentally named Mr. Po-Boy's as soon as we arrived. I was lucky to have M at my side when I ordered, since I wasn't entirely sure what the lady meant when she asked "dressed?" (It means "do you want everything or nothing on it?")
Visited with another cousin and her two little girls last night (a delightful time was had), and then retired for the night in the camper that's parked in the driveway here. There's 6 or 7 (last I counted) college kids staying here too, so we traded in convenient access to a shower for peace, quiet, and privacy.
Today was the day we went into the city. We visited with some friends of M's and went into the French Quarter for lunch with them and M's sister. We saw some devastation (though none in the Quarter itself), and at the time it looked pretty bad to me. After lunch and parting ways with the friends, M and I set out to see M's old neighborhood in the flood zone.
It was sad. We saw M's old Sunday school (what's left of it), M's old elementary school (what's left of it), M's childhood home (ditto), and the house M lived in until a few years ago (all things considered, that wasn't so bad). We were able to walk around inside most of those places, except for the childhood house. I was well acquainted with the smell of mold and mildew by day's end.
When I helped M move out the rest of her stuff the summer before last, I never thought I'd see that house (the more recent house, of course) again. Yet I walked around in it today, thanks to the more recent owners never really occupying the house after they bought it and also to the front door not being locked.
A really can't describe what we saw adequately. I took lots of pictures, so maybe those will convey what it looked like. Suffice to say that I saw a great many neighborhoods without a single person living in them. M's more recent neighborhood had a few people living in them, and we talked with her old next door neighbors for a while. They just moved back a few weeks ago and are living in a FEMA trailer in their driveway while their house gets fixed up inside (and looking nice, so far!)
We also went by the few places that had meaning to me, in my limited experience there. The PJ's where I went to get some pastries and hot chocolate one June morning - washed out and abandoned. The Rite-Aid where M and I stopped to get some last minute stuff before driving the U-Haul out of town with her remaining stuff, and where a few nights before I waited outside of with M's dog while M got us ice cream - also gone.
Our last stop in the tour o' sad was to check out the levee at the 17th Street Canal, where all the flooding began. We were a block away from the levee and picked a street to turn onto to go towards it. At first it appeared we had chosen unwisely and were on a dead-end street ending in a cul-de-sac. Then we realized that the house at the end of the street was, in fact, not supposed to be there. An entire house had washed up into the middle of the street. So we stopped the car and got out to investigate. We got past the house, and sure enough the street did continue to a T-intersection beyond which were some houses and then the levee. After some careful deduction, we came to the conclusion that the empty lot at a corner of the intersection was the original location of the displaced house. In its place was a badly beaten VW Bug.
Actually, we saw 3 VW bugs, all old-style, in that general area and in various states of disrepair. A red one by where we parked was just really dirty, as will happen when submerged in muddy water for a while. The one in the middle of where the house used to be was pretty bad. Another one down the street to the left of the intersection had its entire front end and top ripped off (the whereabouts of the missing front end remains a mystery to me). I'm going on the assumption that it was a VW bug in the relatively recent past. I don't think I got a single picture of that car, thanks to battery-related interruptions with my camera.
Anyway. As we got closer to the intersection, and could see more and more of the levee, we came to realization that we had stumbled upon the exact location of the levee break. Cars were passing by slowly, as the occupants took pictures or just looked. Every house in the area looked like a bomb had hit it. Along the line of houses in front of the levee, across the street from where the road block house used to be not so road blocky, there was a roof. Just a roof and a few feet of wall. The road block house still had its roof, so this roof did not belong to that house. Was the pile of rubble behind the roof the rest of the house, or just debris from its neighbors, all gathered up? Dunno.
The road block house's next door neighbor had a car parked on its side. By that, I mean the car was on its side, parked on the side of the house. In this case, that sentence there works in both contexts. Both the side of the car and side of the house.
We went back to our car and noticed that the house we had parked next to had kinda been ripped in half. It had a brick exterior, and it looked like the house had been yanked away from the brick wall that had once been attached to the front of the house. I think you'd have to see the pictures to see what I mean, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.
So we left the scene. A nearby church had on its marquee the upcoming events to be held in late August. August 2005.
Driving home, we passed the radio tower that had been knocked over by the tornado that went thought the area a few weeks ago.
We never went down to the Lower Ninth Ward, where the devastation is said to be the worst (it's certainly the area that the media paid the most attention to). Seeing the places M grew up was really enough for us.
So now we're back at Cousin D's house. Our mud-caked shoes have been rinsed off, and our mud-splattered jeans are in the wash. Everyone else staying there are off seeing tonight's parades. We have yet to see any parades, and tomorrow's thunderstorms may prevent seeing any tomorrow. But we're going to the Bacchus Ball Sunday night, so that will be fun. Future posts will be, hopefully, of a happier nature as I relate any interesting parade stories that may arise.
And if I think of anything else about today that was interesting, I'll be sure to add them in the comments section.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Halfway to 70
As of 8:05 this morning, I'm officially 35. A half-decade away from 40 (when, they say, life begins).
So am I at the halfway point of my life? I'm hoping not yet, but the way I've been treating myself lately, it's not looking too good. I really need to start exercising again and eating better. I'm starting to get pretty fat.
So am I at the halfway point of my life? I'm hoping not yet, but the way I've been treating myself lately, it's not looking too good. I really need to start exercising again and eating better. I'm starting to get pretty fat.
Friday, February 17, 2006
All Quiet On The Warm Front
As is often the case with late-winter snowstorms around here, the 18 inches of snow melted almost completely away in the space of 5 days. As of this morning, we still had a few small piles, representing the mounds of shoveled snow that piled up during Sunday morning's car dig-out. At peak height, those mounds were about 4 or 5 feet high.
The most impressive snow melt in my memory was a week or two after the Blizzard of '96. 7 foot high piles of shoveled snow in my work's parking lot went down to non-existent piles within the space of an 8-hour workday. That evening was foggy as hell.
More snow is supposed to come on Monday. I'm hoping that those turn out to be unsubstantiated rumors. I have places to be on Monday.
The most impressive snow melt in my memory was a week or two after the Blizzard of '96. 7 foot high piles of shoveled snow in my work's parking lot went down to non-existent piles within the space of an 8-hour workday. That evening was foggy as hell.
More snow is supposed to come on Monday. I'm hoping that those turn out to be unsubstantiated rumors. I have places to be on Monday.
Monday, February 13, 2006
The Weather Outside Was Pretty Gorram Frightful
It was going so well. Temperatures staying well above freezing for pretty much all of January. No snow, no ice, very little static electricity. It was a great winter.
Then the stupid groundhog saw his shadow, and a little more than a week later, it all goes to hell in a handbasket.
I spent over 2 hours yesterday digging the front walk, the sidewalk between the front walk and my car, my car, and M's car out of 18 inches of snow. Well, the cars were under about 3 feet of plowed snow, since we have to park on the street.
It is my belief that snow is punishment for our sins. I paid for my sins with an achy back.
Luckily, I've been pretty good, so an achy back is really the only aftermath to my Sunday toils. And on the plus side, my sweetie really appreciated the effort, so I've got that going for me. Still, all things being equal, I'd rather it be Spring.
Then the stupid groundhog saw his shadow, and a little more than a week later, it all goes to hell in a handbasket.
I spent over 2 hours yesterday digging the front walk, the sidewalk between the front walk and my car, my car, and M's car out of 18 inches of snow. Well, the cars were under about 3 feet of plowed snow, since we have to park on the street.
It is my belief that snow is punishment for our sins. I paid for my sins with an achy back.
Luckily, I've been pretty good, so an achy back is really the only aftermath to my Sunday toils. And on the plus side, my sweetie really appreciated the effort, so I've got that going for me. Still, all things being equal, I'd rather it be Spring.
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Update on the Superbowl thing
It's the 2nd quarter as I write this, and I know for certain who I'm cheering for now. I realized it a little while ago, when I got disappointed at the TD call.
Go Seahawks!
Go Seahawks!
Friday, February 03, 2006
Tagificated!
My colleague and second-cousin-in-law, BillyGoatBartman, has tagged me with the below list, which I am compelled to put here, lest I be singled out by the authorities (and they'd know. Oh yes, they'd know).
Four Jobs I've had in my life
- paper boy for the Louisville Courier-Journal (Louisville is actually 80 miles away from where I was living, but lots of people in my neighborhood read it anyway.)
- grill cook at McDonald's
- supermarket cashier
- price tag fixer at CompUSA
Four Movies I could watch over and over
(and I do)
-Star Wars Trilogy (the good one)
-The Mark of Zorro (1940 version)
-The Big Lebowski
-Monty Python and The Holy Grail
Four Places Where I've Lived
-Lexington, KY
-Oak Park, IL
-Ellicott City, MD
-Lutherville-Timonium, MD (almost always abbreviated on incoming mail)
Four Tv Shows I Love To Watch
-Firefly
-My Name Is Earl
-Lost
-Smallville (on DVD until I'm all caught up)
Four Places I've Been on Vacation
-Ashtabula, OH (37 times and counting)
-1996 Olympic Track and Field Trials in Atlanta (even snuck into the stadium and stood on the track)
-New Orleans
-Colorado Springs (including going up to the summit of Pike's Peak)
Four Blogs I visit Daily
Focus and Distracted
Chicken Butt
BillyGoatBartman
(Does Fark count?)
Four of my favorite foods
-spaghetti with olive oil and garlic tomato sauce
-this thing I made up that involves chicken, red/yellow peppers, onions and a McCormick chicken seasoning (includes garlic), all cooked up in olive oil. Sometimes on rice, most times not.
-porterhouse steak
-cheesesteaks
Five Albums I can't live without
-Nevermind by Nirvana
-Sheryl Crow by Sheryl Crow
-100% Fun by Matthew Sweet
-Apollo 18 by They Might Be Giants
-Centerfield by John Fogerty
Five vehicles I've owned
1999 Saturn SL2
2005 Toyota Corolla
That's all I've owned. I also had a 1988 Chevy Nova, but that was technically my dad's car, even though I was the only one that drove it.
Tagged!!
I'm supposed to list the blogs that have to do this list too, but BillyGoatBartman and I know all the same bloggers, so I'm just repeating his list (taking myself out, of course).
Focus and Distracted
Chickenbutt
Four Jobs I've had in my life
- paper boy for the Louisville Courier-Journal (Louisville is actually 80 miles away from where I was living, but lots of people in my neighborhood read it anyway.)
- grill cook at McDonald's
- supermarket cashier
- price tag fixer at CompUSA
Four Movies I could watch over and over
(and I do)
-Star Wars Trilogy (the good one)
-The Mark of Zorro (1940 version)
-The Big Lebowski
-Monty Python and The Holy Grail
Four Places Where I've Lived
-Lexington, KY
-Oak Park, IL
-Ellicott City, MD
-Lutherville-Timonium, MD (almost always abbreviated on incoming mail)
Four Tv Shows I Love To Watch
-Firefly
-My Name Is Earl
-Lost
-Smallville (on DVD until I'm all caught up)
Four Places I've Been on Vacation
-Ashtabula, OH (37 times and counting)
-1996 Olympic Track and Field Trials in Atlanta (even snuck into the stadium and stood on the track)
-New Orleans
-Colorado Springs (including going up to the summit of Pike's Peak)
Four Blogs I visit Daily
Focus and Distracted
Chicken Butt
BillyGoatBartman
(Does Fark count?)
Four of my favorite foods
-spaghetti with olive oil and garlic tomato sauce
-this thing I made up that involves chicken, red/yellow peppers, onions and a McCormick chicken seasoning (includes garlic), all cooked up in olive oil. Sometimes on rice, most times not.
-porterhouse steak
-cheesesteaks
Five Albums I can't live without
-Nevermind by Nirvana
-Sheryl Crow by Sheryl Crow
-100% Fun by Matthew Sweet
-Apollo 18 by They Might Be Giants
-Centerfield by John Fogerty
Five vehicles I've owned
1999 Saturn SL2
2005 Toyota Corolla
That's all I've owned. I also had a 1988 Chevy Nova, but that was technically my dad's car, even though I was the only one that drove it.
Tagged!!
I'm supposed to list the blogs that have to do this list too, but BillyGoatBartman and I know all the same bloggers, so I'm just repeating his list (taking myself out, of course).
Focus and Distracted
Chickenbutt
Superific!
The Superbowl is just a few days away, and I still haven't made up my mind who to cheer for. I really don't want to like the Steelers. They are, after all, the natural enemy of both the Ravens and the Browns.
But then I get all this "it's Jerome Bettis' last shot, and he's such a good guy" and "they're the underdog story of the year - 6th seed and now in the Superbowl!" and "Bill Cowher is a great coach with no Superbowl wins on his resume", and I start feeling sorry for them (well, maybe not so much the Cowher thing). I guess I'm getting soft in my old age (I've even found myself having non-hateful thoughts towards the Redskins lately, fer cryin' out loud!)
Of course, there's also the high probability of the Steelers winning, and I'd rather not be disappointed.
I guess I'll just hope for a close game and be happy with the outcome either way. Especially if the Seahawks win.
But then I get all this "it's Jerome Bettis' last shot, and he's such a good guy" and "they're the underdog story of the year - 6th seed and now in the Superbowl!" and "Bill Cowher is a great coach with no Superbowl wins on his resume", and I start feeling sorry for them (well, maybe not so much the Cowher thing). I guess I'm getting soft in my old age (I've even found myself having non-hateful thoughts towards the Redskins lately, fer cryin' out loud!)
Of course, there's also the high probability of the Steelers winning, and I'd rather not be disappointed.
I guess I'll just hope for a close game and be happy with the outcome either way. Especially if the Seahawks win.
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