Clean New Orleans

There is a movement going on in town that was started by a group of ordinary citizens. They realized that no one is going to show up and magically clean up the city, so they are getting off their cabooses and are doing it themselves. They have organized huge groups of people to show up at different areas of the city and pick up trash for three hours twice a week. You can read more about them at their website at CleanNO.org I applaud them.

Our poor city was a dump before the storm, so you can only imagine what it looks like now. I have personally organized my own family to clean up the greenspaces in our neighborhood in Slidell on more than one occasion. Unfortunately, there are still some litterbugs around here who find it necessary to toss their beer cans and Taco Bell cups into the flowerbeds and onto the mowed grass at the entrances of the neighborhood every weekend. It's so frustrating to pick up all the debris only to have someone come in behind you and trash it again. Maybe I'm just naive, but I still find it hard to believe that there are people in America who still throw trash right out the window of their car and drive away.

Post Office is Open

The Slidell main Post Office finally opened this week! I hope this will help our mail delivery become more timely. It still takes up to two weeks sometimes to get regular first class mail around here. One Christmas card I got took 19 days to arrive. Some how the bills seem to arrive immediately though. The sorting facility in New Orleans is still not open though, so the mail is still going through Baton Rough instead, so maybe it won't make any difference to us here locally. One can only hope.

"Neither rain, nor sleet, nor hail, nor dark of night shall keep the postmen from eventually bringing you some of your mail."

;-)

Embarrassing Mayor

I just want to apologize to the rest of America for the incredibly embarrassing excuse of a mayor that we seem to have in New Orleans. He made some comments yesterday in his speech at the local Martin Luther King Day celebration that probably have MLK spinning in his grave right about now.

He tried to apologize today before the City Council meeting, but it's too little too late. The man really needs to THINK before he opens his mouth sometimes. At the beginning of his term, he did some good things for the city, but the disaster has not been handled well by him at all. After that speech, any respect I had for him has been completely erased at this point. We were supposed to have elections next month for Mayor, which would have been a perfect opportunity to get rid of him. We're probably stuck with him until they can figure out how to hold elections in a city where 70% of the population is living somewhere else.

God help us all.

Mardi Gras Costume Ideas

One of my favorite things to do is dress in costume and go out on Fat Tuesday. Most years, there are a few people who like to make fun of the latest current events with humorous costumes. I imagine there will be a lot of people doing that this year with Katrina Related Mardi Gras Costumes.

Last year, we dressed as Thing 1 and Thing 2. We have not yet decided what costume to wear this year. Most years we are not a specific character, but instead we just dress in outrageous festive clothing. I am thinking of some very fun festive tye die outfits. I usually enjoy especially large headwear (such as the Thing hats we made).

If you have any suggestions for me, please let me know!

Get lots more Mardi Gras Costume Ideas here.

Debris Pickup Hotline for St. Tammany Parish

Debris hotline: Call (985) 898-2323, weekdays 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; the information will be forwarded daily to the Shaw Group, which is coordinating debris pickup in St. Tammany. For debris along state highways, call the state Department of Transportation and Development at (985) 375-0100. I got this info from the Times Picayune.

FYI for my neighbors -- I called the hotline today to report all the new piles of debris for our neighborhood that have accumulated as folks have repairs made.

Moldy Memories

This just breaks my heart! It's a photo album (one of many) that belongs to the family of one of my Girl Scout troop members. It is full of baby photos! I cannot imagine having every baby photo I owned damaged like this. All the negatives are the same story. The album is dry now, but it reeks of mold, and about half the pictures are destroyed. Every picture is damaged to some degree, but you can still make out the image in the center of a lot of them.

Our older troop members are going to try to help restore it (and some others from more families in our troop whose photos were also damaged). Removing the photos from the album will only damage them more, so we'll have to make the copies right through the plastic. The plan is to make digital copies of the photos that still have an image and order new prints, and put them in a new album. I'll be experimenting with it this week before we let the girls in on the project.

Twelfth Night!

For most people "the holiday season" is over. For us, it's just getting started!

Twelfth Night is the night twelve days after Christmas. It's the day that tradition says the three wise men visited the newborn baby Jesus. It's the feast of the Epiphany. Many people celebrate this by exchanging gifts, much like Christmas.

This is the first night of Carnival! Carnival lasts from Twelfth Night to Fat Tuesday (the Tues before Ash Wednesday). Fat Tuesday is Feb 28th this year. I for one, cannot wait. Mardi Gras is my favorite holiday. :-)

Tours of the Area

Exploitation or Education? New Orleans Disaster Tours:.

For $35 per person - $28 for children - a New Orleans company is offering bus tours of some of the city's most misery-stricken spots, including the Superdome, the Convention Center and neighborhoods ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Residents disagree over whether the tours are crass and morbid exploitation, or a good way to help people grasp the enormity of the disaster and keep public attention focused on New Orleans' plight.

Public opinion is split over this. I for one am supportive. Some of the money goes to disaster relief (about 10% of it), and most people really cannot imagine the total devastation until they actually SEE IT. The photos just don't give the whole picture. I think a lot more money will come this way after more people see it with their own eyes and get the word out. Raising awareness is really important to keep the money coming. Without it, those levees will never be fixed the way they need to be.

On the other hand, the busses won't be driving by my neighborhood, so I don't have the privacy invasion that others will have. I can certainly understand that point of view too. Read more about here.

Louisiana Jingle Bells

Happy New year everyone. I just got this by email from a friend. Very cute:

Louisiana Jingle Bells

Dashing through debris
With a chainsaw in my hand
FEMA's on the way
They haven't got a plan

Looters on the way
They're making quite a fright
Oh, what fun it is to have
My great big gun tonight

CHORUS
Oh, Jingle Bells, my fridge smells
Katrina, kiss my ass
Won't y'all come back home real soon
And help pick up this trash!

Hear the generators whir
They're making quite a sound
I'm just taking in all the sights
With no one else around

Aaron Broussard's on TV
He's crying like a chump
He dried his eyes just long enough
To turn off all the pumps

CHORUS
Oh, Jingle Bells, my fridge smells
Katrina, kiss my ass
Won't y'all come back home real soon
And help pick up this trash!

Got a blue tarp on my roof
It's keeping out the rain
The adjuster arrived two months late
Then promptly lost my claim

Gotta love those MREs
For making spirits bright
I'm saving one with M&Ms
Just for Christmas night!

CHORUS
Oh, Jingle Bells, my fridge smells
Katrina, kiss my ass
Won't y'all come back home real soon
And help pick up this trash!