Hurricane Katrina Returnee

Hurricane Gustav

2008-08-30T20:57:00.000-07:00

I am asking for some prayers for my friends still in Slidell who may be having to deal with an incoming hurricane by tomorrow night. My beloved former next-door neighbors have decided not to evacuate for various reasons, most of which I agree with. But I am very concerned about them in the aftermath. We were lucky not to get flooding on our street during Katrina, but it was only right down the street where it did. The slightest change in variables could flood where it didn't before.

It's hard to believe it's been almost 3 years to the day since Hurricane Katrina. Some things in my old hometown will never be the same since then.

Anyway, I hope I am worrying for nothing. I probably am. But just in case, I am sending up a few prayers for everyone there. Please help me out.

Here's where to find me !

2008-04-18T10:21:00.000-07:00

OK, so you thought this blog was dead. But it still gets some traffic, so I figure I better point you to the pages that I am actually updating regularly! Please visit me here:

MomsMinivan.com Car Travel Games My website about traveling with kids via roadtrips!
MomsMinivan Blog Updates on articles about car activities and occasional personal anectdotes
Free Stuff Blog
Free baby stuff, free makeup samples - freebies for baby stuff, free makeup samples and more online freebies
Free baby coupons
Free Baby Stuff

More websites I'd love for you to visit and enjoy:

If you're looking for more of my Hurricane Katrina experiences, I have an article on my main website about evacuating with kids!

Another Year. Final Update.

2007-09-30T09:16:00.000-07:00

It's been a year since I posted. I have not been back to New Orleans or our home in Slidell since we moved here. We have kept up with many of our friends who are still there, and I miss them terribly.

We finally sold our Slidell home in Slidell last December, and we have moved out of the rental home here and into a permanent one in a friendly neighborhood. The kids are enjoying their schools, and they've made lots of friends. They enjoyed some sledding and fun experiences with snow this winter.

Having a little deja vu at the moment. You see, we had a severe hail storm here a couple of months ago and people are still working on repairs. Listening to the roofing contractors on the neighbor's homes all around me during the past month or so has been very reminiscent of our days in Slidell after the storm. I'm looking forward to having our roof repaired in the next week, so we can nestle in for winter again.

Life goes on.

Our New Kentucky Home

2006-09-09T06:25:00.000-07:00

Well, about a week after we put the house up for sale by owner last May, we took it down again because we postponed our moving date until the end of summer. We just listed with an agent in the middle of August and have finally moved to Kentucky. The market has cooled quite a bit and there have been very few people to even look at the house this month. Timing is not good with the start of the school year and with the difficulties that new homebuyers are now having with getting insurance. We have a feeling it will pick up again soon. Homes in our neighborhood have sold on an average of 18 days this year.

We are currently renting a townhouse in the neighborhood where we would most like to buy a permanent home once we sell the old one. It's actually a duplex. We live on the left half. The public library is in walking distance and we have already taken full advantage of that.

The neighbors are all very nice and the kids love their new schools. They could hardly get over how clean and shiny everything is here. I can hardly believe it myself. What a joy it is to be where things are functional and people expect them to work!

Compared to our old town, this place looks like the Garden of Eden. ....Green grass, beautiful trees, strong well maintained buildings everywhere, and friendly people who don't have that exhausted just-trying-to-make-it-through-the-day look in their eyes.

Despite the potential of our new hometown, it was really hard for me to leave the old house. I walked around in the big emptry rooms in our house one last time and had a goodbye cry. It was a good house, and for 7 years I poured my heart and soul and sweat equity into it. It's a better home than when we bought it. Over the years, I laid the sunroom tile myself, and re-tiled the fireplace and the upstairs bathroom. We landscaped the whole yard ourselves. I am really going to miss the big rose hedge I planted. For many years, I tucked my babies to bed in those rooms and had Thanksgiving dinners and Christmas mornings there. It stood up to Hurricane Katrina. It survived and is now stronger than ever. Oh, and the AC conked out on the day we were moving out, so now it has a brand new AC unit too! I wish I could have packed up the entire house and taken it here with me. I REALLY miss my neighbors there too. It was so hard to leave them behind.

I hope the next owners will love that house (and my neighbors) as much as I do.

For Sale By Owner

2006-05-27T18:54:00.000-07:00

Our house is for sale. The market is hot because of the shortage of homes, so we are going to do the for-sale-by-owner thing for a few weeks and see how it goes. A friend who just sold hers by owner has given us a few tips, so we put our our sign and now we'll see what happens. It's been a couple of days, and I've shown it once already.

We have talked to an agent in case we decided to list it. The longest any home in our neighborhood has been on the market before it went under contract recently has been 11 days. With its new roof and new fence, we hope it looks good to buyers. Our house should be pretty popular since it was not damaged by flooding, whic is is one of the first questions most people ask after the price.

It's been a good home. I love it most for being strong for us when we needed it to be.

Here's another home in Slidell that has been "for sale" since right after the hurricane. I drove by it a few days ago and took this picture. They are not having as much luck selling this home even though they've had it marked "half off" for some time now. I guess that would be the bottom half that's off.

At least they have a sense of humor. ;-)

Greener Pastures

2006-05-22T10:44:00.000-07:00

I hinted a while back (in this post) that some changes were in the works for our family. Now it's official -- We are moving away to greener pastures. Other than the most obvious, there are many other reasons why we feel it's best to raise our family somewhere else. I have so many emotions running through me that I don't even know where to begin. I hate the thought of leaving here, but I dread staying even more. My heartstrings are being tugged in many directions.

We will be going to beautiful Kentucky where my husband was offered a great job, he won't have to commute anymore, and we will be much closer to my family. Moving date will be sometime in July.

Ceiling Repair

2006-05-20T11:23:00.000-07:00

My next door neighbors invited us in for a tour of their home repair job this weekend. They have the outside of their house all fixed up, and they are now able to repair all the ceilings that were damaged by rain water during the storm. What a mess, but I know they are relieved to finally have it underway!

Election results

2006-05-04T17:38:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm sad to say that my sister was defeated. She was running against an incumbent, which is a very difficult thing to do. Voter turnout was also at an all time low (about 8% of registered voters) which also usually favors the incumbent since only the most loyal voters turn out to vote, and they are the ones who are long time voters that never miss an election and who have voted for the incumbent for many years. Her opponent had planned to retire and then changed his mind at the last minute (He is currently 72 years old). It also POURED down rain for most of the day during election day. I stood outside for 13 hours with completely soaked shoes and socks, as did many of her other poll tenders. One poll worker for another candidate at a different location from me was struck by lightning - actually, his umbrella was struck and it knocked him to the ground. He was ok.

My sister did get almost 9000 votes, which was more votes than several other judge candidates got in races that they won. She has an enormous amount of support to get that many votes against an incumbent. Even the evening news put her in a favorable light regarding her "spirited" and "aggressive" campaign, and the news reporter himself seemed dissapointed that she did not win.

She's dissapointed of course, but she's not discouraged and she is going to get there next time. She's very young and has plenty ahead of her in this career. I am so proud of her!!

Election Day at Last

2006-05-01T10:35:00.000-07:00

Election Day in Nashville is tomorrow on May 2nd! I'm in Nashville at the moment to help out. My sister has been amazing. If hard work and dedication mean anything, then she is certain to be victorious. We are all so proud of her.

Last night we had a meeting downtown with over 75 volunteers who have come forward and offered to help on election day by working at the polls to ask people to vote in suport of Tonette. It was wonderful to see such a huge mix of people from the entire community who are all so excited about getting her elected that they are personally willing to donate their time to make it happen.

Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers throughout the day tomorrow. And of course, if you know anyone who lives in Davidson County in Nashville, please give them a call TODAY and ask them to go vote for WELCH tomorrow!

http://www.welchforjudge.com

Blow Out

2006-04-17T14:03:00.000-07:00

Hubby ran in the Crescent City Classic 10k race on Saturday. I went down to City Park in New Orleans to see if I could watch him cross the finish line. I never did find him in the crowd, but it was fun to watch all the folks in this race that is traditionally run on Easter weekend. Many of them ran with bunny ears on their heads, and all the politicians running for mayor were out in full force.

I parked in the Lakeview neighborhood near City Park so I could walk over to the stadium. Only a few months ago, all of it was under water. Most of the houses were empty. Almost all of them had been gutted already, and the majority of the debris picked up, but there was still plenty left. The watermarks still stained the buildings (you can see it in the picture here), weeds were growing 2 feet high, windows were broken, and everything made of metal was rusting. Flooded out cars sat decaying in driveways. I could distinctly smell mold all around.

Despite the obvious disaster, there were quite a few people living in primitive conditions in the neighborhood and plenty of folks living in travel trailers in the driveways while they rebuilt their homes.

I took this picture because I was happy to see the little island of hope that someone had planted in the street median --- new flowers and landscaping... something pretty amid all the watermarks, trash and decay.

Anyway, I had a bad feeling driving in this area, and sure enough I picked up a nail in my tire. I decided that since it wasn't losing any air, that I would keep going and change it at home. Big mistake. As I crossed the Industrial Canal on I-10 over what is locally known as the "Highrise" bridge, the tire blew out.

A worse place for a blowout does not exist. There is ZERO shoulder on that bridge and it's a looong way down to the water, and a long way down the the other side of the bridge to get off. Black smoke started to come from the tire and I struggled to keep control as I slowed way down, turned on my hazard lights and prayed that no one would slam into the back of me as they came careening over the crest of the bridge while I was wobbling down the other side on my wheel rim. A man in a white car saw what happened and pulled over at the bottom of the bridge to wait for me.

I made it to the bottom and was able to pull out of the traffic. You don't really realize how fast 60mph really is until you are standing 3 feet from a thousand cars, semi-trucks and city busses whizzing by at that speed. The kind stranger helped me change the tire and I was on my way home in no time.

::deep breath::

Happy Easter

2006-04-17T14:00:00.000-07:00

Free Cycle

2006-04-09T13:10:00.000-07:00

I've been giving away some kids' clothing and toys and equipment through a group called a "free cycle" group. People post stuff online that they want to give away, and people who need it come take it. It has to be completely free. It's a great way to recycle things that would otherwise be thrown away. There are groups all over the country. The one I belong to is for my area. I've had friends ask about it, so here it is: Northshore Freecycle/FreeUse group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NorthShoreFreeUse/

Find recycle groups in your area at Freeuse.org or freecycle.org.

On another topic, someone was found murdered yesterday right around the corner from our neighborhood. Not much detail in the newspaper report, but I saw all the commotion last night when I was on my way to the grocery store. The whole area was roped off, and the crime lab truck was there along with 6 sheriff patrol cars. Hopefully there will be more info in tomorrow's paper. I drive by this house almost every day on my way out of the neighborhood. Ugh.

Disturbingly Familiar

2006-04-03T09:18:00.000-07:00

We took the kids to a movie at the Slidell Movies 8 which finally reopened a couple of weeks ago. Some of the screening rooms were still under repair, but there was new carpet everywhere and it did not smell moldy in the least. I do wish they had taken the opportunity to redesign the door to the big screening room so that the sunlight didn't shine in onto the screen every time someone went in or out.

Anyway, the movie we saw was funny, yet rather disturbing at the same time. See if any of this sounds familiar to you:

A bunch of the film's characters are initially in denial about the prediction that the huge dam/levee is going to break. They finally see for themselves that it is indeed going to happen and there is nothing they can do, but warn everyone to get out of the way. They have 3 days to evacuate the entire area. One character remarks about the valley that will soon fill up with water, "Don't you realize we're in a bowl?" (I can't tell you how many times New Orleans has been described as a bowl). Another group of characters tries to get their Grampa to evacuate with them but he resists saying, "I was born in this hole, and I'm gonna die in this hole!" (I've definitely heard that before!). A massive evacuation takes place at a little more than a snail's pace. Toward the end of the film one of the main characters is trapped inside while the water is quickly rising (where is her ax to chop her way out?). Eventually she is rescued as the water rises all around and characters are plucked to safety. About the only thing missing was looting.

It could almost have been a movie about You-Know-What, except that the movie we saw was a nice kids' movie called Ice Age 2.

Don't get me wrong, it was still very cute, as long as you could block out that whole deja vu thing while watching it. My kids remarked about its simliarity to recent events almost immediately as we started on our way home. I'm pretty sure I actually heard a few groans in the theater as the plot was revealed in the first few minutes of the film regarding the weak levee and imminent flood.

Obiwan Has Taught Them Well

2006-04-02T12:21:00.000-07:00

Late last night I wrote that I was a little dissapointed that my kids didn't prank us this year, and mostly I had myself to blame for not pulling one on them. Apparently I wrote too soon. When I logged off and went to bed just prior to midnight, we pulled back the sheets to discover that our bed had been lined with tons of cat food nuggets and a big note that read,

"April Fool ! from your kids - all of them"

Not only did they get us good, they didn't even spoil the prank by blabbing it prematurely. They just let it play it's course, and caught us completely off guard. Indeed, I am very proud of my young padawans. ;-)

Lost and Found

2006-04-01T21:10:00.000-08:00

In the chaos following Mardi Gras at my house when the carpet installers showed up to replace our carpet, my friend Devra's jewelry was moved and her beloved necklace charm was lost. Today it was found by my youngest daughter - over a month after it first went missing. I still can't explain how it showed up, but I think it was trapped in a pile of my daughter's dolls and purses hanging on a tiny kid-sized chair.

This morning I had the weirdest experience in the Red Cross CPR class I had to take in order to run my Girl Scout troops. One of the women in the class would not SHUT UP. The instructor finally told her to be quiet and let him teach, and stop asking so many stupid questions. Later she got completely hostile when another person in the class tried to help her understand, and there was almost an altercation. Then during our break, the Red Cross volunteer CPR instructor began ranting and ranting about how horrible the New Orleans chapter of Red Cross is, and how they should have their charter pulled. Pretty soon everyone in the room had to share their opinions about what is wrong with the levees.

Then I drove home past all the apartment buildings with escape holes chopped through the attic and with the roof still bearing with the word "HELP" in large lettering. I watched for alligators on the freeway where the buzzards were circling above (a common sight even in pre-katrina).

And when I arrived home after lunch, I was on guard in case my kids had plotted an April Fool's prank for me while I was gone. I got them really good a couple of years ago when they got up for school on April Fool's Day to discover that I switched all their underwear in each other's dresser drawers. Now I have to watch my back. They played a few pranks on each other, but it's nearly Midnight and nothing happened to me yet, so I think I'm off the hook. I should have tried to get them again this year.

Maybe I have lost my sense of humor. Perhaps it will turn up just like the missing bee charm, and the re-opened movie theater. Note to self: Think of a fun prank to play on my kids next year!

Tired

2006-03-29T08:19:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've written. My interest in the topic of recovering from Hurricane Katrina is really starting to wane. I'm just plain sick of it. My own little world and neighborhood seems like a bubble of normalcy, but all around me is misery, despair, frustration and drudgery, and everyone here is suffering from post-traumatic stress. It's getting to be just plain exhausting.

It's also hard to find anything fun to do around here anymore. Both of Slidell's movie theaters are still closed, so we have to drive a long way to get to a theater. Going out to dinner is a huge pain in the you-know-what because it's so crowded that you have to wait forever. Mardi Gras was really fun, but now what are we supposed to do for the rest of the year?

I just got back from a trip to California this weekend for a family reunion / party for my Aunt's 70th birthday. It was SO nice to be somewhere "normal". And yes, saying that California is "normal" might be a stretch for some people, but it was at the very least - functional.

Changes for our family may be coming. I'll keep you posted.

Back to Reality

2006-03-08T07:28:00.000-08:00

Mardi Gras had two sides to it this year. On one hand, it showed the rest of the world that we are still here and that we will survive, and the city will persist despite tragedy. On the other hand, it might give people the misconception that everything is now A-OK in New Orleans again, which it's not. In fact, they are still finding bodies of Katrina victims as they start to bulldoze homes.

Now that our brief bout of fun and much needed break from dreariness is over, folks are settling back into reality again. Back to wrestling with insurance companies, searching for contractors, back to praying for reinforced levees, and back to picking up the pieces.

In times like these, small pleasures are greatly appreciated.... like Girl Scout cookies. The cookies came in this past weekend. My troop took some to a local grocery store. They sold faster than I've ever seen -- almost twice as many as we sold any other year during the same time period. In fact, we sold out of our cookie booth inventory in only one weekend.

I went to bring some cookies to some of my church members who live outside our neighborhood and got a reminder of Katrina reality. Things seem like they are moving along here until you realize how BAD so many people still have it.

I went into one friend's gutted out home that is under construction with everything they own out in the driveway in a POD, and they are living in one room with their FOUR small children age 7 and under while the rest of the house is being renovated. Next, I knocked on the door of a FEMA trailer in the front yard of another house to deliver their treats. Then I visited a flooded out house whose next door neighbor's house burned to the ground the day after the storm and caught their home on fire on one side too!

It could just as easily have been me living in chaos 6 months after the storm while trying to have my home rebuilt from the inside out. On the plus side, these families were SO happy to get their GS Cookies!

Fat Tuesday Fun

2006-03-08T07:12:00.000-08:00

I've had a house full of company and for the last couple of days I've been under the weather with a cough and fever so this is the first chance I've had to post about our Mardi Gras. We had a blast on Fat Tuesday. Our crawfish costumes were a big hit and several people recognized me from my picture in the paper last week.

We got to town early and had a quick breakfast of beignets and walked around taking in the sights and having a good laugh with all the other costumers. Lots of people took our picture. We had a nice lunch, where Devra ordered "herself" (a crawfish dish). We ran into one of my neighbors, then we threw beads from a balcony to the swelling crowd below for a while, and had a great time.

We saw so many fun costumes that I couldn't even begin to describe them all. One of my favorite one was the big group of people dressed as giant maggots from their fridge. They were hysterical. I have a lot of pictures that I will get uploaded eventually when I get a few spare minutes. There were Katrina related costumes and regular whimsical costumes. Everybody was having fun.

The mood was just like it always is at Mardi Gras - fun and uplifting. People just felt glad to be there. Some people don't understand how we could celebrate like this considering what's happened, but I think the people of New Orleans needed this more than ever.

It felt good to be a part of it.

Parade Time

2006-02-27T10:59:00.000-08:00

Saturday night the Endymion parade was rained out and postponed until Sunday. So, Sunday we took the kids to see the very beautiful floats of Bacchus which was followed by Endymion.

Here's a picture I took of our krewe wearing balloon hats that we made while hanging out with the crowds waiting for the floats to arrive.

Throw us something, Mister!

Costume Preview

2006-02-24T07:54:00.000-08:00

The New Orleans newspaper, the Times-Picayune, asked readers to let them preview their costumes this year, so just for fun I emailed a picture of the whimsical creation that my friend Devra and I have planned. The paper called Thursday afternoon to ask if I could come join the photo shoot for the story they were doing. I couldn't resist.

This morning they ran the story about "fabulous and snarky post-K Mardi Gras costumes". The article is in the Lagniappe section of the paper titled, Grand Delusions.

The first paragraph of the story is particularly hilarious, and just so you know, I am the "crawfish lady" that is mentioned. At least, I assume I am the crawfish lady, since no one else at the photo shoot was crawling with rubber crawfish. The description of that scene in the cafeteria was definitely surreal as it is described. I especially like the first part that says, "Queen Elizabeth carefully applied his makeup".

Each paragraph describes our costumes and includes a photo, although the photos are not on the newspaper's website, so I have posted a copy here. My only dissapointment is that my photo is on the second page of the article which was not in color since color is a big part of our crawfish illusion. I am very pleased with the overall article though. Our spirit definitely shines. And my experience of getting together with other costumers who look forward to the fun and painstakingly plan their attire for the event is a memory I will cherish.

As we all left the photo shoot at the Times-Picayune to head home, we remarked to each other, "See you on Tuesday!" (in the streets at Mardi Gras).

And finally, here's Great site for photos of people in Mardi Gras costumes.

Throw Me Something, Mister!

2006-02-14T08:01:00.000-08:00

Just a cute picture that I took of the kids after the parade on Sunday.

Carnival Time

2006-02-13T09:59:00.000-08:00

The parades started this past weekend. Have I mentioned that I LOVE Mardi Gras parades? I attended a wickedly sarcastic French Quarter walking parade on Saturday night called Krewe de Vieux . Their parade theme this year was "C'est Levee" and there was a plethora of katrina related costumes including this one with a group of women in their haz mat suits proclaiming in Olympic spirit that they are "Going for the mold!" There were quite a few others that were so funny they had me roaring, but my camera batteries died and I was having too much fun to take pictures anyway.

Sunday we took the kids to a nice family parade in Slidell for the Krewe of Perseus. Their theme also involved recovery efforts and was lots of fun for the kids. Here's a photo of some "Blue Roofers". My friend Devra is coming in two weeks for Fat Tuesday. We have our costumes planned and we are going to take the kids to several more parades.

One sobering note: As I drove home Saturday night through New Orleans, I passed through an area of town that still has no power, no one living there, no life of any kind. House after house after house in complete darkness and completely deserted while they just sit decaying. I must have driven past houses for two miles before I saw life again and could find my way back to the interstate. The whole thing was rather apocalyptic.

Neighbor Roof

2006-02-03T08:18:00.000-08:00

My neighbors across the street are having their new roof installed today.

That's their blue tarp all over the ground. The roofers use it to catch all the thousands of nails that come off when they pull up the old roof.

Some FEMA inspectors came to my door yesterday trying to find the owner of the other house across the street so they could inspect the trailer they put there a couple of weeks ago. Things were sort of mixed up because FEMA still has the name of the former owners of the house.

5 Months Since

2006-02-01T13:34:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been five months since You Know What. I drove through a neighborhood in Slidell called Kingspoint, about two miles from my house closer to the lake, on my way home from running some errands today just so I could see the progress those folks are making there. It's easy to pretend I'm in a little bubble here in my own neighborhood where at least half of the folks have finished all the repairs on their homes. But outside the bubble, the flooded neighborhoods are a whole other horrible thing.

My heart just breaks for those who are there still struggling with their insurance companies to get money for repairs, and struggling to find contractors to do the repairs, and just plain struggling to put back the pieces of their lives. Almost every home in the neighborhood had a travel trailer parked outside for temporary living. Some of the debris was picked up, but there is a lot more from homes that are still being gutted.

It is going to be a long long time before things are even close to normal for those families whose homes flooded. I took this photo today on my drive to give you some idea: Click the photo to get a bigger more detailed image.

I hope that by publishing pictures like this that it will show the rest of America that we have a long way to go to recover, and will remind everyone to please don't forget us!

Clean New Orleans

2006-01-31T06:22:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-22T09:11:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-17T18:57:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-13T09:00:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-13T08:19:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-06T18:51:00.000-08:00

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!

2006-01-06T08:33:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-05T19:57:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-04T18:05:00.000-08:00

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!

Christmas Recap

2005-12-28T07:27:00.000-08:00

We had a very nice Christmas and a fun visit with my parents who were very happy to spend Christmas with their three grandchildren here. Mom and I had some fun shopping together. The stores were packed. After Christmas, Hubby and my dad played a round of golf, and I gave Mom the "Tour of Mass Destruction" that she requested. I started by taking her to see my friend's gutted house, drove by the cemetery (the tombs in the ditch had been picked up, but two were still toppled ontop other tombs), then drove through the flooded neighborhoods closer to the lake that had flooded about 8-9 feet deep. We finished the tour with a stop at my next door neighbor's FEMA trailer. Mom also wanted to see what an MRE was like, but we were going to send one with them for their drive up to Tennessee to visit my sisters! Oh well, they will still be good the next time they visit.

By the way, Happy Birthday to both of my sisters today!! (yes, they are twins)

Here is a very cute Christmas card from a co-worker of Hubby's that I had to share. It's a photo card of the couple in front of their New Orleans house next do their debris pile, complete with their stinky fridge. Very cute. and as usual, click the picture to see an enlarged version.

Merry Christmas

2005-12-24T14:38:00.000-08:00

More than ever before, we count our many blessings and give thanks for all the wonderful people in our lives.

Christmas Card 2005

2005-12-23T14:25:00.000-08:00

For the last 9 years, I have created a home-made Christmas card to send to all our relatives and friends. I like to include photos from the year and other bits about what we've been up to. Naturally everyone has been very interested to see what I will come up with this year. I assumed they were all anticipating a Katrina themed card, so I did not dissapoint. Here's the cover of our card for this year:
That's our house sporting it's Blue Roof from FEMA. About half the homes in our nieghborhood still have them. The inside of our card includes a long silly description of what we have been doing without actually ever mentioning the word "hurricane" or especially the dreaded K-word (katrina).

We spent much of this morning making Christmas cookies. Right now we're waiting and watching out the window for a big RV to pull up. My folks will be here any minute to spend Christmas with us. Happy Christmas and Merry Hannukah and all that other stuff! Peace, love and joy. :-)

12 Days of Katrina-mess

2005-12-22T14:17:00.000-08:00

There are a LOT of folks over in New Orleans who still don't have any power to their homes. Half the city still sits in darkness. This song came to me by email. Sorry, I don't know who wrote it! If you're looking for what to give someone who lives here, this should give you some ideas. ;-)

The Twelve Days of Post-Katrina Christmas
(or as I prefer to call it, "The 12 Days of Katrina-mess")

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
The power turned back on by Entergy.

On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Two rubber gloves
And the power turned back on by Entergy.

On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Three flood adjusters
Two rubber gloves
And the power turned back on by Entergy.

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Four jugs of bleach
Three flood adjusters
Two rubber gloves
And the power turned back on by Entergy.

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Five MREs!
Four jugs of bleach
Three flood adjusters
Two rubber gloves
And the power turned back on by Entergy.

On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Six FEMA payments
Five MREs!
Four jugs of bleach
Three flood adjusters
Two rubber gloves
And the power turned back on by Entergy.

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Seven sacks of sheetrock
Six FEMA payments
Five MREs!
Four jugs of bleach
Three flood adjusters
Two rubber gloves
And the power turned back on by Entergy.

On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Eight electricians wiring
Seven sacks of sheetrock
Six FEMA payments
Five MREs!
Four jugs of bleach
Three flood adjusters
Two rubber gloves
And the power turned back on by Entergy.

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Nine sweepers sweeping
Eight electricians wiring
Seven sacks of sheetrock
Six FEMA payments
Five MREs!
Four jugs of bleach
Three flood adjusters
Two rubber gloves
And the power turned back on by Entergy.

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Ten dump trucks hauling
Nine sweepers sweeping
Eight electricians wiring
Seven sacks of sheetrock
Six FEMA payments
Five MREs!
Four jugs of bleach
Three flood adjusters
Two rubber gloves
And the power turned back on by Entergy.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Eleven roofers roofing
Ten dump trucks hauling
Nine sweepers sweeping
Eight electricians wiring
Seven sacks of sheetrock
Six FEMA payments
Five MREs!
Four jugs of bleach
Three flood adjusters
Two rubber gloves
And the power turned back on by Entergy.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Twelve plumbers plumbing
Eleven roofers roofing
Ten dump trucks hauling
Nine sweepers sweeping
Eight electricians wiring
Seven sacks of sheetrock
Six FEMA payments
Five MREs!
Four jugs of bleach
Three flood adjusters
Two rubber gloves
And the power turned back on by Entergyyyyy! PLEASE! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!

Fence Going Up!

2005-12-20T12:29:00.000-08:00

Our fence guys came last week and installed the posts. Today they are busy installing the boards. It's a local guy who is subcontracting on a local building company's license. His crew consists of his fiance and another guy. I haven't seen to many women out on construction teams. Good for her.

There was some sort of activity two doors down at Joe's house this afternoon. They have a crew of migrant workers working on their fence. A few minutes ago, two sheriff's deputies took one of them away in handcuffs and the other four guys on the crew ran off. No one seems to know what that was all about, or who even called the sherriff. I guess we'll find out later. Or maybe we'll never know.

We have a new debris pile in our front yard from what was left of our old fence. Our fencing guys are supposed to haul it away. Speaking of debris -- for any of my St. Tammany Parish neighbors reading this: There is now a hotline to call if you have more debris that needs to be picked up. This is for unincorporated areas of St. Tammany. It was in this morning's paper: (985)898-2323 weekdays from 8-4:30pm. If you have applicances you can call the EPA at (800) 401-1327.

Update on our new cat: He is cuddly and adorable. We seemed to have picked the perfect pet for our family. Here are some cute pictures of our dog Oscar and Rocky getting along famously. They were both sitting and looking out the window watching the fence crew this morning. Too cute.

Signs of the Season

2005-12-16T09:33:00.000-08:00

6th grade band concert last night.

My son was the best one on his row. ;-)

Entrance to our neighborhood:

Happy Holidays!

I'll Be In That Number

2005-12-14T09:47:00.000-08:00

There has been some local controversy over whether it is appropriate to hold Mardi Gras this year given all that has happened. Half the city is still in darkness and so many people are unable to come home. But more than ever before we need it. Yesterday my favorite local columnist, Chris Rose, published a column that has everyone talking. From the respons in today's editorials, apparently many people share his sentiments. Here are some snippets from his column:

"... we can't turn off the lights and keep the costumes in storage and ladders in the shed for another year just because we are beaten and broken and because so many of us are not here.

In fact, we have to do this because we are beaten and broken and so many of us are not here."

and

"Mardi Gras is the love of life. It is the harmonic convergence of our food, our music, our creativity, our eccentricity, our neighborhoods and our joy of living. All at once.

And it doesn't really matter if there are superparades or even any parades at all this year. Because some group of horn players will grab their instruments and they will march Down the Avenue because that's what they do, and I, for one, will follow."

Read the entire thing at the Times Picayune in We're Having Mardi Gras and That's Final.

Fence Guys and Girl Scouts

2005-12-12T07:37:00.000-08:00

At long last, the fence guys are here today! They have already ripped out most of what was left of the old fence and are going to set the new poles today. They're installing the 4x4 treated posts instead of the metal poles that we had before. The metal poles didn't hold up well in the wind, but the theory was that they would suffer less termite damage. It will be nice to get rid of what I call the "chicken yard" which was a temporary wire pen for the dog.

We had a Service Unit meeting last week for the Girl Scout leaders in our area. We have gone from 27 active troops in Slidell down to 9. It's so sad. But, a year from now I bet things will be a lot different and we'll get some new people to volunteer as leaders.

I met with my Junior Girl Scout troop girls over the weekend for the first time since the storm. Three of the girls in our troop did not evacuate and stayed for the storm. They shared their experiences with the rest of us. Every one of them said it was really weird when the eye of the storm passed over and everyone went outside of their homes to have a look.

One of the girls was with her mother, younger brother and her mother's pregnant best friend in their Slidell house during the storm. And yup, the friend went into labor and the girl's mother delivered that baby in their house! It was a baby girl. I'll give you one guess what they named her. :-)

Tree Tales

2005-12-06T14:44:00.000-08:00

At first, we weren't going to buy a tree this year because

(1) there are no tree lots selling trees around here this year

(2) we didn't want to contribute any more debris to the MAJOR debris problem we are still having, and ...

(3) we were lucky enough not to get a tree in our living room during the hurricane, so why would we want one in there now? ;-)

So, I went to look for a fake tree, but the only one we liked was really expensive. I bought it, but the box was so big and heavy I just couldn't deal with it, and it was too much money anyway, so I took it back. The kids were pretty dissappointed, and I felt like a grinch. But then the grocery store actually had one truckload of trees, so I got a nice 6-1/2 foot one for only $21.99 and shoved it into my minivan. What a deal. It looks awesome.

We took a picture in front of it last night with our new cat. Five minutes later, the entire thing crashed to the floor and spewed ornaments and water everywhere. LOL

From that moment on, we would refer to this small disaster as the "tree incident" or a hurricane aftershock. And no, the poor cat was no where near the tree when it fell.

Rocky Road

2005-12-03T18:32:00.000-08:00

Heeeere's Rocky. He lost his original home after Katrina, and someone must have loved him a lot because he is soo sweet. He's about 6 months old and loves loves loves to be held, which was a primary consideration for a cat in our family. It's a good thing he loves to be held because he's going to be cuddled and sqeezed a lot around here.

While the kids went to a friend's all day, we went on a big shopping spree. We stuffed all the other Christmas presents we bought into a closet, but there was no hiding this gift. So here he is!

We've been looking for a super-friendly kitty for a little while and when we found this guy, we couldn't risk having someone else adopt him first, so we took him home.

He came from a nearby shelter. He's very cute and seems to be fitting right in.

End of Hurricane Season

2005-12-02T10:52:00.000-08:00

As of Midnight November 30, the 2005 hurricane season is officially over!!! No more worrying about evacuations for a while .... until next June anyway.

I'm finally having my first troop meeting since the storm with my Brownies today. A couple of other Girl Scout troops from around the country have adopted our troop to help us get back on our feet. We lost a few members, and a couple who are still active had their homes flooded. Hopefully our adopters will help us replace their damaged uniforms. The girls will be SO happy to be back together again.

Time to get busy doing some Christmas shopping too. Busy busy.

Welch for Judge

2005-11-30T07:17:00.000-08:00

My sister was in a parade this past weekend as part of her campaign. Her truck looks awesome! it wears those decals all the time now, not just for parades.

Her team added some Christmas decor and threw candy to the crowd. My little nephew got ride in the parade along with some other children who had a blast cheering to the crowd to "Vote for Welch!"

She is still accepting donations to her campaign of course! So anyone who feels like donating can click over to her website where you can even give online -- WelchforJudge.com

Crabby People

2005-11-30T07:01:00.000-08:00

Boy people are crabby around here lately. Even the newspaper ran an article yesterday where the writer explained that being nice can actually get you a lot in the post-katrina environment. Everyone is just sick and tired of it all I guess. There is not much sympathy anymore for anyone -- maybe from around the country (except forall those who have forgotten by now that this ever happened), but there is no sympathy for each other. It's "move out the way or get run over" around here.

The day before yesterday two friends stopped at my house during their evening walk. They needed to use the phone to call the sheriff because of a domestic issue on the street behind our house. I saw him hurl a huge recyle bin at the hood of his girlfriend's car as she tried to leave. Later we saw the police talking to her and an ambulance came to check her out. Nice.

The holiday spirit seems to be severly lacking as well. It's nearly a week after Thanksgiving, and there are hardly any homes with Christmas decorations up. Most people in our area put up holiday displays that rival National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation movie. This year, folks are just too tired I think.

Yesterday, we finally mustered up enough energy to put up a lite-version of what we normally put up. Usually we put lights up over the entire house. I just don't think we could stand to spend one more minute up on that roof this year. We've been up there enough already! So, we put up our big inflatable Santa and a bunch of white lights in the bushes. It looks nice. I think there are only two houses on our street with any Christmast lights so far. Normally we have a competition in our neighborhood for the best dressed house over the holidays. Not a lot of competition for that this year, I'm afraid.

It does feel good to stick to routines a little though. I think people would feel better if they would at least make an attempt at their old routines. On the other hand, I don't even want to think about going Christmas shopping.

They All Asked for You

2005-11-29T06:45:00.000-08:00

We went on down to the Audobon Zoo and they all asked for you. (That's how the song goes...)

Seriously, we went to the zoo on Saturday. It was it's first weekend open since the disaster, and it was free to the public on this opening weekend. I think the entire population of the city must have been there - it was packed! The animals seemed actually glad to see all the people. They were right out there in front posing for pictures.

The zoo is located in Uptown New Orleans and did not flood, but it did get some wind damage. From what I understand many animals were evacuated to other zoos, but most have now returned.

My favorite sight was the new decor at the alligator swamp habitat. There is a floating swamp shack that is part of the display, and it had been altered to show the signs of the times with the addition of a blue roof, duct taped fridge, an empty box of MRE's and the telltale markings of the search and rescuers.

Most folks were very amused by it.

One rather ironic part of the swamp display that has been there for years featured an old flooded out car from the 1920's and a plaque that described the great flood of 1927 -- and how the New Orleans levees were built to prevent such a thing from ever happening again. If you click the picture you can read it for yourself. Harrumph.

(There is much controversy going on now in the City because the engineers will not commit to building the levees strong enough for a major storm. They only want to make them strong enough for a catagory 3 storm -- which is what we already have and obviously it was not enough! If they can't do it right, why bother?)

Anyway, aside from the crowd, most of the zoo looked pretty good. There were a few trees downed, the poor sloth had only one little tree left in his display where he could hang, a lot of the huge bamboo forest had fallen over, but overall it is still a very nice zoo.

Stuffed Turkeys

2005-11-25T06:37:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture of three stuffed turkeys after they finished our Thanksgiving dinner. I guess they enjoyed it. :-)

Happy Thanksgiving

2005-11-23T17:06:00.000-08:00

We are having a very low key Thanksgiving dinner with just our immediate family. We'll have turkey and all the trimmings, and the kids will help make most of it. They helped choose the menu and shop at the grocery store too.

We invited some friends from New Orleans to come if they like, but I think they just want to be home more than anything, so they are going to try to make dinner at home even though they have no gas, and therefore no oven. I can certainly understand the feeling of wanting to be home for Thanksgiving.

Neighbor's House Sold

2005-11-21T06:21:00.000-08:00

Here's an update to House for sale across the street. Apparently the house was sold on the first day it was listed and they got the full asking price. According to the owner, they also had two more bids come in that same day. It was nearly 15-20% more than they probably would have gotten before the disaster.

The current renters are moving out today. They apparently have a big FEMA trailer at their house in New Orleans right now waiting for them. The new owners are moving in after December 10th. Supposedly it is a young couple with a 1-2 year old baby. She is supposedly in nursing school (somewhere local I guess), but I didn't find out what he does. It will be nice to have a family over there instead of the construction company.

Speaking of FEMA trailers, I got a tour of my next door neighbor's trailer this weekend. It's a bare-bones travel trailer, but it is brand new and very nice inside. It has central air and heat and a sectioned off master bedroom area. It has a fridge and microwave and a regular oven and is all hooked up to the sewer and electric. Once they start repairing the inside of their home, they will probably be stuck inside that trailer for a few weeks. I don't know what is taking their contractors so long to get started. I hope they don't end up spending the holidays in their trailer!

‘Twas the Night ...

2005-11-21T05:45:00.000-08:00

This poem (below) came to me via email this morning from a local friend. It had been forwarded several times and unfortunately the original author was lost in the messages. If I find out the author, I'll post it.

It reminds me of an adorable book that was given to us by my mother-in-law a few years ago called, The Cajun Night Before Christmas where they take the traditional story of jolly old St. Nicholas, dress him in muskrat from his head to his toes, pile his skiff high with toys, and hitch it to eight friendly flying alligators.

The drawings in that book of Santa with his alligators pulling the skiff are wonderful.

I guess we have a new story to add...

‘Twas the Night Before Katrina, Cajun Style

'Twas de night before Katrina, when all tru da state
Not a gas pump was pumpin', Not a store open late
All da plywood was hung, on de windows wit care,
Knowing dat a hurricane, Soon would be dere.

Da chilren were ready wit deir flashlight in hand
While rain bands from da hurricane covered over our lan
And Mom wit her Mag-lite, and me wit my cap
Has jus filled da battub for flushing our crap..

When out on de lawn, there arose such a clatter
I sprang from da closet to see what was de matter
The trees on da terrace, and de neighbor's roof torn,
We feared we'd be dyin' in dis terrible storm.

Wit a little wind gus, so lively and quick,
I membered quite clearly our walls was not brick
More rapid than Eagles, her courses they changed!
And she whistled and wafted and surged all the same.

Off shingles! Off sidings! Off rooftops! Off power!
Down trees! Down fences! Down trailers! Down towers!
On da street of New Orleans, she continued to maul,
Screaming Blow away! Blow away! Blow away all!

As da wind ripped and tossed da debris tru de sky,
I peeked out the shutters at the cars floatin' by.
So go to the attic my family did do,
With a portable radio and some batteries too.

And den in a twinkling, I heard on da set,
The end was not coming for a few hours yet!
As I calmed down da kids and was turning around
Tru de window it came with a huge crashing sound

A tree branch it was all covered in soot
De wind blew it smack-dab on top of my foot!
A bundle of twigs now lay in a stack
And my Livin' Room looked like it was under attack.

De wind how it howled, de storm very scary,
Myself and my family were all too unwary.
Da dangers of hurricanes are serious ya know,
Dey are taken for granted as Betsy did show.

Wit da winds dying down and da danger beneath,
I noticed my tool shed was missing its sheath
So I grabbed my last tarp, and nailed it on down,
Den I got in my car and drove into town.

Da traffic was awful and stores had no ice,
My 5-gallon cooler would have to suffice
Generators was scarce, not one left in town,
Dere was trees on the roads and power lines down.

FEMA was ready wit people to work,
Electrical companies came in from New York.
I sprang to da car, and gave my family a whistle,
Den away we all went like a Tomahawk missile!

You could hear us exclaim as we drove out of sight,

"The heck wit dis place, Texas seem just right!"

Tid Bits of Note

2005-11-16T16:43:00.000-08:00

For most of the years we have lived here, there has been almost a murder a day in New Orleans. And as a sign that things are returning to normal, yesterday a New Orleans woman was stabbed to death in a violent murder. Read more about it in this storyfrom the paper today.

And sadly, something that is NOT normal along those same lines also happened this week in St Tammany where we live. The body of a teenage girl bound and gagged was found in the river, about 12 miles from my house. The police cannot identify her despite the detailed descriptions they've publicized over the past two days. I hope this is not a sign of a trend. With all the transient workers here in St. Tammany, this makes me very nervous. There are too many strangers here in our little suburb where we used to feel safe.

The Noah's Wish temporary animal shelter in Slidell where I spent a couple of days walking dogs will be closing this week on Thursday. They still have about 200 dogs and cats that are now up for adoption or fostering today. Read more about it in Lost and Pound.

Any of my neighbors reading this who still have a fridge hanging around please take note! St. Tammany residents can call the EPA's "Household Hazardous Waste Hotline" to have it picked up (800)401-1327. The fridges in my neighborhood were all picked up just before Halloween, but I'm sure there are many more lurking out there.

And can you stand one more fetid fridge story? When dh got back to his lab last week, he was greeted with a freezer full of dead rats that have been sitting for two months with no power. It may be some time before they can be disposed of since these are a hazardous waste that require certain protocal to remove them under normal circumstances. But there's no rush now that the power is back on, since they have simply been re-frozen. Yummy. ;-)

The Joys of MREs

2005-11-16T07:12:00.000-08:00

This morning I am having a lovely (NOT) cup of cappacino -- MRE style. For anyone not familiar with the acronym, MRE stands for "Meals Ready to Eat". It's military field rations, and it's what everyone around here ate a lot of during the first 2-3 weeks back after the storm when the grocery stores were bare. They require no refridgeration and many come with self heating packets that really get hot. Here's a photo example in case you've never had the pleasure.

You never know what you're going to get when you crack open a thick plastic bag that comprises one MRE. The condiments and after meal snack varies from meal to meal, and some of them also have dessert which can be anything from a pack of M&M's to gummy worms. Most of them also have two pieces of Chicklet style gum. I guess that's so soldiers can have nice breath after eating tobasco flavored industrial food. Many of them have tiny little bit of toilet paper in them too. I guess that's for...well, I'd rather not say. We still have a box of unopened MRE's in the garage. They will probably last until the next millenium.

Anyway, we have a container on our kitchen counter filled with miscellaneous little condiments and drink packets that came in the MREs. My favorite condiment is the teeny tiny little bottle of tobasco sauce. It is probably less than half an ounce.

My local grocery store is out of my favorite flavored New Orleans style coffee (surprise), so rather than figure out how to work our coffee machine and drink the Folgers, I found a packet of cappacino mix in our MRE condiment collection. I'm not really an MRE aficionado and have tried to avoid them whenever possible, but it would be a shame to let all these cute little packaged condiments and drink mixes go to waste. So I'm sipping away at my MRE coffee.

I wish I could say it was tasty. ;-)

House for Sale across the street

2005-11-16T06:56:00.000-08:00

The neighbors directly across the street from us put a realtor's for sale sign in the yard this week. Currently the house is being rented to a family member of theirs from New Orleans who has a contractor business. I have to admit that I will be very glad if they sell the house to someone other than the contractors. It has been very unsettling having a crew of strange men showing up at the house every morning and parking their cars all over the street and on other people's lawns. I'm hoping the realtor's sign means they are not doing a for sale by owner to their current renters. They began having their new roof installed yesterday - ironically it is being installed by a different contracting company than the renter's business.

They appear to be asking a decent price. As a nosey neighbor, I naturally had to look up the listing on realtor.com. As a rule, housing prices in Louisiana are probably the lowest in the country. You can get a wonderful house for hardly any money at all. Our house in most other places would probably cost 3 times as much. At any rate, the asking price for the neighbor's is easily 15-20% more than it would have been two months ago. I guess that's good news for us. Our homes were undervalued already. It's about time they started to catch up.

I am cracking up at this listing that shows a house in my friend Jeannie's neighborhood that still has it's blue roof in the listing photo.

FEMA Trailer

2005-11-15T17:49:00.000-08:00

A FEMA trailer moved in next door while I was away in NYC.

The neighbors are going to have to stay somewhere else for a few weeks while the inside of their home is repaired (from where the ceiling caved in after the attic took on water during the storm), so they qualified for a trailer from FEMA. They are also going to have to move a lot of their belongings out, so their plan is to rent one of those PODS for their furniture.

I've seen dozens of these trailers around town. People are living in trailers and mobile homes everywhere. There are some camped out in the Walmart parking lot, church parking lots, in many driveways of damaged homes, and in the parking lots of private businesses where the owners most likely had their homes destroyed. A year from now I imagine there will be a few homeowners associations in a tizzy over the trailers regarding their deeds and covenances. A couple of neighborhoods over in Mandeville have already had issues with the trailers.

Help from FEMA seems so random (although they did pick up our pile of debris!). There are so many people that I know who don't have a home at all, and they still don't have one or don't even qualify. For example, Bob who works for the city, has been living with friends and in other buildings where ever he can for a week or two at a time. He did not qualify for a trailer because he was not "living in a shelter". The man is completely homeless since his was completely flooded and several large trees finished it off by crushing it completely (including the wheelchair ramp his wife needed). It is a total loss. His wife is now living in another state with family while he works here for the city of Slidell. It seems very strange how they decide which families to help and which to keep mired in red tape.

Other repair news: We finally decided on a contractor to repair our fence. Supposedly we're on the list and he should get to us sometime after Thanksgiving. It will be nice to have a private back yard again. Then we can run around outside in our skivies and not worry about the trailer occupants next door staring at us. (Just checking to see if they are reading this. LOL). ::I'm waving through the window!::

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the tour of their new digs. I wonder if they'll hang some lights on it at Christmas? :-)

Elect My Sister!

2005-11-13T21:53:00.000-08:00

OK, folks! My wonderful sister who took me in during the evacuation now needs our help!

As of last week, she is officially a Democratic Candidate For General Sessions Judge, Division 8, in Nashville, TN! Her campaign officially began on November 3rd. She has been preparing for this opportunity for years, and it is her dream to serve as judge.

She has already spent months pounding the pavement in her grass roots campaign to meet people and get the word out locally that she is a candidate for General Sessions Judge. I have seen her in action at a political function this summer, and I can tell you personally that she is awesome. She has been a police officer for many years and worked hard to earn her law degree during that time, and she has also served for the past three years as a Special, Substitute Judge for the General Sessions Court in Nashville, ruling on a wide range of cases.

Being elected judge will allow her to "continue to protect and serve". If there was ever a person who was made for this position, it is my sister.

How you can help: I'm just going to put it bluntly -- send money to "The Committee to Elect Welch for Judge"!

We all know how the political system works. It takes money to get elected.

Tonette has a campaign committee together and is going through all the official channels. Ideally they need to raise $100,000 dollars or more toward the campaign for her to be a contender.

Any amount will help. You do not have to live in Nashville, or be one of her constituants to contribute to her campaign. If you would just like to see more women in politics, starting with this incredible woman, then get out your checkbook or click her Paypal link and donate online! Legally, you can give up to $1000 per person, LLC or partnership. Corporations cannot donate.

Remember, any amount will help, from $1 up to $1000!

Information about how to contribute is on her website at Welch For Judge.com. She has a Paypal link too!!

The election primary is May 2, 2006 and the final election is November 2006. Let's get out there and help her WIN!

Fun in NYC

2005-11-12T11:42:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm back from my very short trip to NYC with my friends. We had a great time. Here's a picture of us at the fountain outside theLincoln Center. This is the same fountain in the movie "Moonstruck". We stopped there on a walk through the city so Aviva could use the restroom at the Metropolitan Opera House. We told her that she has now officially "performed" at the Met. We're so proud.

On Thursday before our show, we had dinner at the the Carnegie Deli where we did a little star gazing. Actor Brad Garret from the TV show "Everybody Loves Raymond" was eating an enormous chicken salad and meat sandwich at the table right behind us. When he stood up to pay his bill, I snapped a picture of Devra with Brad in the background wearing the baseball cap. I didn't want to be a completely obnoxious papparizi-like fan though, so I didn't use the flash and unfortunately the whole photo is out of focus. You're just going to have to trust me that it was really him. Why else would I post such a blurry photo for everyone to see!?

Before we left the deli, we managed got into a conversation with one of the owners of the restaurant while she showed us her snapshots of herself with Barri Manilow from Vegas. We asked where Brad Garret's photo was on the walls which were covered in celebrity photos, and Devra asked how we could get our photo on the wall. When they found out that my friends had a book published, they were delighted to take our photo with Sanford Levine, acting president of the deli and MBD (Married to the Boss's Daughter). They gave us their card and asked us to get them an 8x10 and said they would hang it up (after we all autograph it of course).

Now that I'm back home, I need to catch up on some work. Speaking of work, Hubby actually got to go back to work for the first time this week. They finally got the power on in his building Monday, so Tuesday he was in his lab at Tulane trying to get things straightened out again. He left this morning for D.C. for his annual conference with the Society for Neuroscience. It's a big conference with 30,000 attendees that meets in New Orleans every few years and rotates a few other cities. The conference was scheduled for New Orleans for 2006 and 2009, but they have already found new locations for those future meetings since New Orleans won't be able to handle that crowd for a while.

Anyway, I had a fabulous time in NY. It was so much fun to get away for a bit. Thank you so much to my friends Devra and Aviva for showing me around! If you get a chance, check out their book, Mommy Guilt. It's fabulous!

Disaster Relief in NYC

2005-11-09T22:08:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note from the hotel lobby. My friends Devra and Aviva are administering some disaster relief by rescuing me from the disaster area I live in. I have joined them for a girls weekend in New York City!! I flew in this morning and spent the afternoon at the Museum of Modern Art, and had dinner with some of my favorite cousins Kate and Joel. Devra and Aviva and I just got back from some good times out where they introduced me to some ethnic food, (Blintes and Monte Cristo) and tomorrow we are going into Manhatten to do the town and see a play on Broadway. We are seeing "Avenue Q"! I'll let you know how it goes when I get home. Whoopeee!!

On the Mend

2005-11-04T14:35:00.000-08:00

As promised, here is a photo of our house now that we have completed the siding and fascia repair, and replaced our missing shutters. The new roof looks spiffy too. Also included here for your reference is a "before repairs" photo that was taken one week after the hurricane. Be sure to click the photos for a larger image. The red arrows are pointing to our nifty new fascia that we made with the metal brake this week.

Next we are working on getting a contractor for our fence repair. Unfortunately the entire fence belongs to us since we had it installed when we moved in six years ago. It is going to cost a LOT more than it did initially. But fortunately, our insurance finally came through!

Since we are going to have to replace the entire thing (about 80% of it was damaged or destroyed), we are not going to attempt this ourselves. I've had two estimates from contractors already and they are both on par with the insurance. Only one of them says he will haul away the old debris though. I do not want any more debris hanging around! FEMA came by and picked ours up already, and I don't think we get a second trip!

We are very fortunate that we have been able to get repairs done so quickly. Driving around our neighborhood, I can see that we are definitely one of the first ones to get our house back up to speed. Doing some of the work ourselves has also been very satisfying.

Most homes around us still have their blue tarps on them. Down the street, the garage door is still precariously leaning against the house. Right next door they finally got a crew to come close up that big hole and they are working on their roof. There is another crew of roofers across the street and one more behind us today. This place sure is busy with construction.

So with a lot of hard work, sweat, and tears, our house is on the mend. And with a lot of prayers and eyedrops, so is our dog. Oscar, our pug, had once again, another checkup at the vet on Monday. His eye is doing much better. He thankfully no longer has to wear that crazy neck cone. He wore that thing for almost 6 weeks! He does not have much vision left in that eye, so he's close to being completly blind since he can't see at all from the other eye. But at least he is no longer in pain and it looks like he won't have to lose the eyeball. Thank goodness!

I feel like all I do lately is make trips to the vet and hang out at Home Depot. Every time my sister calls me, I'm looking for something in Home Depot!! It's our new second home.

Gimme a Brake!

2005-11-03T14:01:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we rented a big machine called a metal brake. We used it to bend the sheet metal that makes the trim for the siding on our house, also called the "fascia". We have been unable to find any professional to do this for us since we have a relatively small job (about 70 feet of missing fascia). The contractors are only interested in big jobs right now making big money. So, hubby and I have been doing the siding ourselves a little at a time.

In case any of my neighbors are reading this and want to know how we did it: We got a roll of "PVC trim coil" from Home Depot. The store in Slidell did not have anymore in the color white, so I went to the Covington store to get it. Lowe's doesn't have it at all. It was not expensive - about $60 for 50 feet. Then we rented the metal brake from Home Depot (about $60 for 24 hours). They also rent them at Tuff Equipment Rentals in Slidell for a lot less, but you need to call and reserve it since they were all out for this week. The brake is about 10 and a half feet long and very very heavy. It fit into my minivan only because we took all the seats out before we went. It still hung out of the van a couple of feet, so we tied the door down.

The metal trim coil cuts easily with a big pair of tin snips. The whole job was definitely a two person job. You need two people to maneuver the long strips of metal into place. If you bend them at all, you've ruined it! We cut the metal into 10' strips and marked off where we needed to make the bends, and which side to bend them. We practiced bending it on a short piece first. Once we figured out what we were doing, it went fairly quickly. When we were done with the bends for each 10 foot section, I would proudly shout, "Look what we made!" to my husband's embarassment.

Installing the fascia onto the house was not as simple as it looked. It was hard to line them up with each other perfectly, and they didn't quite match the existing fascia which has faded a little with age. So, we ended up replacing more of it than we thought to make it look right. We also had to borrow a very tall ladder from another neighbor to get to parts of it. You need two people to install - one person to hold one end, and the other to hammer it in place. Don't hammer the metal!

The whole job took us a good part of the day. It was a lot of work for just a little fascia, but now it is done and it's one more thing we can cross off our list, along with the repair of our attic insulation which we did the day before (another job that was not as easy as it looked!). We also discovered quite a bit of displaced insulation in the roof soffet that had been driven there by the storm. Imagine us on the roof with our shop vaccum sucking out the roof soffets so they will vent properly before we could install the fascia. We were quite a sight. I'll post a picture of the finished fascia job later. By the time we finished, it was too dark to take a picture.

Today, Hubby went into his office in New Orleans to retrieve some data from another computer that he needs for his Neuroscience conference this month. His building STILL does not have any power. Supposedly they were going to have the power on last Monday. Officially, the university still does not have a date to reopen the building to allow his lab back to work, although they expect him to be back teaching Janary 2. He's hoping it will be soon.

I cleaned out the garage and stowed all the Halloween decorations and dragged them back up to the newly insulated attic. I'm exhausted from all the physical labor we've been doing around here. Tomorrow I am going to take a break and work at my desk instead!

Halloween

2005-11-01T17:36:00.000-08:00

The long awaited ghoul family photos are here! Our Halloween party was a huge success. It was probably bigger than it's ever been. There were so many people in our neighborhood this year -- most likely due to many other neighborhoods not in shape for Trick-or-treaters.

We served chili and hot dogs, and my friend Jeannie helped make some other delicious treats. We put out all our decorations including our spooky graveyard and fog machine. The kids all had a great time and they were so happy. The weather was awesome - about 75 degrees. The rain (which we really needed) was kind enough to wait until everyone had gone to bed.

When it was all over, Jeannie's 6 year old son said it all when he commented, "That was a GREAT Halloween!" I gave him a big hug. They drove back to their temporary apartment in Texas today, armed with a fistful of contractor estimates. Mike will be back next week to meet with their adjustor again.

There were quite a few Katrina costumes around, mostly on adults, but a few on kids. Here's a photo of a couple of my son's friends whose house was closer to the lake and flooded completely. One is dressed as moldy sheetrock and the other is an embarrased Saints fan. I saw one man dressed as a looter (his shirt said, "looter" and he carried a box of Nike shoes), and a woman wearing the blue roof tarp. I saw another mom with posterboard that had fake money glued all over it and it said, "$2000 FEMA money". I didn't see anyone dressed as the Mayor or the Governor though. I have a feeling we'll be seeing many more of these costumes at Mardi Gras this year in the French Quarter.

Here are the photos of my little darlings. Maddie was a white witch. Justin was an executioner. Morgan was the Wicked Witch of the East (she had red ruby slippers and striped socks), and since no one really knows the color of that witch's hair (since she was smushed under Dorothy's house), Morgan decided pink was it. Be sure to click these images to see the larger photos.

Before we get ready to put all the Halloween decorations back in the attic, Hubby and I decided this was a good time to make repairs to the attic. We spent a couple of hours fixing the floorboards up there and spreading lots of new insulation to replace what had been sucked out of the attic during the storm. We lost more insulation than we realized, and a lot of it was stuck in places that blocked the attic ventilation. It's all good as new now.

Anyway, I'm SO glad that the kids had such a great time this year. I'm so happy that the turnout was huge. I'm so happy that so many people had a good place to come trick-or-treat.

Small Frys

2005-10-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

We bought some new fish for our fish tank last week. We've had one lone fish for several months, and we decided he needed some friends. He did not evacuate with us, but stayed home to "ride out the storm", and we came home to find him happily swimming in a tank filled with green algae from not having a functioning filter for two weeks while the power was out.

We got guppies and mollies. One of the guppies had babies yesterday. The babies are called fry. We separated them into a little isolation box in the tank so the other fish don't eat them. Aren't they cute?! That's one of the mollies looking up at the delicious little treats.

Katrina Costume Ideas

2005-10-28T17:20:00.000-07:00

People are finding this website while searching for "Katrina Costume Ideas", so I thought I would actually post some. My friends Jeannie and Mike, who have been staying with us while they gut their flooded moldy house, helped come up with these. We had a good laugh, which is a helluva lot more fun than a good cry:

Katrina Costume Ideas
by Laurel, Jeannie, and Mike in Slidell, LA

In the interest of simplifying the Internet, I have posted most of this article here:

Mardi Gras Costume Pics / Katrina Costumes

Burnt Down Their House

2005-10-28T05:54:00.000-07:00

Another friend of mine lives in a nice neighborhood where only a few houses took on water. Her house did not, but the ones across the street from her did. Apparently one homeowner, right across the street from her, didn't have flood insurance or wasn't going to get coverage or something, because he is currently in jail for setting their home on fire.

I took a ride over to her street yesterday to have a look. The first photo is the side view from the driveway. The next photo is taken from the front of the house. There isn't much left except the brick and the stucco facade.

People do desperate things in desperate times. I guess he thought this was the way to get his homeowners policy to cover his losses. Unfortunately for his family, now they will get nothing, and their home is destroyed, and he is in prison.

More fires in town: A restaurant that had been used as a staging area for emergency workers burned down last week from an electrical fire. And, a couple of days ago, the paper reported that the debris field in the area nearer to the lake was burning out of control. We haven't had any rain for 8 weeks now, except for a tiny sprinkle when Hurricane Rita came through. We have a burn ban in the city of Slidell for just that reason.

Sis in the News

2005-10-27T06:24:00.000-07:00

Check out my Sis all over the news in Nashville last night! My Sis is a Metro police sergeant and she is one good cop! I'm so proud of her.

Channel 2: Metro Police bust a major marijuana production Look in the left column on that page for the video link, "Major Drug Bust" which features my Sis!

Channel 4: House used solely for major marijuana growing operation Under the photos is the video link titled, "Record breaking marijuana bust", also featuring the lovely sergeant Welch!

Channel 5: Police Make One Of Largest Pot Busts In History

In one of the stories it says:

One thing that aroused suspicion was that NES bills for most of the homes in the neighborhood run about $100. However, this particular house regularly had an electric bill of around $500 a month.

Hmmmmm, I wonder if my lovely $476 utility bill this month is enough to get police around here looking for my secret basement. ;-)

Utility Bills and other stuff

2005-10-27T05:24:00.000-07:00

We got our electric utility bill yesterday. August and September are usually our highest bills of the year because of the heat. A typical summer month usually costs us about $200-$250 and in the winter it is about $80. In our September bill, they estimated our usage from the previous month since they could not come out and read meters due to the storm. They estimated our bill at about half of what our previous month was, so our bill was around $100.

Yesterday I opened our October bill for the past month's use since we have been home and it was $476. Talk about sticker shock. Apparently they grossly underestimated last month, or there is something seriously wrong with our bill. According to our bill, our usage for the past two months (including the estimated month) was 5335 units, which averages 2667 units per month. This is on par with our July usage of 2690 units. But then where is the two weeks where we used no power at all? Our usages should have been MUCH lower. ....Unless, of course, there is a grow room in my house that I don't know about.

We are not the only ones with a bill like this. There is a whole story about it in the paper this morning in the article titled, "Utility Bills Back with a Vengeance". All I can say is "Ugh!!" At least the phone company didn't charge us for all the time the phones were out.

Our mortgage company finally returned our insurance check to us. They decided to make it easy for us and just endorse it and release the entire thing to us without forcing us to go through the song and dance of their inspectors, etc. Unfortunately they FORGOT to put the endorsement on the back of the check when they returned it in the pre-paid Fed-ex envelope I sent them! They said they would pay to have it overnighted to us because of their error, but I don't have much confidence in them after they "forgot" to do the very thing for which I sent the check in the first place, so I didn't take any chances. I sent another pre-paid Fed-ex envelope. I don't want them to "accidentally" put it in First Class mail which will take about two weeks to get here and probably get lost.

In other updates, my friend Jeannie has been getting contractors to come do estimates on their roof and all of the drywall in their house, and for the mold removal. Unfortunately since they could not get back into the house for 3 weeks, the mold damage is pretty severe. Her husband Mike had to go buy a regulator to breathe through since he seems to be very allergic to all the mold. Those regulator masks are very popular in New Orleans right now, and did you know that mold comes in every color of the rainbow?

The fencing company I called a few weeks ago finally came to give me an estimate for our fence. Jeannie and I are both discovering that the longer it takes to get the contractors to your house, the more the prices go up. I guess materials and labor are in short supply because of all the rebuilding.

Finally, here's an update on the Grave Tragedy that I wrote about last month. They have returned the tombs to their proper resting place at last in this story, TALES OF THE CRYPTS. Here's a photo from the paper. I couldn't find the photo on the newspaper's website, so this will have to do:.

Coming, Going and Blowing

2005-10-25T10:22:00.000-07:00

My friend Jeannie and her family got here last night. They stopped by their house before they came over so Jeannie could see their house for the first time. All the sheetrock has been cut out a couple of feet above the floor and all the carpet has been ripped out. She took it really well, all things considered.

This morning they took their kids for a little drive around town to tour some of the damage. We told them to head over to the Eden Isles neighborhood to really get an eyefull of destruction. They are probably over there right now.

On Sunday, the garbage haulers came back and finished the job! They also managed to clean up Jeannie's neighborhood as well. They had a lot more debris than we did because of the flooding.

In the last couple of days we've had to bundle up and actually wear jackets since a cool breeze blew in from up north. Yes, I guess winter really is on the way. I know the rest of you have been having cool weather for some time now. It's been all the way down in the 50's here! I guess I'm spoiled by my shorts-wearing-weather 10 months of the year. Brrrrrrr!!! ;-)

The wind has been blowing hard the last couple of days and the plastic covering the gaping hole in next door neighbor's house has been ripping and flapping so loud that I thought it was thunder the first night. Here's a picture.

My neighbor across the street (with the renters who have the infamous huge pile of debris that they brought over here from New Orleans) finally got his official job transferred to Birmingham and told me this morning that they will be putting their house up for sale now. They will give their renters the option to buy it first, he said. A house diagonally behind us just sold and they were having an inspection done this morning. There are a lot of homes changing hands around here right now. It will be interesting to see how it all turns out. I will miss having my neighbor's daughter Jessica across the street. She was one of my kids' favorite babysitters!! I guess she would have gone off to college next year anyway.

We're almost done fixing our siding. Hubby installed the rest of the soffet and I was finally able to locate and purchase a roll of the metal sheeting we need for the trim (fascia). I had to drive a ways to get it. I also located a place to rent the big tool we need to bend it correctly -- it's called a "metal break". We should be tackling this home repair project next weekend since we'll be busy this weekend with our Halloween stuff and Hubby will be out of town the rest of this week.

Some Updates

2005-10-21T12:46:00.000-07:00

The I-10 bridge has been repaired on one side and is open to two way traffic - one lane each direction. I don't think it has helped relieve the traffic though.

The Red Cross station that was handing out money to people here in Slidell has closed and probably is helping serve the people over in New Orleans right now. They are still operating some shelters here though. I just want to add that a LOT of people got money from the Red Cross here in Slidell. They gave out debit cards to families or gave them a check or a direct deposit into their bank account. It was reassuring to me to know that a lot of the money donated by people from all over the country REALLY DOES go right into the hands of the people who need it. Not only that, but with the debit cards, the users do not even have to pay sales tax, so they are able to buy even more for the money.

I was sorry to hear that my next door neighbor's 1st cousin was one of the elderly women who drowned in a nursing home in New Orleans during the flood. Also, the mother of one of my son's gym teammates had an uncle who was picked out of the floodwaters and taken to the Superdome during the flood. An older man who was with him had broken his leg and was taken there with him. While they were there, they had no food or medical help for 3 days. There was food there at first, but racial issues caused others not to share what they had with them, even with an injured old man. The older man died at the Superdome as a result. Very very sad indeed.

We're still waiting to hear if our mortgage company will make an exception in our case and release our insurance check to us immediately instead of holding it hostage. I am not holding my breath, but it's nice to know it's being considered.

The roofers came out this morning to fix one of the pipe caps that was not installed correctly. I was glad they made good on their promise to fix it, especially considering I had already paid them. Paid them a lot!

My friend Jeannie and her family are coming to town on Monday to assess their house and see what they can do. They will most likely be staying here with us for a week or two. They will be here for our Halloween party!

The trash haulers didn't get all the trash, and have not come back for the huge pile across the street as they promised. I hope they are really going to come back! Our regular garbage collection has cut its pickups in half starting last week.

Our local news channels are really focusing on the current storm in the gulf, even though it probably won't come anywhere near us. I think they are just really feeling emotionally tied to the poor Florida folks in it's path. I hope everyone there remembers to empty thier freezer and take it all with them in a big cooler when they evacuate! And don't forget your gas cans!!

Theoretically, Tulane is going to allow the research professors back to work on November 1st. This includes Hubby, although that may be difficult for him considering his building is one of the only ones left with no power. The sub-basement where the electrical stuff is located was flooded. They can't work in the building without power, so we are still waiting to see what will happen with that.

And that's it for today folks!

Da Prez

2005-10-19T10:49:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of my next door neighbor Donnie with da Prez taken last month (by White House staff I think). Donnie works in the Folgers coffee plant in New Orleans where Dubya made one of his first visits to the area after the storm. Donnie was back at work pretty early after the disaster, and Dubya took a break from talking to the press for a few minutes and walked over and introduced himself to Donnie while he was working. You can see a can of Folgers coffee in Dubya's other hand in the pic.

All politics aside, it sure is cool to see someone you know with the POTUS (President of the United States). The photo is a little faded because it is a picture of a hard copy photo (my scanner is on the blink). Interestingly (or not), Dubya is a relative of mine on my father's side. We both have a common ancestor, John Howland, who came over on the Mayflower. Technically, Dubya is my 9th cousin 4 times removed, and 9th cousin 3 times removed to his dad, Big George. This makes my kids 10th cousins to the presidents. Not that anyone cares. I don't really care either unless it gets us invited to the White House for Thanksgiving dinner.

For all of my Democratic relatives who are probably reading this, I will also include another photo of W just to make sure they don't disown me for posting that first picture. Here's a photo I got from a friend that had the caption, "Why help never arrived." (feel free to chuckle)

About the same time Donnie was meeting W, my aunt and uncle and two cousins were fishing in Alaska on a boat with Hillary and Sen. McCain. I'll gladly post a photo of that too, even though the fishing trip was not related to the hurricane disaster. Perhaps I could start a new blog entitled, "photos of people I know with people everyone knows".

And speaking of Dubya stuff, here is a not-to-be-missed article by my favorite local columnist from yesterday's paper titled, "The Uptown Fridge Wars" where he talks about how Uptown New Orleans residents are using the "weapons of our mass destruction", in their quest for normalcy in the face of disaster. Good stuff.

The Garbage Trucks Are Here!

2005-10-17T10:00:00.000-07:00

The garbage trucks are here! The news flew through the neighborhood as soon as they pulled into the entrance. My next door neighbor, Kathy, called to tell me they were here and everyone came out of their homes to watch. You would think we had nothing better to do. Some of us even pulled up lawn chairs to watch the debris dissappear. We remarked that it was a lot like a parade. Four HUGE trucks and a big crane-thingy that bites the trash and loads it.

Unfortunately, an SUV was parked in the street in front of the large debris pile across the street and they were unable to pick it up. The garbage haulers seemed friendly enough though, and assured us that they would try to get it tomorrow. They will be in the neighborhood for several days picking it all up.

Eye Opener

2005-10-16T16:51:00.000-07:00

Today we took a little drive around town. On our tour, we drove through one of the neighborhoods that was near the lake. We keep hearing that what you see on tv or in photos really does not prepare you for the total amount of destruction around here. It's true. A photo just cannot capture the entire thing. We took a picture of this former house of which there was nothing left but the cement slab and a lone toilet still in place. The next door neighbors were living in their RV on the property. We saw a lot of that.

The houses in that neighborhood had debris piles as big as a house, and in many cases, the debris pile WAS the house. In this picture you can see a house peeking out from behind the pile. I cannot imagine what it would have been like to come home to something like this. While we are moving along toward normality relatively quickly in our neighborhood, these people are going to be putting pieces back together for a long long time.
This is Eden Isle neighborhood. The owner of the kids' gymnatsics club lives in here. We tried to find his house, but the streets are all so unrecognizable that we couldn't orient ourselves enough to find it. I'm sure it looks similiar to these though. The gym is back open again and the kids have been in classes. They have most of their employees back which is better than a lot of businesses around town.

The National Guard in Slidell have moved on and are not longer giving out MRE's and bottled water. We seem to have most of our critical services back in Slidell, so they have presumably gone over to New Orleans to help out all those folks who are just getting back in recent weeks.

It is nice to see some "normal" stuff happening again. I think most people here would agree with that.

Debris Pile of the Month

2005-10-13T18:03:00.000-07:00

On the news the other night, they noted that over in New Orleans the trash trucks are hauling the debris out at an incredible pace, and if they can keep up that same pace, they will be able to remove all of the Katrina debris in just under two years. Slidell will not have to wait that long.

We've noticed a funny thing in some of the neighborhoods that have more manageable debris piles like ours. Slowly the piles are shrinking. At first we didn't detect it, but now it's getting very obvious. Most of it is due to the debris owners sticking one bag or two each week into the garbage can which is now being picked up fairly regularly (although they miss a pickup here an there). The garbage collectors will only take what is in the can, so no one leaves their can only half-full. I've also seen one opportunistic entrepreneur driving through our neighborhood picking up all the metal objects from each pile until he had a truckload - metal fence poles, metal roof fascia, chimney pipes, etc. I assume he was getting paid for a load of scrap metal. I was happy to let him pick through our pile and reduce it.

Another reason for the shrinking piles is that people in our neighborhood are starting to take pride in having a nice organized debris pile. (We admit to taking part in this debris organization ourselves). They separate out the tree and limb debris from the construction debris. We make nice neat organized piles of the siding, metal fence poles, cement pilings, neatly rolled carpet, shingles etc. We break down the smaller tree limbs that have had adequate time to dry and are easy to snap. Making the piles a little neater also gives the poor grass a fighting chance at survival underneath. That is really the only reason for living in a suburb anyway -- to take pride in growing grass. (Ha!)

You may have thought I was joking about the "yard of the month" award earlier this month, but our neighborhood really does have a Green Team that actually gives such an honor. I was definitely joking about us winning it though, because even my kids admit that we will never have the honor. They don't seem to care though, especially as long as they are allowed to climb trees.

Apparently now our neighbors are all competing for "Debris Pile of the Month". They'd better watch it though, if they work at it too much, they will reduce the size of their pile to zero, and have to try for "yard of the month" instead. A few people have already managed to accomplish this. In a few more weeks, we will be there too - assuming we can fit that big stump into the garbage can at some point. We already gave our big box of shingles to our roofers to haul away with the rest of our old roof, and our pile is slowly shrinking.

The large pile across the street is shrinking too. The homeowner who rented his house across the street came around today and spent over an hour re-arranging their monster pile. It looks very nice now - at least as nice as a debris pile can look. Perhaps I should nominate them to our Green Team.

Other notes about our family: My youngest daughter is feeling somewhat better. We can see why this has all been hardest for her. She seems to have lost the most in our family. She lost her backyard playhouse (she loved that thing), she lost her dog (when we took it back to my parents), she has also lost a large number of her friends (there are only 13 children in her class now), and she lost her routine at school since her school was one of those that flooded and they spent the first week doubling up some of the classrooms. She will be losing her teacher after December since her current teacher is one of the new hires and is filling in for the regular teacher who has been on maternity leave the first semester. Her current teacher would probably lose her job anyway since she is one of the new hires and they will be the first ones they let go next semester (see note from the school superintendent). These last couple of weeks have been hard. She's starting to adjust though, I hope. She still has her family and a comfortable safe house, so by most standards she has a lot. It's hard to explain that to a six-year old though. I just hug her a lot.

My kids asked if we could put out some of our Halloween decorations. I was thrilled to do something that felt utterly normal, so as soon as the roofers left, we put out our huge inflatable jack-o-lantern lawn decoration. We also dragged all the other Halloween stuff down from the attic (it was all covered in splinters and crud from the roofing nails punching through all over everything). We have more Halloween decor than Christmas decor. The neighbors are all getting excited about our annual Halloween block party that I have hosted for the past 6 years. They are looking forward to it this year more than ever. For some of them, it's the only time they ever really get to interact with the rest of the neighbors.

I am really looking forward to it myself. Our debris pile will probably look really good by then too. :-)

Roofers

2005-10-12T06:22:00.000-07:00

Holy frijoles! It was LOUD inside the house all day yesterday. We had a crew of six workers stomping around ripping out the old roof and hammering in new shingles. It sounded like the whole house was coming down. It's SO much louder on the inside than it is on the outside, so I spent as much time as possible hanging out with the neighbors watching our roof installation. Those guys really work hard.

Here's something I noted as I went into Home Depot yesterday. They had a sign out front that said, "Yes, we're open" and below that it had the Spanish translation, "Estamos abiertos." I realize that seeing signs in Spanish is common in many parts of the country, but it is not common here in Louisiana. In fact, it is so uncommon, that I was very surprised by it, so I took a picture.

St. Tammany Parish supposedly has an extra 100,000 people in it right now -- most of them are relief workers and construction workers. Apparently many of them are Hispanic, including our roofers. Getting around town is very difficult since the traffic is horrendous with all the extra people. Also interesting is that it seems like EVERY single retail store of any kind has a "help wanted" sign out, including Wal-Mart. There are not enough workers for all the jobs since so many people were displaced, or else they all went to work making big bucks doing construction since that is where the money is right now.

Well, it appears that our crew has arrived this morning to continue working on our roof. They are all standing around on our lawn having a breakfast of Cheetos and cigarettes before they get started. The job should be finished by today. I'm glad they're here. Thanks guys! Gracias!

The Foulest of All

2005-10-11T06:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, Ok, Ok. This is hands down the winner of the owner of the stinkiest fridge. A warehouse company in New Orleans has the unpleasant task of cleaning up their three warehouses full of 52 million pounds of rotting chicken.

More than a month after Hurricane Katrina turned what used to be row after row of 35-foot-high frozen towers of palletized leg quarters into an immense mound of unimaginable foulness, the mess still has not been cleaned up.

It is described in detail in an article titled, " Don’t you dare complain about cleaning one fridge".

Ok, so I have cleaned four fridges. One that belonged to my next door neighbor complete with maggots, one that belonged to my friend that sat for 3 weeks cooking it's grotesque putridity, and two of which were mine (although my sister did the dirty job part of those and I just swooped in for the detailing).

Let me just try to visualize that again: Fifty-two million pounds of rotting chicken.

Time to shut my piehole.

Fetid Fridges

2005-10-10T18:28:00.000-07:00

I could not resist posting these pictures. I did not take them -- they are from our paper (see the complete collection here). This morning's paper had a collection of photos of repulsive refridgerators from around town that have become a medium for humor. We have quite a few fridges on my street that are sitting on the curb too, but none of them have anything funny to say like these do from New Orleans.

I guess I've had my head inside way too many stinky appliances lately because I cannot say enough about them. I was even taking apart our garage freezer yesterday because I am determined to find the source of its stench. Our freezer has been sitting open airing out for over a month now. When I tipped it to move it back to it's usual spot in the garage, some putrid water was leaking out of it. Somehow it still had water in it after a month of drying out! I cracked it open and found that some of the insulation was still wet. I am not giving up on it yet. By the time it's all over, it may be my Franken-fridge, because it will not die!

Anyway, these photos from our paper gave me a chuckle and so I had to share them. These two in particular seem quite fitting for Halloween. Speaking of which, my neighbors are all asking about my annual Halloween party. I am definitely planning to have it, but we have not planned our costumes yet. Usually I start thinking about this sort of thing 6 months in advance! I hope we can come up with something fun on short notice. Perhaps we should consider going as a fetid fridge or some other other abominable appliance. .....Nah.

Alligators and other stuff

2005-10-10T18:04:00.000-07:00

Just about everyone has probably seen the photo of the huge crocodile that was reportedly eating New Orleans flood victims. It is a hoax of course, although the photo is real, but it was taken in Congo. First of all there are no crocodiles in North America. We have ALLIGATORS in the United States, not crocodiles. They are quite different. HERE is a photo of an actual alligator in someone's swimming pool from the flood. It is a small gator, but a gator just the same. And just as pesky! The photo was in our local paper with the following caption, "A young alligator floats on the water of Warren Pope's pool at his Gentilly home. Monday, October 10, 2005. STAFF PHOTO BY RUSTY COSTANZA".

Now that we've cleared that up, here's an update on what we've been doing for the past couple of days. The kids finished their first week of school. My two oldest kids have settled right back into their routine and seem happy to be back with their friends. My youngest is having some trouble adjusting to post-K life (post Katrina, or post-kindergarten, you pick). She seems to cry easily and is easily frustrated lately, much more than she used to be. I invited a friend of hers over for a few hours on Sunday and that seemed to help.

The paper published the school attendance for the week. My children attend two different schools. One had attendendance down 30% and the other was down 29%. This includes all the new students who just started attending since the storm. Wow. They are already discussing layoffs of some of the teachers in the district, but I think they will wait at least until next semester to see if more students return.

Our roofing company is supposed to start our roof tomorrow, but there is a shortage of roofing material now, and the contractor called me to see if we could substitute a different type. We're going to look at it in the morning to decide if it will work for us. I hope it does, otherwise, we'll be waiting a few more weeks for our roof repair. We don't have the insurance money straightened out yet anyway.

Our dog Oscar had another checkup for his injured eye today. He was full of energy at the vet's office. I guess he's feeling much better. His eye is still making good (but slow) progress. He has to wear the collar for another three weeks and keep getting the eyedrops. His next appointment is on Halloween morning. He's so lucky because he'll be wearing his Halloween costume all month. He gets to be a Direct TV satellite dish. Lucky dog.

Debris Humor

2005-10-07T06:42:00.000-07:00

I'm so glad that it's ok to have a few laughs again. Saturday Night Live had some funny sketches this past weekend with references to Katrina, and our local paper has had some humorous stories along with the usual depressing stuff. One of my favorites was a song in yesterday's paper which was a takeoff of "My Favorite Things" from "The Sound of Music.".

They called it, "My Favorite Things Are Debris." It was written by Steigman and Donna Musarra with with help from a few other folks mentioned in the article printed here.

My Favorite Things Are Debris

Water is swarming with venomous species
Elegant swimming pools teeming with feces
The rash on my haunches is starting to sting
These are the things that Katrina brings.

Houses are burning and levees are breeching
Into my water the sewage is seeping
Horrible odors awaft in the breeze
Hoping I don't catch a dreadful disease

Helicopters flying and criminals shooting
I called the police but they're too busy looting
National Guard troops all over the town
Why did it take Bush two weeks to dump Brown?

First the Dome leaked
Then the Dome reeked
Damn, the fridge smells bad!
New Orleans covered in green, purple and gold
It's not Mardi Gras, it's MOLD!

(slowly)
Boats on the rooftops and lawns full of branches
President hiding on big Texas ranches
Blue tarps on houses as far as I see
My favorite things are debris!

Local columnist Chris Rose always has interesting descriptions of goigns-on around town. Yesterday he offered this advice in his column for people returning to the city: "Do not open your refridgerator. Ever. Again." With all that I've written in my blog about the putrid appliances, this is something I could really relate to. One of Hubby's grad-students returned to New Orleans recently to check his home and did not heed this advice. He made the mistake of opening the fridge, and said it was crawling with maggots and he slammed it shut immediately. Too late. The memory of that stench will now follow him for a lifetime.

Rose writes today that the streets are now paved with appliances and wonders like the rest of us where all of this debris is going to go. He wrote "The city used to measure the success of Mardi Gras by announcing the accumulated tonnage of garbage that was collected during Carnival season. Well, by that measure, Kristina was a very successful hurricane." And for every person that returns to the city to clean out their house, more garbage accumulates.

He also notes that it's impossible to accurately portray the stench in the city until a scratch-n-sniff version of the daily paper can be produced. I will not be holding my breath for that one. Or will I? :-)

We're definitely getting a new stench today. A front moved through last night and it's very windy. The air stinks again. The debris piles keep growing. But now I am armed with humorous thoughts about it all. What else can you do?

As I sit here and write this, I am looking out the window at the debris mountain on the lawn across the street from me. Here is a photo. It's been there for almost 6 weeks now, and we have no idea when it will be picked up, so we're just getting used to it now like everyone else is. Their debris pile is worse than ours, but it's nothing compared to the pile at my friend Jeannie's house which flooded or any every house that flooded. It's a lovely debris pile just the same. And at least now I can sing along and finally enjoy my view of the debris.

Laugh at Ourselves

2005-10-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

As the city rebuilds and starts trying to get back to normal, humor is returning as well. This one is going around the internet and was sent to me by a neighbor a couple of days ago. I also saw it reprinted in the newspaper yesterday. Somehow the original author has gotten lost in all the forwarding, but here it is for what it's worth:

YOU KNOW YOU LIVE IN LOUISIANA WHEN ....

You have FEMA's number on your speed dial.

You have more than 300 C and D batteries in your kitchen drawer.

Your pantry contains more than 20 cans of Spaghetti Os.

You are thinking of repainting your house to match the plywood covering your windows.

When describing your house to a prospective buyer, you say it has three bedrooms, two baths and one safe hallway.

Your SSN isn't a secret, it's written in Sharpie on your arms.

You are on a first-name basis with the cashier at Home Depot.

You are delighted to pay only $3 for a gallon of regular unleaded.

The road leading to your house has been declared a No-Wake Zone.

You decide that your patio furniture looks better on the bottom of the pool.

You own more than three large coolers.

You can wish that other people get hit by a hurricane and not feel the least bit guilty about it.

Three months ago you couldn't hang a shower curtain; today you can assemble a portable generator by candlelight.

You catch a 13-pound redfish in your driveway.

You can recite from memory whole portions of your homeowner's and flood insurance policies.

You consider a "vacation" to stunning Tupelo, Mississippi.

At cocktail parties, women are attracted to the guy with the biggest chainsaw.

You have had tuna fish more than 5 days in a row.

There is a roll of tar paper in your garage (if you still have a garage).

You can rattle off the names of the meteorologists who work for the Weather Channel.

Someone comes to your door to tell you they found your roof.

Ice is a valid (and deeply interesting) topic of conversation.

Your "drive-thru" meal consists of MRE's and bottled water.

Relocating to South Dakota does not seem like such a crazy idea.

You spend more time on your roof than in your living room.

You've been laughed at over the phone by a roofer, fence builder or a tree worker.

A battery powered TV is considered a home entertainment center.

You don't worry about relatives wanting to visit during the summer.

Your child's first words are "hunker down" and you didn't go to UGA.

Having a tree in your living room does not necessarily mean it's Christmas.

Toilet Paper is elevated to "coin of the realm" at the Red Cross shelter.

You know the difference between the "good side" of a storm and the "bad side."

Your kids start school in August and finish in July.

You go to work early and stay late just to enjoy the air conditioning.

Getting Started with Repairs!

2005-10-05T13:55:00.000-07:00

We've been back a few days and have been very busy. Here's the latest on what's been going on around our household:

Our blue roof was finally installed. I don't think it covers the leaking area though. We think the roof is leaking where it attaches to the second story of the house, and a tarp cannot cover that. We'll have it fixed soon though. They would not install a tarp over the garage since it's not a living area. I don't think it's leaking there yet though.

The kids started school on Monday. They were actually thrilled. Attendance in our parish was down quite a bit overall, but there were MANY new kids from neighboring parishes over in New Orleans who are staying with family here in Slidell, and will be attending our school for as long as necessary. The schools are giving every child in the parish a free hot lunch through November. The hot lunch is very popular here and my kids normally ate it every day anyway. The busses are running and most of the teachers returned. My youngest daughter's school flooded but they had a crew working around the clock and were able to open on time. Part of the building is still being repaired, so they are doubling up in the classrooms for a couple more weeks until they are done.

Hubby went to New Orleans today to meet with someone from the university to see if he can be allowed into his office to get his computer and some of his research material so he can work on it. He should be there right now. Hopefully he hasn't been turned away. Security on campus is supposed to be pretty tight right now, and they still don't have any power.

The insurance adjustor came and went over our claim. It went really well and appears to be enough to cover everything we need to repair. One tip for anyone who still has to meet with their adjustor: Have all your receipts already copied and ready to give him. It made things MUCH faster and easier. I think it also helped make our adjustor more amicable since it made his job a lot easier. We can finally get started fixing things!

Unfortunately now we have to go through a big song and dance with our mortgage company who was also a payee on our check, and we can't cash it without their endorsement. Basically the mortgage company will hold the money in escrow and send us 1/3 of it at a time to make repairs and then we have to call their inspector. After each inspection, they will send us another 1/3 of the money. What a pain, but at least we are not having any problems with the insurance settlement.

We are going to have to do a big repair to the ceiling in our living room, which I did not realize was going to be such a big job. The roof leaked and ruined the ceiling.

It's a good thing we saved our fridge because it would not have been included on the homeowners insurance.

Today we signed on a local company to do the roof. They will probably get started sometime in the next two weeks. Hooray! The first thing to get fixed! It feels good to have someone lined up to fix something finally.

Now we are working on estimates for the fence, the siding, the carpet, and the drywall/ceiling. We're doing some of the smaller repairs ourselves, such as repairing all the screens that were damaged. I fixed those myself already! They look great. hubby reinstalled the missing shutters and fixed some of the missing siding on the front of the house. It looks better already.

Dog update: Lulu, the Welsh terrier, is now living with my parents in North Carolina. She was their dog originally anyway, so she really just returned home. We have been having a terrible time trying to keep her from running away since the hurricane, and so many other dogs and animals are running loose everywhere. She does not play well with other animals.

Our pug dog Oscar went to the vet for another checkup on his eye. He is still wearing his big plastic collar, and he has a long way to go before the eye heals completely. It is making progress, but it is very SLOW. The vet is still very worried about it and says it may take up to two months to heal, and wants me to think about some other surgery options. Yikes. We're still giving him antibiotics and eyedrops 4 times a day. A little bit of his vision has returned, but not like it was. Poor old guy.

We went to the grocery store this afternoon and I was thrilled to see much more food! They even had the salad bar open finally! Real food! No more Spaghetti-O's!

All in all, things are moving along finally. It feels good to finally be able to get started with repairs, and to get the kids back to a routine.

Vacation is Over

2005-09-30T18:11:00.000-07:00

Today was our last day at the beach here in North Carolina. The kids took a long walk on the beach in the sunset. It was a beautiful evening. We tried to soak up the beautiful sights as much as we could. When we get back home, all the destruction will still be there waiting for us. Or maybe I'll be surprised at how much has been cleaned up while we were away.

Tomorrow we head back to Slidell. We'll probably spend the night somewhere and get there on Sunday afternoon. It was nice having a little break. It's nice having grandparents who live in a pretty place. There was nothing to do in Slidell this past week anyway, except scavenge the grocery stores and wait around for the insurance adjuster to show up. We haven't even been able to start fixing anything yet since he wants to see the damage before we can make our claim. He is supposed to be there on Monday morning bright and early.

The kids start school again on Monday too. Their teachers called to find out if they are returning. From talking to the teachers, it sounds like there will be a good turn out at school, and attendance will be much better than I imagined. That's wonderful news. I guess we'll see for sure once it starts. I better go turn in early to get ready for the long drive tomorrow!

Hanging out in NC

2005-09-26T21:57:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone. Just a quick note to let you know that we are back in civilization again. We arrived in North Carolina this afternoon. It was 836 miles. We drove all day yesterday and then spent the night at a hotel last night and finished the trip today. It went really well. My kids are great little travelers.

I forgot to mention that on Sunday I recruited two more people to walk dogs at the Noah's Wish shelter in Slidell. They were so happy to help. One of them is my neighbor Kathy who is taking care of my dog Oscar's eye until Hubby gets back tomorrow. I'll write more later. Just wanted to let ya know that we're here, safe and sound!

On the Road

2005-09-25T12:51:00.000-07:00

I'm so glad my friend Jimmie in Houston dodged the Rita storm! I know it probably feels like that whole evacuation mess that Houston had was a big waste since the storm mostly missed you. (But what if it hadn't?!) I know I felt that way last year during all the Hurricane Ivan evacuation mess. Our evac during Ivan was a complete disaster and we had many of the same problems that Houston did. It was so bungled, that my family decided we were better off staying home than getting stuck on the highway during the storm. We got lucky and missed it.

I think it was a big dress-rehearsal. Louisiana learned so much from that bumbled evac, and this time when it was really important, it went SO much better.

Last year during Ivan it took people 20 hours in their cars to make it 25 miles. Rediculous. And only 80% of the people evacuated. This year, the estimates are that 90% got out and there were no long traffic delays to speak of. It was all very orderly. So, Houston, think of the Rita evac as practice for the next one.

Speaking of being on the road, I'm taking the kids on a long car trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house in North Carolina for the week. Their school doesn't start for one more week, so we're going to hit the beach and try to relax if possible. It's a long drive and we'll probably take two days to do it. Just letting you know since I probably will be away from the blog temporarily.

Also, I don't know if anyone has noticed or not, but I changed the title of my blog from "Hurricane Katrina Refugee" to "Hurricane Katrina Returnee". It just seemed more fitting. :-)

Walkin' Dogs

2005-09-24T14:22:00.000-07:00

A few folks have called to check on us with the latest weather, namely Rita. Don't worry, we'd be the first people outta here if we thought we needed to evacuate. The wind started last night, but it's bearable. It probably wouldn't be a problem at all if the community weren't still reeling from Katrina. There is SO much debris outside right now -- much more than there was immediately after Katrina hit because now everyone has returned and is emptying their flooded homes and piling it up outside, where it is now blowing all around. We lost some more of our fence, and someone's blue roof tarp is in our back yard. There's not much rain though, so that's good, especially since we don't have our tarp installed yet. Hubby is outside taking down the flapping parts of our fence before they hurt someone. More than anything, the wind is annoying. It's also really hot AND humid. It's almost 4 PM and it's still blowing. Normally a little breeze feels good, but right now it just feels like hot breath.

This morning I ran into Bob again while evaluating a tree that is about to fall in a neighbor's yard. He is the one I mentioned who has been working with the animal rescue group and making the city facility available for them. The group is called Noah's Wish and their main focus is to help animals during disasters. Bob said they desperately needed volunteers to help walk dogs in Slidell, so I headed over to become a dog walker for all the homeless dogs.

They currently have over 500 animals at their temporary shelter in Slidell. It appears chaotic at first, but it is actually all very well organized. Most of the volunteers were from around the country. They have different people in charge of certain groups of animals, and veterinarian volunteers as well. The dogs need to get out of their crates to go potty since most of them hold it while they are in there. While they are out being walked, another volunteer cleans their crate and replaces the food and water. The animals are all tagged and everything is documented on the sheet attached to their crate so they don't miss anything. Those dogs were so happy to get out and go potty!

They can only be walked one at at time. I helped walk dogs for about 3 hours, so at about 10 minutes per dog, I only did about about 20 dogs. They want to have them all walked at least twice a day, so they need a lot of volunteers. I'm going to try to go back and help as much as I'm able during the next couple of weeks. It will probably be a lot easier once this hot wind stops blowing.

Many of the animals belong to people who have returned to Slidell, but can't care for their animals because they are staying in shelters, hotels, or they are camping in RVs until they can get their houses livable again. While I was there a couple of dogs got to go home with their owners who were so happy to see them. Other animals have not been identified yet, and the group tries to help locate their owners. Eventually, they will foster out the animals locally so their owners can visit them while trying to repair their housing, and then eventually the rest will be adopted.

If anyone in Slidell is reading this and you want to help walk dogs, the shelter is over next to Heritage Park. There is someone at the gate who will tell you where to go. You have to be at least 18 years old to volunteer. Be prepared to get dirty, and you have to use a baggie to pick up whatever poop your pooch pals produce. :-)

Also -- Anyone in Slidell who just needs pet food or leashes or kennels to house your animals, they that available also. There is no charge. Just go talk to them and tell them what you need. I'm sure a lot of people around here can use a dog kennel of some sort since there aren't many backyard fences left standing.

As for my little dog, Oscar, he seems to be doing better. The swelling in his eye has gone down quite a bit and he is no where near as stressed out as he was initially. He still has to wear his big plastic Elizibethan collar though, since he'd still like to scratch at it. The ulcer looks a little better (at least as far as I can tell), and he has a follow up appointment at the vet on Monday.

Smart Kid

2005-09-23T11:20:00.000-07:00

I said one of those mom-isms today. You know, one of the things that all mothers say such as, "Careful or you'll put an eye out with that!" What I said was, "We are going to do some house cleaning today -- starting with your bedroom before it is declared a disaster area."

My darling Maddie gave a quick witted reply and said, "Well, Mommy, technically ...it already is!"

When did 9-year-olds get so smart?

Another Slidell Family Blog

2005-09-23T10:08:00.000-07:00

I ran across this blog today by Ned and Linda, a family in Slidell, who are dealing with the daily struggle of cleaning up and rebuilding. Their struggle is SO much more difficlut than ours. I do not know them personally, but I am so glad they are able to share their experiences in their blog which was created to keep their family and friends up to date. They give a detailed account of digging out their flooded home and also having to deal with an army of trees that collapsed onto it and other family member's homes as well.

They write, "It's Hard to Remember What Our Lives Were Like". It's so true. I've talked to many people with similar circumstances to theirs and it's heartbreaking at the sheer numbers of folks dealing with it. Spending several days helping my friends gut their flooded house really gives perspective on what is involved. Linda writes about the ridiculous cost of tree removal services (I have to agree that it's outrageous!) and the stench of freezer sludge and the removal of flooded belongings. She talks about the huge pile of debris in their front yard and says that, "There is no house in our area that does not have a pile just like ours in front of their house."

She's sure right about that. Almost every neighborhood has those huge piles of debris, and in some neighborhoods I've seen, the piles are almost higher than the houses. Even our neighborhood (which took much less damage by comparison) has huge piles, although nothing like the flooded neighborhoods. The garbage trucks come by and remove the bags of household garbage, but they leave all the debris. Like everyone else in Slidell, we are all hoping that someday the bulldozers will show up to haul it off "somewhere". I don't know where there is a hole big enough for this much debris.

Right now it's raining thanks to the new hurricane in the Gulf, Rita, and all that debris is getting even wetter. It's such a monumental amount of garbage, that I don't even know where they can begin.

I gotta hand it to Linda though for keeping her sense of humor through all of it. I loved yesterday's blog entry where she writes about a dead baby alligator they found in the driveway and it's subsequent burial. She cracked me up. The photos of their damage are amazing, and she keeps up her humor throughout with captions like "the new atrium in the kitchen". Good for her. She's not letting her spirit down despite the monumental clean up job they still have before them.

I just sent them a note about some volunteers at Grace Memorial Baptist Church in Slidell who have come with chain saws and are helping people remove trees for no charge. I don't know if they are still available, but it's worth checking out.

In their photos they also posted a collection taken at the cemetery next to their house. I now have a much better understanding of why the cemetery I wrote about earlier has not had any attention yet. There are obviously many MANY small cemeteries just like this that have been suffered devastation, and it's just going to take some time to get to them all.

Keep up your spirits Ned and Linda. Your account is inspiring.

Tropical Storm Party

2005-09-22T21:13:00.000-07:00

I can't stress enough how important it is to stay in touch with your neighbors during a crisis. It's often the best way to get helpful information, and just a great way to feel in touch with your surroundings.

Tonight we had sort of an impromptu block party in my next door neighbor's driveway with neighbors from five different houses who happened to be outside. We stood around exchanging stories and recapping our first week home. We commented on the unusually beautiful sunset and strong breeze courtesy of Hurricane Rita. We are all waiting for the rain and tropical storm winds that we should get soon and that have most people around here rather tense at the moment. One party attendee was Bob, who is staying with a friend on our street after his Slidell home was demolished to a pile of rubble. He was a first responder here in Slidell and had lots of interesting things to share about those first few days when there was no contact with anyone in the city.

Bob also helps with an animal rescue group which is now serving as our Slidell animal control since the regular building was so badly damaged. He says they have about 500 animals over there right now, tons of kennels and truckloads of pet food (so please don't send any more pet food at the moment, but come get some if you need it!). Many of the animals belong to people who returned to the area but are unable to live in their homes because of the flood damage and are being cared for temporarily until they can make arrangements for permanent living. Day by day a few more animals go home with their owners which is good to see. It broke my heart to hear of a few of dogs that were rescued from roof tops in Slidell and have burnt feet from spending several days on hot tar shingle roofs. They got on the roofs during the flood and then were unable to get down after the water receded. Bob says that five local vets have been donating their services to help.

The makeshift animal shelter is at one of our city parks. Bob told us how some "helpful volunteers" keep catching a gaggle of geese every day and locking them up at the shelter. Bob has to keep letting them loose again because these geese actually just live at the park all the time. But he says with a chuckle that it "gives them something to do".

Before we knew it, it was dark outside and we had only the light from the garage to keep us going. Then the power started to blink and the lights faded in and out for a few seconds. Time to go home and dig out the flashlights just in case. Turn out the lights, the party's over!

Grave Tragedy

2005-09-22T20:37:00.000-07:00

About a mile down the street from my youngest daughter's school is a small cemetery that was damaged badly by the storm. Several of the above-ground tombs were displaced by the tidal surge. In fact, three of the tombs are across the street from the cemetery in the ditch (see photo of one of them). Power lines and downed trees are all around them.

What's worse is that over in the cemetery is a coffin that is completely out of its tomb. I made some phone calls to report it. First I called the environmental control office, who told me to call the sheriff's office, who told me to call the coroner's office. So I called the coroner's office and talked to their answering service, and I was told that they are already aware of it. I guess having a coffin sitting out in the open for over three weeks is not a problem for them.

I found an article about the family who owns many of the plots, so I guess they are aware of it, but from the looks of it, they probably don't have the money to fix this.

I am hoping that by posting this photo of one of the tombs in the ditch, it will get someone's attention and light a fire under the right butt at the coroner's office (or wherever) to at least come pick up the coffin until it can be reinterred. The displaced tombs are one matter, especially with the power lines around them, because at least they are still sealed. But, the coffin out in the open after three weeks just seems so wrong.

I should give them the benefit of the doubt though since I don't know the condition of the coroner's office building or equipment, and they may not have any of their employees available either since the may be homeless or living somewhere else now. They are aware, so hopefully they have a plan. Hopefully they are doing everything they can. At least I tried.

Need Some Prayers

2005-09-22T09:47:00.000-07:00

My poor little pug dog was behaving strangely yesterday. I finally realized that he could not see -- at all. His vision has always been a little impaired because he is mostly blind in one eye, but now he has suddenly lost the vision in his only good eye. He somehow scratched the eye surface and an infection quickly set in and clouded his whole eyeball. I took him immediately to the vet and he is on oral and topical antibiotics and a pain killer. He is very distressed and kept scratching at it with his paw. He has to wear the plastic collar to keep from injuring it further. This morning it looks even worse to me, and is developing into a corneal ulcer. The vet says it's possible to regain his vision, but it's a slim chance. Right now he has a good chance of needing the whole eyeball removed if we can't stop the infection. He's a good boy and needs some prayers.

Also needing prayers are the folks in Texas about to get hit by Hurricane Rita. I hope my friend Jimmie is getting out of there. People here in Slidell are already starting to panic about the storm. There is a run on gasoline again, and people were yelling at each other in the gas station this morning. Lots of folks ere also filling up gas cans too. We have decided that it is a bad idea to store or travel with full gas cans and if we have to evacuate again, we will bring our EMPTY cans with us. I am also REALLY hoping the blue roof guys get here to install our tarp before the rain comes. It is already getting a little bit windy outside. One way or another we're going to get some more rain soon. Many people here in Slidell are evacuating now anyway because their housing situation is so unstable, especially those camping out in tents and RV's, although many of those are building contractors I suspect.

Oh, our insurance adjustor called us yesterday and says he has to reschedule, and that he will call us next week. Apparently he had to go home for an emergency -- he lives in Houston and had to get his family out before Rita gets there. I wished him good luck. He needs some prayers too. I hope his home and family are safe so that he can get back here to help us folks in Slidell as soon as possible.

I went to the grocery store this morning. The kids thought pizza for dinner would be good. I literally bought the very last frozen pizza in the whole store. There is plenty of other food available, but it's just so strange to not be able to walk into a huge grocery store and buy what you want. Apparently they are in need of employees too from the "help wanted" sign on the door. Many of the businesses around here are looking for workers.

My friend Mike who was here to gut his house left today to head back to his family in Texas. They are in the Fort Worth area, and he needs some prayers for a safe journey. The highways in Texas are jammed right now.

Everything is an emergency around here all the time. It's really getting to be exhausting.

Not So Lovely Rita

2005-09-21T10:54:00.000-07:00

I don't have much to say about the poor folks in Texas with the approaching storm, Rita, except this: "Get out!" If they call for your area to evacuate, then just do it. Don't evaluate it or try to "decide" if you can ride it out. It's not worth the risk. It's just not worth it.

Oh, and one more tiny bit of advice, take some empty gas cans with you if you have any! You may need them to get back home again. And don't forget your pet's vaccination records. You will have many more options if you have them with you. Oh, and take the milk in your fridge with you or just pour it out! It's only a $4 gallon of milk and it could save you HOURS of work later if you just get rid of it now. And if you are going to stay with family, then take as much out of your freezer as you can and just bring it with you and put it in your family's freezer. You'll need something to eat while you are there anyway.

Good luck Texans. :-(

One week Home

2005-09-20T21:17:00.000-07:00

Well, we've officially been home for a week. Sorry I didn't get a chance to post yesterday. I've been doing manual labor at my friend's house. What a huge mess. Mike finished cutting out most of the sheet rock today and I helped haul it out of the house and sweep up. He has the most positive outlook I have ever known in a human. Their dining room now has no carpet and only half of the walls in place. I swept it and put the furniture back where it belonged. He thought it looked really great. Ummm, yes, let's invite the Queen over for tea! I'm sure she won't mind the insulation hanging out all over the exposed wall studs, not to mention the bare concrete slab. :-)

I guess being it's all you can do. They have a lot of work ahead of them, but he just keeps working along and saying, "I really needed to clean out the garage anyway. This just gives me an excuse". Of course, almost everything in the garage was full of water, but what the heck.

Update on the fridge patient: It's not looking good. The fridge has taken a turn for the worse and may not recover. Of course, at this point, it may not have any choice but to keep fighting since Mike & Jeannie may have some clause in their insurance policy excluding appliances that were damaged due to loss of power. I am hoping they can get it covered under the flood policy if the homeowners policy refuses. I really do think it's the 4 inches of water that is causing the undying smell from the crevasses at the bottom. Anyway. We're giving it one last hope and I am going to turn it back off tomorrow and let it air out for about 2 weeks. It was a brand new fridge! It can't die!

Here's a picture I took today not far from my home. It says, "Looters will be shot". It's difficult to read in the photo because it's written in red pen, but there is no mistaking it in person. Luckily there have not really been any problems with that here in Slidell.

Also, here's a picture of someone with a "Yard of the Month" sign in their yard. And here I was thinking that MY yard was the yard of the month. Written underneath it says, "landscaping by Katrina".

Next is a picture of the much inquired daquiri shop. They have a lovely drive-thru window which comes in handy on the way to Mardi Gras parades or other events. My friend Devra will be so pleased to see that it was not badly damaged. The photo is blurry because I took it as I was driving by - and, no, I did not just drive THROUGH. ;-)

Here is the gas station where Hubby used to buy his gas every week for his commute to New Orleans. It's difficult to completely appreciate the amount of damage from looking at the photo. Only one gas pump remains standing.

We ran a few errands and some national guardsmen gave the kids lollipops when I went to get some more bottled water. It was a nice treat for the kids and well desereved considering they helped haul in about a thousand shingles from my friend's yard today. They are such good little community workers. I explained the concept of "pay it forward" to them, and they couldn't wait to help. That and the promise of a cold Frosty from Wendy's was all the motivation they needed. (yes, Wendy's finally opened!!) I just love those kids.

Hubby spent the day in Baton Rouge helping get some of his grad students settled. It went wll I think. This week week we will be meeting with our insurance adjustor. I have already had one estimate done on our roof. Yikes. I had no idea roofing was so expensive. I hope our adjustor is good to us.

I forgot to mention in my last post that I went to my church on Sunday. Our church was damaged and we had to meet in another building instead. We will have to get a contractor to make the church building usable again. Shouldn't take too long. It was very crowded and very emotional. I saw many of my friends, most of whom had just returned home this week as we did, and most had not seen each other since the disaster began.

Hugs and tears abounded. It was good to see everyone again.

Pay It Forward

2005-09-18T19:35:00.000-07:00

Remember what it's like to discover a toxic science experiment growing in the back of your fridge? Perhaps it's just a box of leftover Chinese food that you put in there a month ago? Now imagine an entire refridgerator and freezer full of food that has been a toxic experiment at 95+ degree temperatures. Once again - an ENTIRE fridge full of rotting stinking decomposing melting dripping oozing food. Now hold that thought.

During our refugee period, my sister went to Slidell while I stayed with the kids in Nashville and she emptied my fridge for me after it sat rotting in the heat and humidity for an entire week. I am eternally grateful to her. It's unlikely that I can ever pay this favor back. But today I had a chance to pay it forward instead.

My very wonderful friend Jeannie's husband, Mike, was finally able to get a couple of days leave to come inspect their home while she and the kids are still holed up in Texas. It's been about 2-1/2 weeks since the disaster struck. Sadly, they had 3-4 inches of water flood their beautiful home. It may as well have been 3 feet.

The mold is already growing about 18 inches up the walls and it will all have to be torn out. Much of the furniture is ruined from water soaking up in to the wood as it sat on saturated carpet. None of the doors will close anymore because they all swollen from the water damage. Mildew is everywhere. One of the upstairs rooms also flooded from water coming in through the damaged roof and pouring through the light fixture on the ceiling.

My Hubby helped Mike remove all the stinky moldy carpet from the house while I tackled the fridge. It was a brand new beautiful stainless steel fridge with a spiffy ice maker in the door and was only 4 months old. Hubby and Mike hauled it outside before opening it, and then they tossed all the big stinky stuff into a trash bag. Some of it was re-frozen since the power had come back on a couple of days ago which did help make the chore more bearable. I removed everything else including all the shelves and drawers, and tossed it onto the lawn. Immediately the flies descended upon it all like a Hitchcock movie.

It produced an odor that smelled like it came from the very pit of Hell. I began to hose it all down. The neighbors held their noses. They were familiar with our plight, and they understood what had to be done. A few of them offered helpful advice. Then I got serious and got out my big gun. I wonder if Martha Stewart has ever used a pressure washer to clean a stinky fridge?

The prognosis for the fridge is very good. I think it's going to live, but we'll know more tomorrow. I gave it two loaves of bread and some coffee grounds, and I'm going to call on it in the morning.

We Got TV and Water

2005-09-17T08:29:00.000-07:00

We got tv!! Now I won't have to drive to Tennessee to watch the season premier of Desperate Housewives in two weeks. (Sorry Sis, but I won't be there to watch it with you.) Our paper this morning said that so far 10-20% of the area has cable restored right now, so apparently we are in that lucky percentage. Our internet is not working quite right though, but it's better than nothing.

Our local tv news is rather interesting. It looks like a primitive 1960's news set. Since they are obviously unable to broadcast from their regular set in New Orleans and are using a remote location, they don't have their fancy news desk, studio set, or teleprompts. Instead, they are having to "rough it" with a regular desk and hard copy sheets of paper. Behind them is a big tv screen with the station's logo, white walls and only one camera to shoot it all. I gotta hand it to them though, they are there and they are getting the news out. The show must go on.

We got water! Someone spraypainted our "boil water" sign at our neighborhood entrance to say, "water ok", so I called the parish to verify this, and our water is ok as of yesterday. There are still several neighborhoods in Slidell that are not ok, so if you are looking for information on this, the number for the St. Tammany Parish Dept of Environmental Services is 898-2535.

We also got comics! We have been getting a small version of the local paper for the past few days - about 6-8 pages total. Today it is much bigger and it had comics in it! Woohoo! The return of the funny papers! I also especially enjoyed Chris Rose's column in the paper this morning, especially where he wrote, "By reporting this scene, I have become the media covering the media covering the media." He is one of my favorite local columnists. I recognized him from his photo and said hello to him once at a Mardi Gras parade last year.

The paper also had news about the schools in Slidell. Two of them will not be reopened by the Oct. 3 start date goal, and four others are going to be cutting it close to meet the deadline. One of those schools is where my youngest daughter attends 1st grade . If it's not able to open in time, she will be attending the school next door. Hubby is going over there this afternoon to see if they need volunteers to help get it ready. The best thing about her school is the amount of parental involvment it encourages. Parents are involved in everything. It's a wonderful school.

We haven't had any more mail delivered since that first batch of two-week-old mail a couple of days ago. That mail was probably already at our post office before the storm. So we're not sure if new mail is able to get through yet or if it's being held up somewhere. Normally it goes through the New Orleans distribution center. Hmmm.

I spent 45 minutes standing in line at the checkout at Walmart yesterday. I have never spent that long in line at Walmart, even during the holiday shopping season. I read two magazines from cover to cover and then had to take a formerly frozen item back to the shelf to replace it with one that was still cold, and it still wasn't my turn yet. For the most part, people in general are pretty patient with everything, although one guy in his car got mad at me in the parking lot when I was trying to avoid a big pile of metal debris in the road as I left the store. I guess the return of tempers flaring is another sign that things are returning to normal. :-)

The New Normal

2005-09-15T22:33:00.000-07:00

It's kind of shocking when you first get back to town and see the changed landscape, but after my third day at home, I think I am becoming accustomed to all the destruction, or maybe I'm just feeling like everything really will be ok. I could barely believe my eyes when I first got home a couple days ago. The shock and stress of it was overwhelming. But now, either things are really starting to get cleaned up and back in order very quickly, or I'm just getting used to it all.

The sea of blue roofs from the Army Corp of Engineers is becoming normal looking. The ever-growing piles of debris that are along the roadsides is no longer a shock. Sadness at the sight of the graveyard of fallen trees is being replaced with relief as they are slowly being cut up and cleared away. The overall stench in the air seems to have either diminished, or again I'm just used to it now. It doesn't feel weird anymore to use the jugs of bottled water for cooking or to brush my teeth. I guess it's all just a new sense of "normal".

FYI, one neighbor got sick from drinking the tap water last week after they returned. He accidentally drank a glass of it while taking some medicine. He is still fighting the effects but is improving.

Hubby and I have been working on our insurance claim. We have an appointment with our adjustor who is coming out to the house next week. Our blue roof might already be installed by then. We've been reading some sad stories in our paper about people in the area who are having trouble because their flood insurance coverage is limited and their homeowners won't make up the difference.

We got mail! It's slow, but it's coming. The mail we got was over two weeks old, but it arrived. Hooray! We are now getting our paper again too, even though it's just a few pages. We are starting to feel connected again. Things really are starting to feel ok. A year from now, normal really will be normal normal.

Neighbor Pics

2005-09-15T20:15:00.000-07:00

Joe is a neighbor who lives on my street. He is in the military and is currently deployed overseas. While he is away, I am doing for him what CNN would not do for me. I am taking a picture and posting the "after" photos of his home. Click the pictures for a closeup.

Overall, Joe's house had minor damage and did really well. He had the top of the chimney knocked off and some siding is missing from it. The roof doesn't look too bad from the front, but is missing a few more shingles on the back. They lost the big tree to the right of the house although it's hard to see in the picture. The tree to the left held up really well and is one of the bigger trees on the block. The fence is down everywhere which doesn't make the dog very happy, but there was no flooding and the power is back on.

Now, before a hundred people that I've never met start asking me to post photos, I would like to note that this is a special favor for a serviceman who is also a neighbor of mine. I wish I could do this for everyone but even CNN couldn't do it and think of the manpower they have. I am just one person. Instead, look for your house in these aerial photos that I've posted before.

The last time I talked to Joe and his family was right after they moved in when they came to our annual Halloween party. They probably have not recognized me since then because when we first met, I was dressed like this.

I talked with Mrs. Joe when I went over to take the picture, but I was not invited in for a shot of Bailey's (hee hee). I had to get back and make dinner anyway. After our scary introduction in with skeleton garb last October, I wouldn't have invited me in either. ;-)

Everyday Errands

2005-09-14T20:27:00.000-07:00

I made it to the bank today and discovered why the line was so long. It's because they were only letting customers inside one at at time, and they would lock the door behind you and unlock it to let you out. I guess they didn't want the crowd to get out of control if someone flipped out at their bank account situation. There were a couple of national guard dudes outside for security. Is it just because I'm getting old, or do those guys all look really really young to be carrying around such big guns?

I also went to the grocery store. I'm so glad that it's open for business, but it was a little disturbing to see it so sparse. I guess you just get used to visiting a grocery store and expecting every shelf overflowing with abundant choices and tons of every kind of food you can imagine. I'd say they had about half of their normal inventory. In some ways it was quite calming not to have so many choices, and it made me appreciate what was there all the more.

There were plenty of canned goods, milk and meat, and as you can see from the photo, there are also plenty of Ore-Ida frozen potatoes. I didn't buy any of those. But I bought some hamburger to make Sloppy Joes and some stew meat to throw in the crock pot for a beef stew, but there is no way that I'm buying more than one or two days worth of meat ever again. Just call it "freezer-phobia!"

There were only a few people shopping, so maybe they didn't really need much inventory yet. You can see in this picture that there was either a big run on cheese (possibly to top off the MRE's that everyone is eating), or else the new cheese supply hadn't arrived yet. I only took one pack of cheese, and left the rest for someone else. Normally I would buy several and keep them in my freezer (ack!). There was definitely a run on bleach and baking soda. Luckily I stocked up on that stuff before we left Nashville.

Everyone is so busy working on our big Slidellian mess. People are being very nice and everyone is helping each other. I guess it does feel good to be back.

First Day Back

2005-09-13T20:07:00.000-07:00

Our subdivision has a different water company than most of the city and our neighborhood in particular is still on the "must boil" alert. It still tests positive for bacteria. So, I stopped at the FEMA supply station this morning where hordes of FEMA workers very efficiently directed cars through the stations, opened my trunk and loaded it up with water, ice and a case of MRE's (meals ready to eat), and then hustled me out of there. No, I did not ask them to smile for the picture. The security folks had HUGE guns and made me nervous. They were there to do their job, not to mess around. We'll have to go back for more water tomorrow, and ice for the neighbors who had to toss their fridge.

I also went to St. Margaret Mary school where the Army Corps of Engineers has set up their office to help homeowners with the temporary "blue roof tarps". More than half of my neighbors have them already. We got on the list, but it will be another week or two before they get to us. I hope it doesn't rain before then. We can get some real frog chokers here. I can't seem to get a hold of my friend who is still holed up in a hotel in Texas to see if I can get a blue roof for her house which needs it very badly. From what I could see in the front door window of her house, it must have gotten water inside too because the mold is growing about 18 inches up the walls and all her neighbors have their carpet out on the street already. I can only imagine what it smells like in there right now. :-(

I also stopped by our insurance agent's office. We are on the list with an adjuster, but I was told not to try to repair anything until he looks at it first. We have no idea when he will be able to show up. I also tried to go to the bank that was open today, but the line was all the way out the door, so I gave up.

We worked for hours trying to pick up all the fiberglass insulation that is all over the place. We were actually using the shop vac to try to suck it up. It worked a little. Hubby cut down the tree that fell and hauled some of it to the curb. We'll need a truck or something to remove the stump. We also propped some of the fence up and removed the more dangerous parts. Almost every fence post will have to be dug up and replaced when we eventually repair the whole thing. They are all bent or broken at the base. Pretty amazing considering they are made of steel.

We made a little area for the dogs to run around in, and they are so happy to be out of that little crate. I worked hard on my freezer and even used a pressure washer, but I think it's hopeless. I tried to help my neighbor's with their fridge, but the pressure washer revealed an area where maggots had gotten deep inside the walls where we could not clean, so then I helped them haul it to the curb! Everything stinks. Stink stink stink.

There is garbage everywhere and blue roofs all over the place. People are working hard and helping each other, but everyone looks so tired. They have lost jobs, homes (many are living with friends in our neighborhood), and some have already moved away permanently and rented out their home to the contractors who are in town.

We found the kid's playhouse one street over and all the way at the end of the street. We walked up to it carefully in case it had landed on the Wicked Witch of the East. I'm sure her name must have been Katrina. The playhouse was badly broken and we couldn't find its roof anywhere so we left it there for now.

It is so crowded here and the traffic is double what it usually is. There are FEMA trucks, Red Cross people, insurance company catastrophe teams, police, disaster relief volunteers from other states, and tons of contractors, builders and tree removal people. Helicopters fly over every few minutes. Hubby and I had a long talk with the kids at dinner tonight about all the new strangers in town. There are already many strange men working in our neighborhood. We want the kids to be extra aware with so many strangers around. There will likely be plenty of them in town for months to come.

I am unable to send email from my regular email account because of this crazy dial-up AOL account. I'll have to work on that tomorrow. One more thing for the list. At least we are able to have internet at all. Oh, and hey, Devra, I took a picture of the Daquiri place which looked ok, but they were definitely not open. Tonight, I will be opening my teensy tiny emergency bottle of Bailey's Irish Creme that you sent me for emergencies only. If this isn't an emergency, then I don't know what is. I live in a freakin' disaster area!

Home at Last

2005-09-12T20:29:00.000-07:00

We got home tonight about an hour before sunset. I walked around my neighborhood for the first thirty minutes with my mouth hanging open. The pictures don't really prepare you for the overall amount of destruction that is here. Instead of suburbia, I feel like I live at the city dump. Everything is a huge mess. And the smell is really really bad. Most of the smell is from the rotting household garbage that hasn't been picked up yet.

For those of you who are wondering how I am online already, it's the first thing I did after I came inside. Our regular cable internet connection is out indefinitely, so I am on a slow AOL dial up that I arranged immediately. Except for this computer, we have almost no contact with the outside world. We can't get tv. We have no newspaper. I can't even get the radio station that we are supposed to be able to get. If another hurricane were coming right now, we wouldn't even know it. I feel like my computer is my only link to the real world right now.

The destruction of the trees and interstate signs got worse and worse the closer we got to home. It's strange driving down the interstate with almost no signs to tell you what city is at each exit. We passed a huge convoy of animal control vehicles coming this way. I wonder if they were coming to help relocate a few alligators.

When we pulled into my neighborhood, I almost turned down the wrong street because it was all so unrecognizable. I haven't even seen any of the nearby neighborhoods yet. The nieghbors were all outside and happy to see us returning.

Lots of stuff is up and running already, which is good. And most people in my neighborhood have come home. Chain saws were buzzing to cut down fallen trees. The corps of engineers has been helping people put big blue tarps on all the roof tops. We're going tomorrow to get our house on the list because it definitely needs one. The traffic lights are all working. Two grocery stores are open, and gas is available again.

I worked on the fridge for about 3 hours taking it all apart and re-cleaning every crevass. I also figured out how to remove the horrid drip tray and about gagged. I think it will be fine though. The freezer in the garage is another story. I don't think it will ever recover.

I was wondering how I would feel when I got here. I think shock is a good word. Also, scared. Just knowing that our home is in a hurricane alley is an uneasy feeling, especially after seeing what it can do. I feel like we'll always be looking over our shoulder for the next one.

Tomorrow morning we have to call the environmental services office to find out about our water because we are not on the same water system as the rest of the city. Then we're going to take down the plywood from the windows, build a temporary dog pen, check out our banking situation, and get some help with our roof. And that's just for tomorrow. We've started a long list of other things to after that. It's hard to know where to begin.

Hitting The Road

2005-09-12T06:30:00.000-07:00

I had nightmares all night last night about my house flooding with me in it, and about evacuating over and over again to avoid approaching danger of various kinds. I think I'm a little bit stressed about returning home.

My parents have hurricane Ophelia knocking at their door right now in the Carolinas. They live not far from where this story on CNN is set. And to think I could be there right now for round two of all this fun. Hang in there Mom and Dad! I know it's only a catagory 1 storm, but get out if they tell you to leave. Do not mess around even if you do have a house made with cement walls. Come down and stay with us in Louisiana if you have to evacuate. :-)

I just finished my morning coffee and we are going to start loading the car and the minivan. I know the dogs will be happy to get back to their own yard although we will have to come up with some other way to fence them temporarily. When we get home, I may not have Internet access for a while, but I will post again as soon as I do. My sis wants me to make sure to give her the play by play on the outcome of our refridgerator and freezer. We won't have mail service for a while either, although we can drive over to one of our post offices to pick up mail that gets through. Our phone seems to work at the house most of the time, so we'll be available that way at least.

Time to hit the road and head home. I guess I'm not a refugee anymore.

Heading Home

2005-09-11T07:25:00.000-07:00

I talked to another neighbor last night and she said that apparently the Slidell Mayor was on the radio and said that the Slidell water is now safe. She also said that they are starting to take down the "boil water" signs around town and replace them with signs that say the water is ok. I found the same info on the City of Slidell official website (see previous post). Lots of people are back now and it's time for us to go home.

We have decided to spend today packing up and getting some more supplies from the store and then head home on Monday morning. We're going to church with Sis and her hubby this morning first to thank God for everything we have.

Slidell Mayor's Message

2005-09-11T07:00:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Katrina Update 9-10-05

To the Citizens of Slidell,

The Weather Service reports that Slidell had sustained winds of 176 mph and gusts of 190+ mph during Hurricane Katrina. In addition, Slidell was hit by a 23’-26’ storm surge that devastated much of the city. This has been very difficult for everyone, but I want to report that we are making great progress thanks to the many city workers, police officers and firefighters, citizens and volunteers who have worked so hard over these last two weeks. Here is the latest:

Our water service is now operational and the drinking water in the City of Slidell is safe to drink and cook with. You do not need to boil your water first.

Our sewer system is also operational.

Telephone service is back up and running; however, Charter Communications has still not recovered.

Clean up is still in progress, thanks to our city work crews and the efforts of over 400 United Stated Marines from around the country.

Security remains tight throughout the City of Slidell. Curfew is still in affect from 9:00 p.m. – 6:00 a.m. and is being strictly enforced. The Slidell Police Department is receiving assistance from police officers from across the nation, as well as the Louisiana National Guard and the Alabama National Guard.

Cleco continues to do a tremendous job. There are working lights now on major thoroughfares throughout the city and in some subdivisions. Considering the catastrophic damage to the system, it is absolutely amazing that we have come as far as we have.

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Thank you and stay safe,
Mayor Ben Morris

From the City of Slidell Official Website