Making Sense Out of Nonsense

Today, I'd like to thank Marcia Baird and Frannie Glossen. Probably the strangest thing I'm doing these days has to do with garbage. As you may know, we are staying at someone's cottage located on the Lake. Since it is that kind of scenerio, there is no garbage pick up. I'm the one you'll notice lurking near any store's trash can. Each day I take a Target bag (or Walmart or whatever) full of trash, put it in my car and when I go to a store I take my trash with me and put it into the outside garbage can. SO the next time you are woofing about taking out the trash to your curb, trash shoot, or dumpster, just think of me. Do you know where You would put YOUR garbage? What would kind of trash would you feel comfortable getting rid of at the local Walmart? What would you do with your recycling? Another convenience that we take for granted.

You know you're from New Orleans and have survived Hurricane Katrina when.... 1. pre-K has nothing to do with the year before Kindergarten. 2. The flies are bigger than your Chihuahua. 3. Your bank, dry cleaner, and grocery store are closed but your bar is not. (thank you, Cooter Brown's) 4. You judge your elevation by the brown horizontal line in the city. 5. You have to show an ID to get into your neighborhood. 6. Your neighborhood has no children, so you actually start to miss the little boys across the street who used to throw rocks onto your roof. 7. You go to Sam's Club, but instead of coming home with a case of poptarts, you buy masks, bleach, rubber gloves, and baking soda in bulk. 8. You know five remedies to get the smell out of your refrigerator. 9. You spend a lot of time talking with your friends about the five remedies to get the smell out of your refrigerator. 10. Ice becomes more precious than gold. 11. Your office goes from 40 employees to 5. 12. Livi...

http://spaces.msn.com/members/lightshadowss/ Before beginning your journey, I would ask that you take a look at the map of New Orleans. You will see the three major levee breaches that allowed the streets to fill with water. The areas covered by the grayish/blue grid are, for all intents and purposes, dead zones. Downtown New Orleans, home to the Superdome and the French Quarter, and the location most featured on the news during the ordeal is currently functional, as are portions of the Garden District, Audubon, and East Carrollton. Much more of the city is empty, having sat in anywhere from 6 to 15 feet of water for as long as two weeks. Central City, Mid City, Gentilly, Lakeview, New Orleans East, Bywater, the 9th Ward, Lakeshore, and West End are all lost. Arabi, Meraux, Hopedale, Kenilworth, and Chalmette in neighboring St. Bernard Parish are as well. There are people trying to clean up…trying to rebuild…but what they face is total and absolute devastation. I can...

http://www.filmstripinternational.com/index.php?play=asshole Go to this site for a little tongue in cheek humor...OK, it's anti-Republican so don't blame me if you are offended. Speaking of Republicans, did you catch Sen. Shayes (?) from Connecticut on CNN today stating how embarrassed he is of the way Republicans are behaving these days. "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Yah think! I can't believe I'm craving the Newt Gingrich days!

October 3, 2005 9th Ward: History, Yes, but a Future?;Race and Class Frame Debate on Rebuilding New Orleans District BYLINE: Ceci Connolly, Washington Post Staff Writer No one here wants to say it aloud, but one day soon the bulldozers will come, shoving away big hunks of a neighborhood known for its poverty and its artists, its bad luck and its bounce-back resilience.It is likely to be the largest demolition of a community in modern U.S. history -- destruction begun by hurricanes Katrina and Rita and finished by heavy machinery. On Saturday, firefighters put red tags on hundreds of homes deemed "unsafe," the first step in a wrenching debate over whether the Lower Ninth Ward should be rebuilt or whether, as some suggest, it should revert to its natural state: swamp.A neighborhood tucked into a deep depression between two canals, railroad tracks and the Mississippi River, New Orleans's Lower Ninth has spent more of the past five weeks underwater than dry. Entire houses kno...

In a few weeks, it will be two months that we've arrived at this lovely home. We are very grateful to have a place that we could use. Particularly the first month when we were still in the throes of post Katrina trauma. It was wonderful to have one less thing to worry about. Well, the city (New Orleans) still isn't as up to speed as the press makes you think. Some folks are finally returning to their homes while others don't have much house to return to. My friend is living on the westside of Baton Rouge and comes into NO as best as he can. That's like commuting from the westside of Madison to Milwaukee. I am trying to find a hotel room so that I can go back down between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Thanks to Sidna and Marvin Bookout and the Slinger Brownies and Girl Scouts.

This week, I need to thank Ewa Barczyk, St. Robert's Catholic School, and Scott Temperly, again. If I was a better person, I'd get that letter of to the Slinger School District, they have adopted us, in a way. Other information: I spoke today with a friend who has a comparable job to mine with the New Orleans School District. His house was underwater to the ceiling and now the mold is thick. When he got in, he was smart enough to take down the drapes to make sure the mold didn't grow into his second story. He said it was eerie to go to the second floor after seeing the first floor destruction. The 2nd is virtually unscathed and looks the same as when you return from a long weekend. The first floor, however, is something else. Besides the mold, everything was turned upsided down by the water's current. The refrigerator was on its side. As you may have heard, the School District laid off more people and he is among them. In the interim, he is trying to find work as videog...