Just finishing packing for an early flight tomorrow, going to visit my Dad and sis and bro and family. I might make it to Toronto for a day, don't know yet, it's just a cool 90 minute Cat Ferry ride away. Lots of family stuff to do, but it will be good to get away for a few days!

See ya in seven.

durlx

Missed.

It turns out that all we had today was some light rain, rather low humidity and some small wind gusts here and there, nothing much really, except for the fact that there were two bands of clouds above in the sky this early evening that were moving at right angles to each other, something you only see when a major hurricane is somewhere nearby.We dodged the bullet again here in New Orleans, and it looks like Pensacola and most of the coast had relatively little damage, at least compared to the last one, Ivan, which messed them up bad.But there's another one chugging up the path already, not much yet, but it's got some time to develop. This looks like it will be a very nasty year for these storms. A record has already been set with four named storms by this time and I have no doubt that the record will continue to be broken this year. For the first time in my life here in New Orleans, I am starting to think about a list of things that I can take with me on short notice and a list of things that I can live without.O.K. I'm thinking about it... I mean, so far I have gotten to the point of thinking about getting a new laptop that will hold all of my data and stuff... ah, but what about the pictures and my vast collection of high fashion clothing and Mardi Gras beads and chotchkas and my collection of Crocs shoes, the fact that they float will be of little use unless I make a raft out of them.And my new SelectAir bed ferchrissakes! And the scooter! There are some cooking implements that I treasure, some knives in particular and I love my old Chambers range. What to take? What to leave behind? It's a good exercise, I think...

Hurricane Season Again!

Nasty Dennis is on the way into the Gulf of Mexico, and will probably be making a mess of parts of Cuba on the way.


Once again, us folks in New Orleans are glued to our TV sets watching the progress of one of these storms that seem to threaten us more often every year.

We just got done with Tropical Storm Cindy, a storm that was supposed to mostly miss us and mostly be a "rain event". in otherwords, we would get some rain, but not much wind damage. The storm was supposed to go a bit more east and mostly miss the city, but it just came straight in and caused far more damage than anyone expected.

City Park lost over 50 huge old oak trees, and many more of our over two hundred year old oaks fell throughout the city taking most of the power lines down as they fell. Over 250,000 people lost power and quite a few of them for more that 36 hours. Our new store lost power for several hours, but we were able to save most of the product, just some dairy was lost. Our other store was not so lucky; they lost all of the perishibles; all of the dairy, meat, seafood and cheese, and all of the deli and prepared foods. They had to start from scratch yesterday...

I got home from work a little before midnight, had a beer, checked the internet and then found myself sitting in the dark with the power out. I went out onto the front steps and talked to my neighbors, who were of course, all out there ready to talk about the storm. I learned, from Robert, who had a battery operated TV, that the electric crews would not be going out until morning because the winds were too ferocious. I went in, blew out the candles and took a small flashlight to bed to read myself to sleep. The power came on about 5:15 AM and everything in the house started clicking and it woke me up, so I called the store and found out that they still didn't have power, but that everything was still in temp. I asked them to call me when the power came on and mercifully, they didn't because everything was all right enough.

Watching the morning news, I realized that this little storm had screwed up the city way more than anyone had expected. Some people in the city still don't have power. Everyone is frantically trying to clean up all the debris. Even though the damage was relatively minor from this storm, the fact that it is being followed be a rather huge storm in the Gulf is threatening, and any bit of loose stuff can become very dangerous in a bigger storm.

This new storm, Dennis, is a big nasty and once it gets into the Gulf, well, then it's a threat to New Orleans. So far, it looks like it will hit somewhere from the Mobile Bay area to the beginning of the Florida Panhandle, prolly around Venice.

This time we miss the bullet. Maybe.

But one time we will not be so lucky; a Category 4 or 5, or even a slow moving Cat 3 would destroy our city totally, and I mean totally. (FEMA has considered scenarios where New Orleans would not be rebuilt ever). The odds are about one in six that it will happen in the next fifty years, far stonger odds than for the "big one" in California.

The gruesome details are available at this site.


<http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/wetlands/hurricane1.html>


One of the interesting points in this article is that there could be over 50,000 fatalities and that the destruction of property and lives would be far more than any terrorist attack possible at this time.. It would undoubtably be the worst disaster in U.S. history ever, as well as one of the world's worst, and yet, so far there has been little done to address the possibility.

And on a lighter note, one more pleasant and serene...

Had a lovely talk with luca this evening, talked a bit about the possible road trip to California, me talking about the cheesemakers and winemakers I want to visit...

I'm traveling north fairly soon. I am trying to figure out how to turn my trip to Rochester, NY into a trip to Toronto and Rochester, NY, but it looks like that will just cost too much. I thought that I might fly into Toronto, maybe visit our new store in the area, see Mikey and then take the ferry across Lake Ontario to Rochester, but that looks like it will cost about five or six hundred bucks more... well, it would be lots more fun, but this trip is mostly about seeing my Dad, my sister and her partner and my brother and his family.

I really need to spend some time with my Dad. His Alzheimer's continues to progress, although slowly; he's been at a plateau for about a year, no big changes. His short term memory is totaly shot to hell; I could call him three times a day and he wouldn't know the difference. Each time would be unique to him. I've learned how to deal with this, it's a zen thing.

When I hang with him in the "zen state" we have a very good time; we don't do much, in fact the less we do, the happier he is because of his disease. He can't make decisions anymore, that's just lost to him, so he's just content in the moment. But he likes to go to the mall with me... as long as we don't try to buy anything for him. We just wander through the stores, I buy some things that I need, but mostly we just look at stuff and make fun of it, like Tommy Hilfinger shirts, and laugh. It drives the sales clerks crazy, but I take them aside and explain that it's OK, that I'm out with my father, and he has Alzheimers and this is our little outing and they understand.

I also really like going to his apartment in the place where he lives now with some stuff for lunch, and eating, and talking while we watch TV and then taking a nap on the couch. When I wake up, he's smiling at me. He's happy that I'm there. But there's that trace of uncertainty that lingers in his face until I speak; for a minute, he wasn't sure who was sleeping on his couch.

That's why I need to see him again very soon.

durlx