...and a little group of pics from my new place.

It's not House Beautiful, but I like the new stuff and the new place...


Here's the link.

I don't think I did all that badly for one week... with a zero start...

Mold...

Here's a LINK to a story about "monster mold" in New Orleans.Mold is one of my major issues when it comes to getting things out of my place in New Orleans; I have mold allergies, in fact most people do and just don't know about it. My place didn't flood, but there was a minor water problem from the A/C window unit that happened just before I left; there was a wet spot that covered a couple of square feet on the carpet near my desk the morning Robert and I left. There was also roof damage on the other side of the house where Sammy and Michael lived. I know that they put some 4 x 8 foot sheets of plywood over the holes in the roof because they told me and I also saw them on Google Earth...

The attic is open over both sides of the building, so there could have been further water issues on my side.I'm about 90% sure that there's at least some mold in the house and that's enough to rule out moving the new bed, (pity, I only got to sleep in it for a few weeks). The furniture was mostly crap and I wouldn't have moved it under any circumstances.

I'll probably only take out of the place some dishes, pots, some old and cherished knives (one of them, I have had for my entire career in the food biz, another is a pre-war German steel flexible carving knife that had survived hurricane Besty's flooding that I found in an old restaurant supply house back room years ago, totally irreplaceable), etc., kitchen things, hopefully my K-5a mixer

.As for the desktop computer, (I saved most of my data to a portable hard drive before I left), the various bits of audio equipment, TV's and the like, the humidity prolly ate the little circuits, if the mold didn't get to them.

The books. About 600 of them, and the shelves; most likely a loss, and probably the greatest one for me. My little library was a comfort to me many times; good times, bad times over the last ten years, it was there when I needed it. There were only a few that were unreplaceable, the rest can be found again. I've already started looking for a good source for book shelves; it won't take me long to start filling them up, it never does.

It's mostly going to be a big pain in the ass to deal with. I've got to find and pull or destroy any personal papers that have any identification information on them. I've got to throw out the refrigerator, (I've talked to people who have gotten back to NO and made the huge mistake of opening a door...). I've got to drag all the rest of the stuff out to the street and maybe try to sell whatever looks OK, if there's anyone there to buy. I need to sell my scooter. And I need to do all this at some undetermined point in the future; which could happen right after my second surgury for my shoulder, (and that would make it impossible for me, the infection risk...) or it could happen after I go back to work, it's just not known. At some point, there is supposed to be a FEMA inspection of my place, but at this point, I don't think that's going to happen any time soon unless someone wants the property. (Robert, who owns his place, is not expecting an insurance adjuster or FEMA for months). I will also probably have to have enough food and water to last two days. The power will not be on in my place even if it's on in the hood, because of the roof damage. May have to sleep in the car while I'm there. It's a pain in the ass just to think about it!

There's a part of me that wants to see the city, the damage, the old favorite places, to just see what it looks like now... and another part of me that just wants to remember the way things were and move on.New Orleans will never be the same for me again, but then that was already the case to some extent before Katrina; it's true that you can never really "go home" again. Things change, people come and go and as the years go by, a lot more of what binds you to a place are the memories.

And those I have with me.

durlx

Hey, Yea!

I moved into my new place today. It�s a big 2 bed, 2 bath in a big complex that was recently renovated; I would guess that the place was built about 25 years ago, but it�s been taken care of and there are lots of big trees all around, in fact I can park the car in the shade. There seems to be a good mix of people, some have been here for many years and there seem to be a wide range of types and ages. The people that I met today were all friendly and chatty, very New Orleans like. I�ve already been approached about cooking gumbo for 300 people for a party to welcome the new people from New Orleans to the complex, (there are about a dozen of us so far). The management staff was both friendly and efficient and the place was in spotless condition for move-in. The rent is totally reasonable by Austin standards, (by N.O. standards for that matter), there�s a really nice pool not too close or too far from my door, people put chairs and plants out by their front doors. It�s all very comfy.

I�ve been shopping for stuff for the place and have had very good luck with things on sale, in fact almost everything I�ve bought has been on sale, (some places gave 20% off with a LA drivers license) and some of it is really good. A lot of things I�ve gotten fold or can be broken down and packed, like the Skandia shelf and desk unit. Some of the bigger things like a dining table and chairs, I�ll get from Salvation Army, I�ve got a $1300 furniture voucher as part of my refugee package and that�s the kind of thing you can find there. I�m getting a bed from my friend Becky as soon as I can move it, in the meantime, she has loaned me an aerobed. If any of my stuff from N.O. is usable, I�ll fit it in, but I�m concerned about anything porous; the mold thing is nasty.

The whole moving things out of N.O. is problematic; for one thing, it�s very expensive. I�d have to fly there and probably fly someone else there as well, since I can�t handle any heavy lifting right now. I�m pretty sure that any rental trucks will be at a premium. I won�t know the condition of any of the stuff until I get there and quite frankly, the furniture and the TV�s, etc. weren�t worth moving before the hurricane. The new bed would be worth moving if it isn�t moldy. The scooter would be worth moving, if I couldn�t sell it for a good price in N.O., but the cost of moving these things might be prohibitive. I�m thinking that I�ll just have to limit it to whatever fits in the back of a, say, Honda Element... I was going to get a Honda Crv, but maybe the Element is more practical. At any rate, all of these moving stuff out of N.O. concerns are presently filed under �future problems about which too little is known to make any decisions�.

I met my new ortho doctor on Thursday and I like her very much. The bone healed well and she said that the surgeon did �really fine work�. I start a month of PT next week, and then get another evaluation, and then another surgery to remove the screws; they have to come out because of where they are; they get in the way of sideways rotation of the shoulder. I�m sure that my previous ortho guy meant to tell me this; I think they were all concerned that I would get discouraged if I knew how long this was all going to take. After the second surgery, it�s another six to eight weeks of PT. I suppose this sounds kind of awful, but you know, physical discomfort aside, my situation is not at all bad. Rather than having to scramble and find another position in the company right away when many displaced people are trying to do the same, I have some time. I am, so far, financially set; disability pays well enough to carry me through this time comfortably. I�ll be able to travel to see my family in two weeks and prolly do the road trip in November as well. I have a guest bedroom and at least one person (luca) has already mentioned coming to visit. If you have been thinking about how much you might like to visit Austin someday, I suggest you do so this fall while I have time to show you around�

So far, I really like Austin. I love the hills. The city is big enough to have mostly everything I need, but still small enough for now at least, to get around comfortably. The city is growing, the local economy seems healthy enough all though not as hot as it was a few years ago, but that�s O.K. The locals seem pretty friendly so far, much more like N.O. people than most places I�ve been, (especially the rest of TX). There�s a whole lot of music here, I mean really a lot!

It�s all new to me, which is something that I�ve needed for some time. All together, it feels like a good place to be for a while.

I don�t have internet connected yet, I prolly go with cable this time since I�ve decided to get cable teewee again. For the time being, I�m connecting through a very cool wireless card (with its cute little antenna sticking out of my lappie). The connection is not all that fast, but you can connect anywhere a cell phone connects and it�s very convenient for email and company VPN connections�



durlxinaustin?

hehe�..