Sunday, a day off...
... and luca and I met downtown at the Cashmen Center to go to a "Harvest Craft Fair". It was a good idea; we might find some lovely tacky things, or we might find something really nice, and I am looking for people who make things locally that we might be able to sell in the store. Unfortunately, it was just all crap, and even the better crap was derivitive crap. Lots of new wavish diddly-doos, angel wingy, candle thingies. A calico cat tissue box cover, lots of very bad jewelry, wind spinning things that were almost interesting and would brighten up any trailer park. Beef jerky vendors and dried soup sellers; a bit dreary over all.
But then we went south on Las Vegas Boulevard and parked at the Fashion Show Mall, a huge shopping center on the strip with all of the major department store as anchors. There are also a whole lot of other shops, including an Apple Store. Every so often, A large part of the floor rises up and there is a "fashion show" with a cat walk and all. The models are well, not totaly professional. As I think I mentioned before, some of them look like they keep stepping in mud as they clump down the cat walk. Last time we were there, there were some cute guys on the walk, but this time it was all girls and they were wearing this stuff that looked like "after work wear for prostitutes and fancy pole dancers". We moved on.
After we had made the circuit, we walked down the strip to Caesar's Palace and checked out the shops there. It's a very interesting shopping area, lots of high end with a mix of whimsy. We decided to get something to eat at the Cheesecake Factory, which is a very la-de-dah version of that chain. Luca had some cheesecake which always comes with about a pint of whipped cream and I had a chicken sandwich, because I needed one more than I needed that much sugar,
We were talking about how life changes; how he had been living in Wisconsin and I had been living in New Orleans when we met, and how now we were both living in Vegas now.
And suddenly, I remembered that it was almost to the minute, five years ago when we met for the first time. It was our anniversary! We met in front of the Cafe du Monde in New Orleans and then had coffee and beignets. We walked to the river front and sat down and talked for over two hours. While we were sitting there, I noticed a rat foraging in the garbage can about ten feet away and pointed it out to luca. He had never seen a rat before and took a picture of it! I knew then that we would would be friends for a long time.
We clinked our glasses in celebration, and then luca called Alex in Santa Fe and he talked for a while and I talked for a while. Luca's phone was behaving rather strangely, but the gist of the conversation was how time flies and what a miracle that we all met at all.
Our plan now for October, is to go to Palm Springs to see Alex read some of his work at a poetry thing there and after a few days , we might go to San Diego for a bit and then back to Vegas.
After I got home this evening, I had a drink or two and called my very oldest ex in New Orleans; Willie B. Way back when in New Orleans, we lived together for five rather crazy and dramatically fun years. We broke it off over twenty four years ago, but we are still friends. He's one of the few people still alive who actually knew my entire family. He is much as he was when I first met him; a New Orleans original. He's a mix of old black New Orleans and Mississippi Choctaw Indian. He and his mama own twenty acres in Mississipi and when the next hurricane comes, he will be safe there; it's 150 miles inland.
He works for a large maintenence department for a major place in New Orleans and he has for many years. He totally knows what he is doing; he can fix anything, but especially plumbing. So, I ask him, "How are things at work?" His answer: "Well, everyone is trying to be white! Just sitting around at the computers and not getting nothing done!" I know Willie for a long time and this is funny, because it's true. He gets the work done and the other people do the reports, but most certainly spend a lot of time surfing the net for porn; everyone where he works knows this and that's why he gets away with the most enormous amount of finger snapping attitude. He's brilliant that way and he can read anyone in a second. But he will also help anyone who truly needs help and he's very well liked at work. At one point this evening, I said, "Willie, I don't think you can say that to someone at work, I know I couldn't get away with it! He said, "Well, you know, my nerves are bad. I just won't take any shit and they know it!" The business about his nerves being bad is just a warning to those who might cross him, he's got nerves of steel.He's a wonderfullly funny man with a good heart.
We talked about his post-Katrina neighborhood that he moved into after his home was wrecked. Where he lives, there are about 40% of the homes occupied. It drops to 30% or less when you get over ten blocks away and then it drops very, very much lower. Willie watches out for the neighbors and there places when they are not there. He does some work for people as they try to fix their houses up. But he tells me that it's boring for him in New Orleans now, most of the time. And that's a tragedy; he's almost never bored.
One other thing. Willie told me that the 150 year old "slave quarter apartment" that we once lived in behind one of the five historic old row houses on Burgundy Street had collapsed! It's gone, totally gone! The place where we lived and loved so many years ago. We were both very quiet for a minute or so... I know that the brick walls were very old, but I am pretty sure that the hurricane did not damage them. It's all very historic there; I could look off of one end of that balcony and down the alley to Tennesee Williams courtyard. Willie said that someone is renovating the front of the building, so I think that someone decided that the back part might be rebuilt to more modern specifications and they figured that in the chaos, the French Quarter Historical Society might not notice. I can't know for sure, but really! I lived in that building; it would have taken fifty years of neglect for it to just fall down.
Ah, there's so much sadness and regret there... there's so much of New Orleans that I want to see again, and so much that is no longer there.
My Dad goes into the hospital in Boston this Wednesday. They will do a spinal tap and drain some fluids from his spine. During the three or four days that they do this, if he improves. that's a good sign. During the following weeks, if he declines, that's also a good sign that he is a good bet for the NPH surgery. They will put a drain into his brain, with a tiny valve in his neck, which will control the release of excess fluid from his brain. It will be channeled through a tube under his skin into his stomach, where the excess fluid will be re-absorbed. Isn't this astonishing!
If it's successful, he will be somewhere back to where he was a few years ago, able to live on his own at the elder care place. Without this surgery, he would have to be in a full time nursing facility right now. In the last six months or so, he has slipped so much, but the symptoms he has now are not exactly related to Alzheimer's, which he definately has, but more likely to this NPH condition.
If things go as we hope, the operation will happen at the hospital in Boston, supervised by the world famous doctor who invented the surgury there. I don't know for sure, but it looks like a quarter of a mil for the surgery. The insurance should pay for for it since it saves them a lot of money otherwise.
Light a candle for my Dad... perhaps an insurance candle, if there is such a thing, and I hope that there is. Don't know what we would do if they said no...
What a change in the weather! It's so delightful! A whole week with temps under 100 degrees!
I suppose that sounds daft to most of you, but when it's in the 90's here, it's quite balmy. No humidity, dears. You drink a lot more water, you don't pee as often, and it's comfortable. In a few weeks it will drop to highs in the 80's and lows in the 60's; total bliss here in the desert valley.
So book your time at Casa Durlx now, before it's too late to secure an accomodation!
durlx, a la de da....
... and luca and I met downtown at the Cashmen Center to go to a "Harvest Craft Fair". It was a good idea; we might find some lovely tacky things, or we might find something really nice, and I am looking for people who make things locally that we might be able to sell in the store. Unfortunately, it was just all crap, and even the better crap was derivitive crap. Lots of new wavish diddly-doos, angel wingy, candle thingies. A calico cat tissue box cover, lots of very bad jewelry, wind spinning things that were almost interesting and would brighten up any trailer park. Beef jerky vendors and dried soup sellers; a bit dreary over all.
But then we went south on Las Vegas Boulevard and parked at the Fashion Show Mall, a huge shopping center on the strip with all of the major department store as anchors. There are also a whole lot of other shops, including an Apple Store. Every so often, A large part of the floor rises up and there is a "fashion show" with a cat walk and all. The models are well, not totaly professional. As I think I mentioned before, some of them look like they keep stepping in mud as they clump down the cat walk. Last time we were there, there were some cute guys on the walk, but this time it was all girls and they were wearing this stuff that looked like "after work wear for prostitutes and fancy pole dancers". We moved on.
After we had made the circuit, we walked down the strip to Caesar's Palace and checked out the shops there. It's a very interesting shopping area, lots of high end with a mix of whimsy. We decided to get something to eat at the Cheesecake Factory, which is a very la-de-dah version of that chain. Luca had some cheesecake which always comes with about a pint of whipped cream and I had a chicken sandwich, because I needed one more than I needed that much sugar,
We were talking about how life changes; how he had been living in Wisconsin and I had been living in New Orleans when we met, and how now we were both living in Vegas now.
And suddenly, I remembered that it was almost to the minute, five years ago when we met for the first time. It was our anniversary! We met in front of the Cafe du Monde in New Orleans and then had coffee and beignets. We walked to the river front and sat down and talked for over two hours. While we were sitting there, I noticed a rat foraging in the garbage can about ten feet away and pointed it out to luca. He had never seen a rat before and took a picture of it! I knew then that we would would be friends for a long time.
We clinked our glasses in celebration, and then luca called Alex in Santa Fe and he talked for a while and I talked for a while. Luca's phone was behaving rather strangely, but the gist of the conversation was how time flies and what a miracle that we all met at all.
Our plan now for October, is to go to Palm Springs to see Alex read some of his work at a poetry thing there and after a few days , we might go to San Diego for a bit and then back to Vegas.
After I got home this evening, I had a drink or two and called my very oldest ex in New Orleans; Willie B. Way back when in New Orleans, we lived together for five rather crazy and dramatically fun years. We broke it off over twenty four years ago, but we are still friends. He's one of the few people still alive who actually knew my entire family. He is much as he was when I first met him; a New Orleans original. He's a mix of old black New Orleans and Mississippi Choctaw Indian. He and his mama own twenty acres in Mississipi and when the next hurricane comes, he will be safe there; it's 150 miles inland.
He works for a large maintenence department for a major place in New Orleans and he has for many years. He totally knows what he is doing; he can fix anything, but especially plumbing. So, I ask him, "How are things at work?" His answer: "Well, everyone is trying to be white! Just sitting around at the computers and not getting nothing done!" I know Willie for a long time and this is funny, because it's true. He gets the work done and the other people do the reports, but most certainly spend a lot of time surfing the net for porn; everyone where he works knows this and that's why he gets away with the most enormous amount of finger snapping attitude. He's brilliant that way and he can read anyone in a second. But he will also help anyone who truly needs help and he's very well liked at work. At one point this evening, I said, "Willie, I don't think you can say that to someone at work, I know I couldn't get away with it! He said, "Well, you know, my nerves are bad. I just won't take any shit and they know it!" The business about his nerves being bad is just a warning to those who might cross him, he's got nerves of steel.He's a wonderfullly funny man with a good heart.
We talked about his post-Katrina neighborhood that he moved into after his home was wrecked. Where he lives, there are about 40% of the homes occupied. It drops to 30% or less when you get over ten blocks away and then it drops very, very much lower. Willie watches out for the neighbors and there places when they are not there. He does some work for people as they try to fix their houses up. But he tells me that it's boring for him in New Orleans now, most of the time. And that's a tragedy; he's almost never bored.
One other thing. Willie told me that the 150 year old "slave quarter apartment" that we once lived in behind one of the five historic old row houses on Burgundy Street had collapsed! It's gone, totally gone! The place where we lived and loved so many years ago. We were both very quiet for a minute or so... I know that the brick walls were very old, but I am pretty sure that the hurricane did not damage them. It's all very historic there; I could look off of one end of that balcony and down the alley to Tennesee Williams courtyard. Willie said that someone is renovating the front of the building, so I think that someone decided that the back part might be rebuilt to more modern specifications and they figured that in the chaos, the French Quarter Historical Society might not notice. I can't know for sure, but really! I lived in that building; it would have taken fifty years of neglect for it to just fall down.
Ah, there's so much sadness and regret there... there's so much of New Orleans that I want to see again, and so much that is no longer there.
My Dad goes into the hospital in Boston this Wednesday. They will do a spinal tap and drain some fluids from his spine. During the three or four days that they do this, if he improves. that's a good sign. During the following weeks, if he declines, that's also a good sign that he is a good bet for the NPH surgery. They will put a drain into his brain, with a tiny valve in his neck, which will control the release of excess fluid from his brain. It will be channeled through a tube under his skin into his stomach, where the excess fluid will be re-absorbed. Isn't this astonishing!
If it's successful, he will be somewhere back to where he was a few years ago, able to live on his own at the elder care place. Without this surgery, he would have to be in a full time nursing facility right now. In the last six months or so, he has slipped so much, but the symptoms he has now are not exactly related to Alzheimer's, which he definately has, but more likely to this NPH condition.
If things go as we hope, the operation will happen at the hospital in Boston, supervised by the world famous doctor who invented the surgury there. I don't know for sure, but it looks like a quarter of a mil for the surgery. The insurance should pay for for it since it saves them a lot of money otherwise.
Light a candle for my Dad... perhaps an insurance candle, if there is such a thing, and I hope that there is. Don't know what we would do if they said no...
What a change in the weather! It's so delightful! A whole week with temps under 100 degrees!
I suppose that sounds daft to most of you, but when it's in the 90's here, it's quite balmy. No humidity, dears. You drink a lot more water, you don't pee as often, and it's comfortable. In a few weeks it will drop to highs in the 80's and lows in the 60's; total bliss here in the desert valley.
So book your time at Casa Durlx now, before it's too late to secure an accomodation!
durlx, a la de da....
posted by durlx at 9/11/2006 12:02:00 AM
3 Comments:
we met at Cafe du Monde as well. & remember that fab dinner at Commanders Palace?
my visit was not long before Luca arrivd in NOLA. & of course he drove from there my way.
so a bunch of anniversaries.
& I can't wait to get together in Palm Springs.
Have fun in Palm Springs Durlene! My oh my, doesn't time fly?
xxoxo,
pebs
At least there is a remnant left of the "good old days." Glad to see your blog is still here. It's a good thing it wasn't maintained by BadPuppy, eh? An oddity: There were no comments noted at the bottom of this post, but now 2 others show here when posting a new comment. Looks like blogger has another glitch. Ever considered switching to LiveJournal? Not that it doesn't have glitches, but I think there are fewer.
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