Calm Before the Storm

This morning I got in about 30 miles, riding hard up the little hills but coasting the downhills. An idea had been forming in my head all morning for a grant proposal and it just wouldn't go away. I probably would have ridden longer, but I felt like I had to get into the office and see if the idea was going to fly or not. The Wife had said they were going into Baton Rouge to buy some dicatation equipment so that the doctors could get their secretaries to do all of their reports and stuff, but it turned out they didn't need to go after all, so I was a little surprised to find The Wife and Jim waiting for me when I returned. I took a quick dip in the bath tub while they went to check the post office box. As it turned out, something about the way they had done their department's forwarding order had resulted in a while lot of the mail for the entire Tidewater Building in New Orleans being diverted to their little P.O. box her in Jackson. The folks at the Post Office were kind of excited about it all when they handed Jim a big tub of mail. This little post office has one mailbox marked "in-town mail" and another marked "out of town mail."

Compared with the prior two days, today was quite quiet at work. With most of the senior administration trying to evacuate from Houston to Dallas, and many others just plain preoccupied with this new hurricane, not too many people were in the mood for work today. As we watched the hurricane track shift more and more toward the east, we decided to call it a day early and try and get in a ride before dark. We met one of Candy's assistants, Dianne, in front of the house where she is staying, about four blocks from us. Dianne had brought her bike with her, so the three of us headed out in the increasing wind to do the 24 mile loop that has now become my "standard" ride. The ride was nice, although perhaps a bit of a strain for Dianne who hadn't been on her bike in weeks. Half-way through the ride as we were climbing up one of the hills, she said "I miss New Orleans." It was a nice easy ride for me anyway, and I got to look around at the scenery a bit more than usual. I was supposed to be making pasta salad for dinner tonight, but as we rode past the restaurant in town Jim flagged us down to say that he and his wife were in there. So Candy ended up inviting three other people to come with us. The prices were high, the food was mediocre, the atmosphere was lacking but otherwise it was OK and I ate way too much.

Everyone is getting worried about the hurricane, and it looks like New Orleans will get a lot of rain at the very least. Since the Corps of Engineers has driven sheet piles across the mouths of three of the drainage canals to protect them from the storm surge, the city's pumping capacity is way, way below normal and it is entirely possible that some heavy rains could cause a fair amount of flooding. Anyway, I am hoping for the best. Tomorrow an entire mental hospital from southwest Louisiana is moving into the mental hospital here, so it should get exciting. I have a lot of stuff I should be working on, but under the circumstances, it may be hard to get much accomplished tomorrow.