A Day Off

I decided to sleep in a little later than usual this morning and so skipped my usual ride. Then I made the crucial mistake of agreeing to drive in to Baton Rouge with The Wife to get some groceries. First we picked up her sister, who is currently in B.R. and may end up staying with us in N.O. for a while until her house gets repaired (must have been a couple of feet deep inside). It wasn't until I walked into the huge Whole Foods store until I fully realized the magnitude of my mistake. I was in a grocery store with two women. I wandered around for a while trying all of the little samples that they have scattered around the store - chips and salsa, shrimp salad, barbecue shrimp, various cheeses, etc. Then I walked outside and wandered over to the Gap store and walked through that for a while. Then I returned to Whole Foods to find them just barely out of the produce section. Finally The Wife was ready to check out and when we came out the other side she left me there with the basket and went to look for her sister. I stood there for, I kid you not, at least 30 minutes more before they appeared again in the checkout line. Anyway, it was a long day! We had talked about trying to go into New Orleans today but decided we needed a better plan. I think we have something lined up for tomorrow that will work.

Kenny B. sent a copy of an article that they wrote around him in the Time Picayune. At the risk ov violating a number of copyright laws, here it is:


N.O. cyclist becomes guide for Guard unitMonday, 5:07 p.m.When word of Hurricane Katrina's destruction arrived, Kenny Bellau, a professional racing cyclist from New Orleans, was nearing the end of a French Guianna tour, the Caribbean answer to the Tour de France.He finished the race, then raced back to New Orleans, furious about the early reports of chaos in official efforts to help storm victims, and worried about his home town."The main reason I wanted to come back here was because of all the confusion I saw on the news," he said. "I honestly didn't see anybody doing the right thing."Bellau, 37, a Brother Martin High graduate, arrived two days after Katrina hit the city and plunged headlong into rescue work. Gathering acquaintances' requests for help in locating loved ones, Bellau attached himself to Alpha Company of the California Army National Guard, working out of Sophie Wright School on Napoleon Avenue. He offered boat-driving skills and an intimate knowledge of city streets and neighborhoods. For most of the last two weeks Bellau has served as the Guard unit's native guide, visiting house after house in Uptown and Central City enclaves, helping pull out survivors."He had beads on people in their houses, people who were in need, he saved us a lot of time," said Capt. Gerald Davis from the California unit. "Every day he would come out and take care of us."Bellau said he has seen too much death and misery. He is not one to cry, but has cried every day since he returned to New Orleans."These are people's grandmothers, people's grandfathers. We pulled a Mardi Gras Indian out the other day," he said. "It just hurts to see the fabric of the city torn apart and know it'll never be the same."Bellau, who is staying in his powerless house on Constance Street Uptown, is glad that his mother evacuated to Tylertown, Miss., before the storm, but her eastern New Orleans home is now destroyed. He paddled to the brick house, on Perelli Drive, a few days ago, finding it filled with five-plus feet of water, amid so many houses suffering the same fate. "I was just overwhelmed at the destruction, the totalness of the destruction."