Long Day, Short Ride

I was up at 3:15 this morning in order to get The Mom out to DFW airport in time for her 5:30 a.m. flight. Cosmo the Dog was pretty cool about getting into the dog crate or whatever you call those things, but when we rolled up to the Delta ticket counter their first reaction was "Oh, we can't take animals," but after explaing that we had already checked it out and gotten a special papal dispensation as hurricane evacuees, everything was fine. By 11:30 I had gotten an email from my brother saying that the dog and mother had both arrived in Orlando without incident.

Most of the day today involved email and phone conversations with folks at Tulane, and by 3:00 or so I was determined to get out on the bike for a while. I ended up riding maybe 15 miles, back and forth through the subdivision, which is rather hilly and provided a nice little workout. It was hot and extremely dry - much drier than we ever get in N.O. It was rather strange to be working so hard and not having sweat dripping into my glasses and down my arms.

After I got home we were invited to go out and see a play, the "Will Rogers Follies" in Ft. Worth. Hurricane evacuees got in free! It was pretty good, but what I liked best were the many well -sculpted and scantily clad dancers.

I got a TM from Kenny while I was there telling me to watch the news because he thought he'd be on it, but of course I couldn't. I sent a TM to The Daughter about it and she checked it out bud didn't see Kenny. I think I'll try and get in a good ride tomorrow morning because Saturday will be a long drive to Jackson LA, and I probably won't be able to ride at all.

No more solid news on the New Orleans situation. I did get through on the phone to Robin R., who was at his Metairie home tearing out carpeting and sheetrock. He had gotten about two feet of water in his house. The parish officials had let Metairie residents come back to secure things, but they were supposed to leave again today or tomorrow. The news keeps talking about how they're handing out these $2,000 debit cards, but the FEMA policy is that they are supposed to go only to people who have no other access to cash - i.e. people who are not receiving any income and can't get access to any money they might have for living expenses. My office has one person up in D.C. now in a temporary office with one of our legislative consultants, and another setting up a temporary office in Baton Rouge at the LAICU office. The latter's house was completely flooded (i.e. up to the roof) and his family is currently in Atlanta. His wife is a professor at Dillard University and so she is currently unemployed because of the hurricane. We have at least gotten text messages from everyone in the office except for one person who I think lives in Slidell. I hope she is OK.