Moving On

It was cool this morning. Really cool. I guess it must have been no more than 65 F, and as soon as I started rolling I zipped the jersey up all the way and contemplated having to replace all of the winter cycling gear I've accumulated over the years. I decided I needed to put in a couple of hours at least today, and rode a nice loop that took in much of the Sunday group ride. With my racing season having come to an unexpectedly early end, I find myself already shifting into Fall/Winter training mode. For me, that usually means longish stretches of moderate effort, interspersed with brief periods of soft-pedaling. I always find it hard to push myself very much when I ride alone, and the heavy weight of uncertainty and worry hanging over my head now makes it even harder. In the end I had a pretty good 40-mile ride. It will be my last one in Flower Mound for a while, because we are moving on to our next "foster home" tomorrow.

There's an interesting website available on the CC Technologies site that combines LIDAR data and Google Map data to provide estimates of water depths in the City of New Orleans. I learned a little bit about LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) from a faculty member at Tulane a while back who was using it for some environmental GIS work. Anyway, you can view a map of New Orleans down to the street level, click on a spot and see the estimated maximum depth and most recent depth. I don't know how accurate these data are, but at least it's something. In the photo to the right, you see the view on Canal St., looking away from the river, the day after the flooding started. The tall building with the big tower on top is Tulane's Tidewater Building where my office is. My office is way up on the roof, in that little section directly under the tower. This photo came from the slideshow below. Still, there's nothing I can do about it one way or the other.

There's a great slide show that someone put up with photos from the French Quarter and downtown before the hurricane, immediately after, and when the flooding started. It is pretty impressive and worth a look. All of the photos have captions, too.

They are still trying to force everyone out of the city, still searching for people, and not really saying when property owners might be able to go back in. Tulane continues its rebuilding effort, and The Wife worked a 12-hour day today with the Psychiatry/Neurology department. Tomorrow we are driving down to Jackson, Louisiana where we'll be staying in someone's spare bedroom to help coordinate the department's clinical and research enterprise. I am hoping we don't have trouble finding gasoline along the way, especially since we have to take two cars - ours and The Mom's. It will be an expensive trip and I'm glad that one of the neighbors here in Dallas stopped by and gave us a couple of gasoline gift cards to use. The Wife's sister has also been gathering up a lot of supplies for us to bring down to Jackson, both for us and for the other displaced Tulane folks. FEMA is reportedly getting ready to set up a whole bunch of trailer homes in Jackson on the grounds of the mental hospital for displaced people. It will be interesting, that's for sure.

One fortunate thing about going to Jackson is that I know some of the roads around there. For many years, we have had road races that started right in Jackson, four or five blocks from where we will be staying. The Psychiatrist who is the director of the Tulane clinical practice there rides bikes and so I may even have an occasional riding partner. Baton Rouge is only half an hour away, so I'll also be able to get in on some of those rides as well. When you come right down to it, though, what I really want is to get back on a regular work schedule. Speaking of work, Kathy V. from the Altek Velodrome in Houston may be able to find some work for a displaced Louisiana cyclist there, so if that sounds like you, contact me.