Six Days

Well, it's been six days since we evacuated, but it seems like a lot longer. Lots of people have been reporting in, so that's nice. Robin Robert even got on a computer, since the cellphone that is usually attached to his ear has been rendered useless. Robin lives in Metairie, which is the city just across the ill-fated 17th street canal from New Orleans. His house is quite close to the lake, maybe half a mile. He got back in yesterday to have a look and reported that he had gotten about two feet of water. He's planning on staying there to clean up, fully equipped with a generator and other assorted necessities. Dan Duncan, who is one of the regulars on the morning levee ride, reported in as well, he's in TX right now, but hopes to be moving a little closer (Avery Island, LA). Randy Holmes is trying to track down some of the old NOBC crew from the 70s - Chris Todd, Doug Haddock, Glenn Gulotta, John Gin. Let us know if you hear from any of them!

I went out for a nice 55 mile ride this morning. Actually, it might have been longer since my computer kept flaking out for some reason. Along the way I met up with a small group and rode with them for a while, which was nice. They were going at a nice medium pace, and I guess I might have pushed a few of them a little bit on the hills, but I couldn't help it. Really!

I've been trying to get an old Sony Vaio laptop working again and it's been kind of hit-and-miss. Since the computer lacks a floppy or CD drive, and crashes to the blue screen of death at random, it's been a challenge. I replaced the video driver yesterday and that seemed to help - at least it booted normally and kept running for a long time. Eventually, however, I started getting blue screen STOP errors again. I picked up a wireless ethernet card for it and actually got that to work, so as long as it doesn't crash, it works fine!!

I'm about to set up an alternate email list for the Tulane Psychiatry department so they can start to get back in communication with each other. We'll see how that goes!

I am really starting to get stir crazy around here. The life of leisure isn't so leisurly when there's a huge cloud of uncertainty hanging over your head. I would much rather be in New Orleans mucking out the basement, but since I don't own any automatic assault weapons I guess that's not really a viable option for now. Sister #2 and The Brother In Law are moving from The Dad's place in Ft. Walton Beach, FL, over to Jackson, MS. I think they have already made arrangements for their daughter to attend school there. Tulane has come to the realization that they will be unable to have a Fall semester and so they are busy arranging for other schools to pick up Tulane's 10,000+ students. Our plans are still a little uncertain. I would really like to get back to work somehow, somewhere. Jackson, LA or Houston, TX. Whatever. I have still not heard from Isabella, Tremica or Marcia from my office, so I have no idea where they may have ended up.

Anyway, I think I'll try and catch the Bluebonnet training ride tomorrow morning (assuming it's still going). I did it a couple of years ago and it was pretty good.