It's noon on Sunday and I have a headache. Perhaps a bit too much wine at last night's little get-together, or maybe just a case of Katrina Head. We had a nice little group at the house yesterday - a few of the neighbors, a few people from work. Reo rode over and Adam stopped by, so it was nice to be able to talk about bikes for a little bit instead of the realities of the disaster. The Wife had gone out and stocked up on beer and wine - far more than we needed. I think we'll have to have another get-together just to take care of the surplus. We have about ten different varieties of Abita beer, including of course "Fleur de Lis Restoration Ale" and a few big bottles of "Little Penguin" wine (which seems to be our most recent "house wine." I just fished one of those big bottles out of the freezer where it had been put, and forgotten, by The Wife. Of course, it had frozen and popped its cork, but didn't make too much of a mess, so it's sitting on the kitchen counter right now thawing out. The seafood gumbo that The Wife made was pretty good, and I think there's enough left for dinner tonight.
I'm sitting here on the front porch, legs a bit sore and head a bit achy, listening to the construction workers next door and watching the damned Buck Moths fluttering around under the oak tree perpetuating the life cycle of the nasty Buck Moth Caterpillar, one of which is destined to give me a bad sting next year. The cat is busy stalking the moths through the screen door, lunging at them when they get too close.
When I awoke this morning the fog was really thick, but I went ahead and rode out to the Lakefront anyway. After all, when the morning temperature is 65F in January, you just gotta ride. I mean, there are freezing riders in Minnesota who would give anything for a day like this. It was much darker than normal due to the fog, and the streets seemed particularly quiet. Nonetheless, there was a decent sized group for the last Giro Ride of the year, and by the time we were half-way down Hayne Blvd. it was strung out into a long, thin 28 mph line. The group split and reformed a couple of times on the way out, and we had a nice rotation going on Chef Highway, but after the turn-around everyone seemed happy to ride easy and chat, which was fine with me because every time I'd go hard my head would start to throb!
This year the City is trying to strictly enforce the anti-fireworks law, and it's a good thing too. With half of the homes covered in flammable blue plastic, the chances of fireworks-ignited house fires is very real. Yesterday morning as the Friday levee ride group was riding, we were stopped by one of the Jefferson Parish police officer who was out reminding everyone he saw that they would be issuing citations to anyone caught using fireworks on the levee this year.
So here in New Orleans the year 2005 will go out with more of a wimper than a bang, in more ways than one. I know I'll certainly be glad to get this one behind me, and this year in particular I will appreciate the sense of renewal that New Year's Day will bring. On the positive side, many of the uptown residents are back in their houses, lots of the children are back, and the local schools will be reopening in a few weeks. On the negative side, the U.S. Postal Service is still not delivering mail here on a regular basis, the city has a very long way yet to go, and there's a brand new water line leak on the corner in front of my house.
c'est la vie.
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