Unfinished Business and Compromises on a Lazy Sunday

The sun is coming up earlier and earlier now, and as often happens this time of year I got an early start for my ride out to meet the Sunday Giro Ride. The sun was already up but the air, for the moment at least, clung to its vanishing predawn coolness. A clear blue sky and light wind had me already feeling rather lazy as I spun down Carrollton Avenue toward Bayou St. John, barely cracking 15 mph and enjoying the quiet streets. My trip out to the lakefront takes me along old Bayou St. John on Wisner Blvd., sandwiched between City Park to the West and the bayou on the right. Bayou St. John, once a busy shipping shortcut between Lake Pontchartrain and the Esplanade Ridge, is now a long quiet pond, with no access to the lake, save a few pipes under Robert E. Lee Blvd. Along the east shore of the bayou are lots nice homes. I stopped to take a photo of the bayou, looking more or less south, where it splits to go around a tiny little island, Park Island, before continuing into town where it once petered out into the swamp that is now drained and called Mid-City. I always thought Park Island would be a neat place to live.

So the Giro Ride group was kind of a typical slightly smaller Sunday group that finally came together along Lakeshore Drive. I cannot even begin to imagine why the Levee Board has done nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, to repair the damage to the seawall and the scoured-out dirt behind it, since the hurricane nearly two years ago. Why is this business still unfinished?? That seawall was built as part of the works projects administration that also filled in the marshland behind it, creating what ultimately become some of the city's most desirable property. You would think that by now they would have at least filled in the eroded areas with dirt. I guess that's what you get when you put a bunch of politically appointed contractors on a board that has responsibility for something as important around here as levees. At least the last elections reorganized the levee boards, so there's hope.

Today's Giro Ride turned out to be pretty fast here and there with Brandon and Rusty and a few others keeping things brisk. Of course, most of the group was feeling rather lazy and wasn't too interested in getting out into the wind. There were enough, though, to make for a nice paceline at the front that kept things interesting.

Much to do today. A little mother's day thing at The Sister's place, some hospital duty, and a new ceiling fan to think about installing. That task will, of course, be far more complicated than advertised thanks to the eighty year old wiring and related complications. One thing's for sure. There will be compromises.