Cookin' with Gas

It was kind of a rainy afternoon in the Crescent City on Thursday. By early afternoon we were still without electricity, so I went out in search of gasoline to refill the 5-gallon can. I'd been running the generator periodically during the day in order to keep the refrigerator reasonably cool, which became even more important after The Wife learned that Whole Foods was re-opening at 2 pm. We were there by 2:30. Stock was a little low, but for the most part the produce section looked 200% better than the one at Winn-Dixie. Everybody was again planning on getting together again on the front porch for dinner. I fired up the old gas stove and improvised a particularly unimpressive and slightly overcooked dinner of vegetables and pasta, but fortunately we had some good wine to compensate.

So we're sitting out there killing time with the fan hooked up to the generator when all of a sudden **click** the lights come on. There was a moment of stunned silence as our brains tried to comprehend what had happened. You could hear people cheering all up and down the street. We would be sleeping with air-conditioning!! The generator was shut down and for a while we enjoyed the relative quiet as thoughts of air-conditioning and ice cream filled our heads.

I had reset the alarm clock once the electricity came back, but when it went off this morning I turned it off and feel right back asleep. The next time I looked at the clock it was 6:30 and there was no way I was going to make it to the levee in time for the 6:40 ride, but I gave it a try anyway. I had replaced the front derailleur cable on the Orbea the day before, which meant hauling it and the workstand and tools upstairs where there was some light. Naturally, I left it there and ended up running up and down the stairs a couple of times before I finally got out the door. The humidity was noticeably lower this morning, which made my ten mile time trial a bit more enjoyable. I met the morning group just after they had turned around and settled into the somewhat easier Friday pace, catching up on everyone's Gustav stories. A couple of people were still without electricity. Considering that the hurricane had toppled most of the huge cross-country transmission lines between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, it was amazing that we weren't all without electricity. The Wife wanted to get some coffee, and since the two open shops on nearby Oak Street were apparently inadequate, and the Starbucks on Maple St. was still closed and without power, we drove way out to the Starbucks at Magazine and Washington, which of course was also closed. So we stopped at the Rue de la Course on Magazine, which I like, but which was apparently too crowded (isn't that a good sign?). So we ended up at the almost secret Laurel St. Bakery, where they have nice pastries and mediocre coffee that tastes like a paper coffee filter. Anyway, after that there was some more picking up of branches and leaves. I guess we have around ten or twelve big bags of leaves and branches, along with three bundles of big branches, out on the curb right now. That's OK, though, because at least the refrigerator isn't out there this time!

So the hurricane has caused the promoters of the LAMBRA championship team time trial and individual time trial to postpone their events. The local police are way too busy to deal with bike races right now, there were trees and stuff down on the Baton Rouge course, and the time trial course near LaPlace was partially flooded as of yesterday, so it will be a little while before the road is clear and the police are in a better mood. The lakefront floodgates were apparently re-opened this afternoon, so I think the Giro will roll tomorrow morning. Now I guess we can all start talking about

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