Crime

I am beginning to think there is something wrong with New Orleans. God knows I love this city but it can wear you down. The crime is out of control. How many times have I written that? How many more times will I write it. Wake the fuck up New Orleans! We are complacent about this city's problems. We see drug dealers and ignore them. we hear gun shots and think nothing of it. Sirens wail in the distance and it just so much background noise. There is something wrong with us. We cannot even keep an area as small as the French quarter safe. It is enough to make you dream of moving. I wonder what it must be like to feel safe. How wonderful it must be to walk the streets after dark. I expect i would feel slightly out of place after having soldiered through this city's war for so long. Hmmm...Portland. They say Portland is very safe. You can walk after dark. You can feel safe.

spoke relearns the aloofness of a cat

you reach an age when you realize that you cannot please everyone all the time, nor should you try. i am not perfect and that is ok. so you can talk shit about me and i will be just fine. you can walk away thinking horrible things of me and i will survive. i will come away from all of this stronger than when i entered into it. i will walk away knowing that i am a good person at heart and that i tried to treat you well. i will take with me all the good that you brought into my life and try hard to leave the bad by the road side. it has been a hell of a ride but onto new adventures. the world is waiting and damn but it is beautiful.

trying to understand the new l.s.u hospital

there is no level one trauma center in new orleans and despite this fact, the powers that be have decided not to rehab the existing charity hospital in favor of a much more expensive and disruptive new facility. this medical behemoth will sit atop land where family homes once stood, homes recently renovated from the katrina deluge. these homes were a part of the city's architecturally significant landscape which has become all the more precious after the flooding literally disintegrated so many where they stood.

the project is full steam ahead. empty land spreads out where families once played out their lives. all those beautiful old homes just gone. there is one building of historical significance remaining and that is the old mcdonogh school. this beautiful german gothic style structure will fall to the wrecking ball if something is not done to save it. i fail to see why l.s.u cannot incorporate it into their plan for the area rather than tear this building down. new orleans is a slow, sleepy city where the residents rarely get riled up about anything but if we as a city do not start standing up to save our historic gems, then soon we may look like dallas or atlanta.

if anyone reading this is interested then let's start making some noise. let's try an organize a "save mcdonogh school"

great quote

"children are loud and you can't understand what they are saying. they are like tiny cab drivers." fantastic!

the crazies of christmas are out

i was in the thick of french quarter combat parking when this lady, that looked like a romanian goth version of miss piggy, stepped out into traffick. she was daring me to hit her and i took her dare, forcing her to stop mid-waddle. aghast, she hexed me old world style complete with strange signs and a vitriolic pox on me and my children.

3 things

1.)the senate repealed "don't ask, don't tell." finally gay men and lesbians can serve without the fear of being drummed out of the military simply for being who they are. it is a good day in this country.

2.)there is a lunar eclipse tonight on the eve of the winter solstice. if that does not conjure your inner pagan then nothing will.

3.) nash roberts died. in my 15 plus years of living in new orleans, i have never made a decision about evacuation in the face of an approaching storm, without knowing what nash roberts suggested. if he said stay then i stayed. he was always right even when every other meteoroligist said something contrary. they do not make them like nash roberts anymore.

stoned

spoke the cat is stoned on cold medicine and wondering why my shoes are always so hungry that they insist on eating my socks. it is a scary world to be a sock. you go into the washer or dryer but you don't always come out.