prytaniawaterline.com Blog

I’ve been laying low for the last week or so, not because I have nothing to say, I have just been busy. I had company for a week, and work continues to take a lot of my time and energy. I have been able to get back into my exercise routine, it has gotten to the point that if I don’t get regular exercise my stress levels rise dramatically. Hopefully I can maintain it, going for an hour and a half bike ride after work requires motivation.

I finally had that relaxing weekend I have been talking about. I stayed home and took it easy, caught up on some reading, did a few things around the house that I have been putting off, and watching some football. I was asleep by 8:00 pm last night, of course that means I was up at four.

As far as what’s griping me on the City/Recovery front is this planning thing. Three years later and our city government is still trying to come up with a recovery plan. These idiots need to stop coming up with planning and just provide the basic services in an acceptable manner that city governments are supposed to. The can’t do kids at city hall are worthless sacks of … , I guess I won’t start cursing local officials this early in the morning, I’ll wait until I hit one of those moon crater sized potholes on my way to work this morning. How a city government thinks that they can come up with some master plan that is going to create a world class city when they can’t even maintain what we have left, is moronic to me. But then I have come to believe that only the least qualified actually run for these positions.

Glad to hear they caught Betsy McDaniel’s murderer, I hope they have the right guy.

It was a rare weekend when the Saints, LSU, and Tulane all won their games.

We continue to live with what seems to be a couple of murders a day, but then whose counting.

How many times do we have to read accounts like this one.

From TP

Less than an hour after the shooting, at the corner of Dryades and Amelia streets, a woman in an orange nightgown wailed as she wrapped her arms around the shoulders of another woman in a blue nightgown and slippers. The woman in the blue nightgown later identified herself to coroner’s investigators as Rainey’s grandmother. Screaming and crying, the woman scampered down Dryades to the crime scene tape, where a police officer warned her to stay behind it.

“No! No! My grandbaby is dead!” screamed the woman. “Oh, Jesus! She just made 18! I’m 72 years old, Jesus! Why couldn’t you take me?”

Rainey’s grandmother continued aloud, “Someone took her life!”

She rested her elbows and forearms on an NOPD crime lab SUV, slammed her palms against the hood and stomped her right foot repeatedly.

“What is she doing up there? Why is she out here?” she screamed. “Look what y’all have done!”

What will the city’s master plan have in it to fix this?

You have got to be kidding me, we are supposed to vote for a plan that doesn’t exist. I am definitely voting against “The Plan’

From WWLTV.com

New Orleans voters will go Nov. 4 to the polls to put the master plan in the city charter.

But drafters admit that the consultants won’t start writing the plan until February. The first public review won’t come until April.

They must think we are a bunch of idiots, they probably have a point after all we elected our current city leaders, and I use the term leaders loosely, into office. Putting the city’s future into the hands of our can’t do government is a huge mistake. Three years after “the storm” our city government has shown that they are not up to the task of running the city much less planning it’s future. This looks like an attempt to shut the public out of the process, do not vote for this so called master plan.

The weather made it hard for me to get out of bed this morning. Hearing the rain and the wind I just wanted to pull the covers over my head and hibernate. I did get out of bed and I am at the office now. Had to wait to leave the house until a heavy band of showers passed. Tchoupitoulas Street was flooded near Jefferson but still passable. With the weather as it is, I am expecting a lot of people to stay home today. I am looking forward to the weekend, I don’t have anything planned, I hope to get some R&R, maybe paly the guitar, read a book, something along those lines. I would like to get out and get some exercise maybe the weather will cooperate later in the weekend. I’m a little surprised at the winds and the rain we are getting from Ike, I didn’t think it was as close to us as it is. This is about how the weather was in Mobile for Gustav. Watch those flooded streets and stay home if you can.

Not a very good shot, it was early morning and there wasn’t much light. Still it makes pic of the day.

Got to work just after 7 this morning, made coffee settled in to my office and then… the infamous there is an emergency in the building stop what you are doing and head to the nearest stairwell. Of course there is a screeching alarm and strobes flashing throughout the hallways. Down 14 flights of stairs and out the door. About 5 minutes later a fire truck pulls up, the firemen did not seem to be in a big hurry so I figured there wasn’t much to the emergency, thirty minutes later we are allowed to go back. This kind of thing does happen sometimes when you work in an office tower, What made this one different was the irony of the fact that today’s date is 911.

Yesterday at work everyone seemed a little weary. No one had any bounce in there step, the normally light hearted mood wasn’t there. Of course every one asked the questions. Where did you go? Did you have any damge? (more commonly phrased Howd you make out?). Of course returning after Gustav was nothing like the return after Katrina. The city came back to life quickly. after Katrina it was months before you felt life in the city. It looks like Ike may spare us, I hope so, when it comes to hurricanes one day you can be in the clear and the next day you can have a bulls eye on your back.

The weekend was very relaxing for me, I managed to get some exercise which always makes me feel beter. I was also able to get some rest after a long week of craziness. Gustav spared teh city for the most part causing inconvienience but sparing us from catastrophy. I am ready to go back to the office this morning, working form home has started to bore me, I should be pretty busy today. I am hopeful that Ike is going to miss us, at this time it looks like it wil go west of us maybe causing some bad weather here. Of course thes things can change. On the news the mayor is talking about changing the re-entry plan to the city. My plan is to come back 24 hours after the storm has passed. The dumb ass mayor doesn’t get it, you can’t start hurricane recovery without poeple in your city. Maybe next time I won’t be as eager to leave. The Saints won a really exciting game yesterday giving everyone a feel good moment after a long week. Lets hope we don’t have to go through it again this week.

I was able to get on my bike today and pedal on the levee. It was great, I went farther than I normally do, I needed some extra stress relief. I have pretty much gotten myself back to normal, I rounded up groceries, and cleaned up what I needed to. I have been working from home, there hasn’t been that much to do. Most of my co-workers are still coming back or are cleaning and repairing their property. Lost power at one point for about ten minutes, it really worked out to my advantage. It sent everyone outside, I now have an invitation to dinner next door. Good fortune seems to follow me around and I really appreciate it. I know that there are so many people who are suffering from far worse conditions than I am right now. I do know how it is, I came back willing to face those hardships if I had to. To all who are still not okay I wish you the best.

Some photos from my morning ride.

Tree down in the park.

Branches litter the sidewalks

Broken Power pole on River Road

The bridge this morning

The Trail was empty this morning

There is traffic on the river