As if our lives haven't been eventful enough, we had another event this morning. It's not Christmas, and it's not Easter, but Grandpère announced that he was going to church with me. I said, "Really!" He said he thought he should go to give thanks to God that the members of our family are all safe and our homes made it through Gustav and Ike with no damage or relatively light damage. And isn't that exactly right?
At the time in the service for prayers for birthdays and anniversaries, GP turned to me and asked me what was the date of our anniversary. He did know it was this month. I thought for a minute and said, "It was yesterday." We both missed the anniversary of 47 years of wedded bliss, and the rest of the family forgot, too. We are all still rattled and revved up from the serial hurricanes. GP and I went up for prayer with the hope of spending further years together. Afterwards, we went to lunch in a local restaurant for a quiet celebration with just the two of us. I got a little buzz from my one glass of wine, and all is now cool.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
"For Cynthia and Grandmère Mimi"
Jim at JindalWatch put together this video in honor of his niece, Cynthia, and me. Cynthia lives in Houma, Louisiana, and we both left our homes to escape Gustav. It's beautiful. Jim, I loved that you used the picture of Our Lady of the Driveway and that you posted the Latin for the "Hail Mary".
Thank you. You made me cry. I seem to be crying quite a bit lately. People are so very kind.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
R. I. P., Ruthie The Duck Girl
Ruthie the Duck Girl, a French Quarter eccentric who zoomed from bar to bar on roller skates, often wearing a ratty fur coat and long skirt and trailed by a duck or two, died Sept. 6 at Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge. She was 74.
Ruthie, whose real name was Ruth Grace Moulon, had been suffering from cancer of the mouth and lungs when the residents of her Uptown New Orleans nursing home were evacuated to Baton Rouge as Hurricane Gustav approached, said Carol Cunningham, a close friend who watched over her for nearly 40 years.
"I've always looked at Ruthie like a little bird with a broken wing," Cunningham said. "She was always so dear to me."
If you have visited the French Quarter in New Orleans, you may well have spotted Ruthie, and you would not easily forget her. She zipped all over the Quarter on her roller skates. She was a typical New Orleans eccentric, my kind of woman.
From the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
Hurricane Ike And Terrebonne Parish, LA
From Houma Today:
HOUMA – Hurricane Ike so far has flooded more than 13,000 buildings and 200 miles of road, affecting a population of 20,000, according to estimates from parish officals released this morning.
“We were hoping not to have a repeat of Rita, but we have that and worse,” Sheriff Vernon Bourgeois told reporters at a news conference Saturday morning.
As search-and-rescue operations continue in low-lying bayou areas, the water continues to rise in East Houma, where the Intracoastal Waterway and Houma Navigation Canal continue to swell from Ike’s massive surge.
....
The parish is sheltering about 480 people in four shelters at Houma Junior High, Dumas Auditorium, and the Schriever Recreation Center, which filled to capacity last night, officials said. The parish is working to open up Evergreen Junior High as an additional shelter, while South Terrebonne High is serving as a holding area for those rescued by boat.
In certain coastal areas of southeastern Louisiana, Ike left more damage in its wake than Gustav. Rising water is the danger, and it's rising still.
HOUMA – Hurricane Ike so far has flooded more than 13,000 buildings and 200 miles of road, affecting a population of 20,000, according to estimates from parish officals released this morning.
“We were hoping not to have a repeat of Rita, but we have that and worse,” Sheriff Vernon Bourgeois told reporters at a news conference Saturday morning.
As search-and-rescue operations continue in low-lying bayou areas, the water continues to rise in East Houma, where the Intracoastal Waterway and Houma Navigation Canal continue to swell from Ike’s massive surge.
....
The parish is sheltering about 480 people in four shelters at Houma Junior High, Dumas Auditorium, and the Schriever Recreation Center, which filled to capacity last night, officials said. The parish is working to open up Evergreen Junior High as an additional shelter, while South Terrebonne High is serving as a holding area for those rescued by boat.
In certain coastal areas of southeastern Louisiana, Ike left more damage in its wake than Gustav. Rising water is the danger, and it's rising still.
Bishop Charles Jenkins Blog
From Bishop Charles Jenkins of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana:
Saturday, September 13, 2008
IKE Update - Saturday Morning
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
There is no communication yet from Texas or Western Louisiana. We continue to pray and hope for the safety of all.
As noted, IKE put more water into southeast Louisiana than did Gustav. A priest wrote this morning saying that he and his family are safe but stranded as their neighborhood is surrounded by water. He fears a rain storm would flood their home. There is a good deal of flooding here on the north shore. Louise and I are fine.
The third choice of the Collects for Mission (see Morning Prayer, Rite II) contains the phrase, that we reaching forth our hands in love. The Collect implies that our reaching forth is like that of our Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks reflects upon “Love as deed” in his book, To Heal a Fractured World. Quoting Stephen Carter, Sacks writes, In the Jewish tradition . . .civility is called hessed, the doing of acts of kindness – which is in turn derived from the understanding that human beings are made in the image of God...What is hessed? It is usually translated as “kindness” but it also means ‘love’ - not love as emotion or passion, but love expressed as deed. (page 45)
May God grant us grace and resources to continue to the reaching forth of our hands in love. It Is a joy and an honor to share in your reaching forth. I hope for you a quiet, safe and restful day.
Bishop Jenkins
Saturday, September 13, 2008
IKE Update - Saturday Morning
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
There is no communication yet from Texas or Western Louisiana. We continue to pray and hope for the safety of all.
As noted, IKE put more water into southeast Louisiana than did Gustav. A priest wrote this morning saying that he and his family are safe but stranded as their neighborhood is surrounded by water. He fears a rain storm would flood their home. There is a good deal of flooding here on the north shore. Louise and I are fine.
The third choice of the Collects for Mission (see Morning Prayer, Rite II) contains the phrase, that we reaching forth our hands in love. The Collect implies that our reaching forth is like that of our Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks reflects upon “Love as deed” in his book, To Heal a Fractured World. Quoting Stephen Carter, Sacks writes, In the Jewish tradition . . .civility is called hessed, the doing of acts of kindness – which is in turn derived from the understanding that human beings are made in the image of God...What is hessed? It is usually translated as “kindness” but it also means ‘love’ - not love as emotion or passion, but love expressed as deed. (page 45)
May God grant us grace and resources to continue to the reaching forth of our hands in love. It Is a joy and an honor to share in your reaching forth. I hope for you a quiet, safe and restful day.
Bishop Jenkins
Water Still Putrid
From the Daily Comet in Thibodaux:
Bayou Lafourche’s soupy black color comes as a result of Hurricane Gustav’s strong winds, which churned decomposing organic matter settled on the bottom of the bayou onto its top layer, water officials said.
Decaying matter was then passed on to a different form of bacteria that sucked the oxygen out of Bayou Lafourche, giving it its stagnant quality.
But water officials have deemed it safe to drink for most of the 300,000 people supplied by Bayou Lafourche, except most of Thibodaux, all of Assumption Parish and small pockets in Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes.
Except for those places, the water is fine. Believe that if you like. Unfortunately, we're in one of those places where they say it's not fine. We get regular reports on water quality, and there is often a slightly high bacterial content or too much of one chemical or another. The problem is not new, but no government agency has moved ahead to try to solve the problem.
A long-term fix to the area’s poor quality water that languished for two decades will begin Monday after receiving the federal approval its needed, a direct result of the disaster, officials say.
The plan is to smooth the bottom of a six-mile stretch of Bayou Lafourche from Donaldsonville to Belle Rose and increase the flow of water southward.
Sections of the bayou, including that area, are a rocky texture shaped like multiple sand dunes lined up in front of one another, which stops the flow of water, officials said.
....
The dredging project will cut into some private property along Bayou Lafourche and tear away some people’s bulkheads.
About 100 impacted residents impacted attended a contentious meeting with multiple political representatives and water officials Thursday night.
They were told the project would start Monday regardless of their opinion on the matter, but most appeared accepting of the move.
The waterways are public property. Folks have no right to build bulkheads into the bayou, so if your bulkhead goes, too bad. It should not have been built in the first place. The plan to dredge the bayou and allow more water to flow down Bayou Lafourche from Donaldsonville has been on hold for two decades partly because the people with their piers and their bulkheads protested loudly enough that action was stalled.
Bayou Lafourche is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is dammed at Donaldsonville, and water is pumped down the bayou. The pumps were off for two days during and after Gustav, resulting in the stagnant lake and polluted water drinking water that we have now.
Despite the protests of the residents along the bayou, Governor Jindal has ordered more water to be pumped and the dredging will proceed - finally. Kudos to Jindal again.
Bayou Lafourche’s soupy black color comes as a result of Hurricane Gustav’s strong winds, which churned decomposing organic matter settled on the bottom of the bayou onto its top layer, water officials said.
Decaying matter was then passed on to a different form of bacteria that sucked the oxygen out of Bayou Lafourche, giving it its stagnant quality.
But water officials have deemed it safe to drink for most of the 300,000 people supplied by Bayou Lafourche, except most of Thibodaux, all of Assumption Parish and small pockets in Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes.
Except for those places, the water is fine. Believe that if you like. Unfortunately, we're in one of those places where they say it's not fine. We get regular reports on water quality, and there is often a slightly high bacterial content or too much of one chemical or another. The problem is not new, but no government agency has moved ahead to try to solve the problem.
A long-term fix to the area’s poor quality water that languished for two decades will begin Monday after receiving the federal approval its needed, a direct result of the disaster, officials say.
The plan is to smooth the bottom of a six-mile stretch of Bayou Lafourche from Donaldsonville to Belle Rose and increase the flow of water southward.
Sections of the bayou, including that area, are a rocky texture shaped like multiple sand dunes lined up in front of one another, which stops the flow of water, officials said.
....
The dredging project will cut into some private property along Bayou Lafourche and tear away some people’s bulkheads.
About 100 impacted residents impacted attended a contentious meeting with multiple political representatives and water officials Thursday night.
They were told the project would start Monday regardless of their opinion on the matter, but most appeared accepting of the move.
The waterways are public property. Folks have no right to build bulkheads into the bayou, so if your bulkhead goes, too bad. It should not have been built in the first place. The plan to dredge the bayou and allow more water to flow down Bayou Lafourche from Donaldsonville has been on hold for two decades partly because the people with their piers and their bulkheads protested loudly enough that action was stalled.
Bayou Lafourche is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is dammed at Donaldsonville, and water is pumped down the bayou. The pumps were off for two days during and after Gustav, resulting in the stagnant lake and polluted water drinking water that we have now.
Despite the protests of the residents along the bayou, Governor Jindal has ordered more water to be pumped and the dredging will proceed - finally. Kudos to Jindal again.
Pray For The People In Texas
Pray that help will arrive quickly for those in need. I'm certain there will be casualties in and around Galveston and other coastal areas among those who stayed behind. The devastation is great.
Here's the latest from MSNBC NEWS.
Here's the latest from MSNBC NEWS.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Alarming!
I'm getting a tad alarmed that McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate seems to have turned his fortunes around to such a degree. John McCain lies. Sarah Palin lies. Does that say nothing about their character and the principles they hold dear? Are there principles that they hold dear? What are those principles? Does integrity not matter at all?
As Josh Marshall at TPM says:
How can we trust a liar as big as John McCain?
I'm using the L-word. So that may come across as a slashing blog remark.
But let's slow down and look at the facts that are not being disputed. John McCain is telling lie after lie. Not off the cuff remarks that can be excused as accidents or flubs but the same lies consistently and many of them. Serial liars are never trustworthy people -- that is a truism. But it also demonstrates a deeper character flaw. A normal job applicant would be disregarded out of hand after such a record became clear.
That's right. How can we trust a liar in the White House with another liar standing with him, just a heartbeat away? How can we count on them to restore trust in government? How can we count on them to begin to restore our blackened reputation around the world after eight years of the Cheney/Bush maladministration? The answer is that we can't. WE CANNOT!
If you are counting on a Congress with more Democrats to hold back a McCain maladministration, recall to mind the many times our DEMOCRATIC senators and representatives caved in to Cheney/Bush's demands. We cannot afford a McCain maladministration. I refer you to Athenae's rant at First Draft on that very subject.
But the past two years have shown us nothing if not that what Congressional Democrats are most afraid of is being called pussies and partisans and hippies and liberals on TV. We saw it on the war and we saw it on FISA and we saw it every time Joe Lieberman opened his mouth (ooooh, he's not getting invited to party lunches he himself voluntarily stopped attending months ago!) and we're seeing it with SCHIP and we're seeing it with drilling. We're seeing that on every issue who the Democrats actually respond to is their big-business bankrollers and the cable TV loudmouths and professional assholes like David Broder, and we're not replacing them this election, more's the goddamn pity.
Athenae's rants are awesome. Read the whole thing.
As Josh Marshall at TPM says:
How can we trust a liar as big as John McCain?
I'm using the L-word. So that may come across as a slashing blog remark.
But let's slow down and look at the facts that are not being disputed. John McCain is telling lie after lie. Not off the cuff remarks that can be excused as accidents or flubs but the same lies consistently and many of them. Serial liars are never trustworthy people -- that is a truism. But it also demonstrates a deeper character flaw. A normal job applicant would be disregarded out of hand after such a record became clear.
That's right. How can we trust a liar in the White House with another liar standing with him, just a heartbeat away? How can we count on them to restore trust in government? How can we count on them to begin to restore our blackened reputation around the world after eight years of the Cheney/Bush maladministration? The answer is that we can't. WE CANNOT!
If you are counting on a Congress with more Democrats to hold back a McCain maladministration, recall to mind the many times our DEMOCRATIC senators and representatives caved in to Cheney/Bush's demands. We cannot afford a McCain maladministration. I refer you to Athenae's rant at First Draft on that very subject.
But the past two years have shown us nothing if not that what Congressional Democrats are most afraid of is being called pussies and partisans and hippies and liberals on TV. We saw it on the war and we saw it on FISA and we saw it every time Joe Lieberman opened his mouth (ooooh, he's not getting invited to party lunches he himself voluntarily stopped attending months ago!) and we're seeing it with SCHIP and we're seeing it with drilling. We're seeing that on every issue who the Democrats actually respond to is their big-business bankrollers and the cable TV loudmouths and professional assholes like David Broder, and we're not replacing them this election, more's the goddamn pity.
Athenae's rants are awesome. Read the whole thing.
I Needed This
My daughter sent me the following by email. I've seen this one before, but it's perfect for us now with our rotgut drinking water. I bought my Brita pitcher to filter the water, but it's still a strange color once it passes through the filter. I'm using bottled water to drink and brush my teeth.
As Ben Franklin said: In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria. In a number of carefully controlled trials, scientists have demonstrated that if we drink 1 liter of water each day, at the end of the year we would have absorbed more than 1 kilo of Escherichia coli, (E. coli) - bacteria found in feces. In other words, we are consuming 1 kilo of poop. (that's over 2 pounds).
However, we do NOT run that risk when drinking wine & beer (or tequila, rum, whiskey or other liquor) because alcohol has to go through a purification process of boiling, filtering and/or fermenting.
Remember: Water = Poop, Wine = Health
Therefore, it's better to drink wine and talk stupid, than to drink water and be full of shit.
There is no need to thank me for this valuable information: I'm doing it as a public service.
As Ben Franklin said: In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria. In a number of carefully controlled trials, scientists have demonstrated that if we drink 1 liter of water each day, at the end of the year we would have absorbed more than 1 kilo of Escherichia coli, (E. coli) - bacteria found in feces. In other words, we are consuming 1 kilo of poop. (that's over 2 pounds).
However, we do NOT run that risk when drinking wine & beer (or tequila, rum, whiskey or other liquor) because alcohol has to go through a purification process of boiling, filtering and/or fermenting.
Remember: Water = Poop, Wine = Health
Therefore, it's better to drink wine and talk stupid, than to drink water and be full of shit.
There is no need to thank me for this valuable information: I'm doing it as a public service.
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