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Sep. 5th, 2005 12:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
malsperanzaYeesh, haven't been on LJ much lately. I finally was able to speak today to the last of my displaced New Orleans friends today. Everyone is OK, though no one knows yet if they have houses to go back to or not. One person knows for sure that his office at U. of New Orleans and his life's work are under 15 feet of water. Someone else can see her house in satellite photos, and says there is water but it has not covered the parked cars, so that sounds not too bad. No one knows about looting, and now there are the big chemical fires too. But everyone in my immediate circle is safe in Lafayette and Baton Rouge and Abbeville, and so are their relatives. God knows if they have lost friends, acquaintances, neighbors. Still, it's a tremendous relief.
P. is at the airport emergency medical facility working triage, so no one's seen him for a couple of days. But they have security and electricity there, so it doesn't sound too bad, though dystentary and infectious diseases are no doubt going to show up soon.
Anything of a political nature worth saying has already been said. Sometime soon, it will be time to say it again, loudly. But I expect the people of New Orleans to speak more eloquently than I can--especially all those old and infirm people dead in their wheelchairs. New Orleans has a long tradition of talking corpses, and the unburied dead of that city have often risen to haunt the guilty.
A government that allows its own cities to be gutted merits nothing but ostracism and contempt.
On a lighter note: kittens!
Kittens are an antidote to nearly everything bad except insominia. After a week or so of skirting one another, they have begun playing together with gusto, and have pretty well wrecked the house. The tiny gray bat-eared maniac holds her own nicely against the larger and older white kitten, because the white kitten is well-mannered and sweet, while the little one has the soul of a kamikaze pilot.
My old cat has periods of jealous hiding-under-beds and other periods of sitting with her back to me in a dignified huff. The rest of the time she perches on the bed and watches the invaders through narrowed eyes. It could be worse.
And the very timid white cat has come out from behind the ferns and taken to sleeping in the living room. She now lets me pet her without growling. Still, I think she's ready to go to a home without other cats, so I'll start emailing friends, now that she has gotten a bit more relaxed.
P. is at the airport emergency medical facility working triage, so no one's seen him for a couple of days. But they have security and electricity there, so it doesn't sound too bad, though dystentary and infectious diseases are no doubt going to show up soon.
Anything of a political nature worth saying has already been said. Sometime soon, it will be time to say it again, loudly. But I expect the people of New Orleans to speak more eloquently than I can--especially all those old and infirm people dead in their wheelchairs. New Orleans has a long tradition of talking corpses, and the unburied dead of that city have often risen to haunt the guilty.
A government that allows its own cities to be gutted merits nothing but ostracism and contempt.
On a lighter note: kittens!
Kittens are an antidote to nearly everything bad except insominia. After a week or so of skirting one another, they have begun playing together with gusto, and have pretty well wrecked the house. The tiny gray bat-eared maniac holds her own nicely against the larger and older white kitten, because the white kitten is well-mannered and sweet, while the little one has the soul of a kamikaze pilot.
My old cat has periods of jealous hiding-under-beds and other periods of sitting with her back to me in a dignified huff. The rest of the time she perches on the bed and watches the invaders through narrowed eyes. It could be worse.
And the very timid white cat has come out from behind the ferns and taken to sleeping in the living room. She now lets me pet her without growling. Still, I think she's ready to go to a home without other cats, so I'll start emailing friends, now that she has gotten a bit more relaxed.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-05 07:58 am (UTC)Hrm. Indeed.
---L.