Isaacs Gift

After returning to Panola, we found a little gift from Isaac on the porch:

Roses, thorns, and woulda-coulda-shouldas

Roses:

• Getting shouts and cheers as we walked around the neighborhood to survey the damage from the hurricane (our costuming might have had something to do with that).
• Hanging out with friends (telling ghost stories, tarot readings, and card games all done by candlelight)
• Having a cold drink in the pitch black Maple leaf after the hurricane hit
• Jamming on the accordion/bass drum/tambourine in the front yard as the neighbors began to congregate
• Talking to pretty much everyone in my neighborhood (Including Shelita who gave us fish and a box of fried rice)
• The overall camaraderie that pervaded the city
• Getting free food from the Tulane Cafeteria
• Playing Risk in the graduate office
• Dominos staying open till 5pm on tuesday
• Our water and gas never went out
• Getting AC/power/internet at Tulane

Thorns:

• The sweating.  All. The. Time.
• Dominos after the third meal
• Not sleeping, mostly due to the sweating
• Not having ice, or anything cold for that matter
• Nothing being dry (in part, due to the sweating)

Things that were a godsend:

• All my wick-action clothes
• the handleabra & hurricane lamp for bright light, and guardian angel candles for some general light in the rooms
• Dominos
• Opening the doors during the hurricane to get a breeze in the house
• Having screen doors/windows to keep most of the bugs out
• Having a surge protector so we could all have power at tulane

Things I would do next time:

• Get as much ice as possible.  The city was out the day the hurricane hit but they had some the day before.
• Get some real food, not just granola bars and crackers 
• Tell my guests to bring over real food, not just granola bars and crackers
• More board games
• more LED flashlights - they aren't as hot as candles
• get a power adapter for my car for charging things
• Put eggs and water in a cooler.  I had them in the fridge, but then couldn't be taken out.
• Get out of the city and not deal with it (or at least get a generator and a window AC unit)

We've got power!!!!

After my second night sleeping on the floor of my office, I awoke to find out that we have power!!!

The first the I did was crank this song on repeat, then I proceeded to step into a fire ant colony. No matter, power has brought much joy - I can now to laundry (and have my stuff be actually dry - not humid/damp!!!!), enjoy ice cold water (once I let the dirty water from the hurricane flush through first), and sleep in my own bed (aka...actually get some sleep). I've also got to get the house decent again, and clean out the fridge since everything thawed.

We ate at Slim goodies for breakfast, where it turns out they STILL don't have power. We got a plate of eggs, a piece of toast, hashbrowns, coffee and ice tea for $5.  AND they had some of the best service I've ever had. On the way back, we saw a guy that put his mattress out front and spray painted a message on it, something like "Dear Entergy - Can we get some AC up in here?  Love, Sweaty Guy". There was also an older guy with a saxophone just rockin out on the neutral ground.

Overall, I'm amazing at how well the city handles everything.  Power is lost, nobody has AC, but people just deal with it and get on with their lives.  Even with no traffic lights, people quickly adapted to a 4-way stop policy. You can tell who is still without power at this point by the tired look in their eyes. 

It was an experience, but I don't want to do it again.  I was rejuvenated after my trip from Mexico, now I just feel exhausted.