Bossier City, LA — “Some people had disappeared, All my favorite places” from My City Was Gone by The Pretenders
A month ago yesterday, I fled my home. One month ago today, Katrina made landfall, and I’m sure y’all know the rest. In a few hours I will make my return to New Orleans.
It’s an anxious time. The only certainty in my life is that I have a job. As of today, my apartment is still inhabitable. I may be living at work, or I may be crashing at someone else’s place. Big on the good news front was today’s announcment that we could shower in the city’s water. The repopulation of the general citizens begins on Friday. It will be nice to have more folks around. The deserted city was surreal to see once, but I don’t want to have to deal with that on a day-to-day basis.
I look forward to being in a familiar place, but more importantly seeing familiar faces. It’s going to be like the first day of school when no one has seen each other all summer. We all have stories to tell, and will for the rest of our lives.
I’m going to try to document, and comment on, on as much of the rebuilding as I can. Over the past few weeks I have learned that the national media is good for entertainment and not much else. I’m not saying I will be Edward Murrow or anything, but I want to give a different perspective. Oh yeah, and if I see him, I promise to give Geraldo Rivera a nice uppercut to the nut sac for the sake of humanity.
My life has been changed dramaticly in the past month. And I’m sure will change even more in the coming weeks and months. Time to pack my life into the car again.
Pardon my French but LAISSEZ LES BON TEMPS ROULER!

Shreveport, LA — My heart and all my best wishes go out to the citizens of east Texas and southwest Louisiana. I hope that they do not have to deal with what I have had to deal with (much less what those less fortunate than me have had to deal with).
I am amazed that major news has not hit this topic yet, and I do not believe it to be true, but… Look at the pre-prepared response to the storm hitting Texas and Houston as opposed to LA and MS. Stupid people on the left will jump all over this eventually thus further diluting the real issue. I would prefer to focus on things like, oh I don’t know, MICHAEL BROWN IS STILL BEING PAID. The fuck? This bastard is lucky he hasn’t been drawn and quartered. And he still draws a federal salary? Make him have to call the Red Cross toll free number to get his check. God luck with that you overpromoted son of a bitch.
I had hoped to go home this weekend. I had hoped to sleep in my own bed for the first time in almost a month (as opposed to the nine other places I have slept since then). People have been so kind to me during this difficult time. I appreciate their sympathy, but that is different than empathy. I feel like an old Vietnam vet, that screams at people “You don’t know man, you weren’t there.” It is possible to find other people that have lost a loved one, a home or a job. I have been through all of that, but I lost an entire city.
After 9/11, the nation was told “resume your normal life, if you don’t, the terrorist win.” Well, if I don’t resume my normal life then what? The hurricane wins? This is a common defense mechanishm (which I have used many times), just get back to your day-to-day routine. I can’t get back to my day-to-day routine. I can’t go to my job tomorrow and immerse myself in my work, because I have no job. I can’t do household chores to keep myself busy, I have no house. I can’t go hang out with my friends and just have fun, because my friends are spread out all over the country.
I have no peer group. The only people that know what I am going through are the people that are going through what I am going through. I miss my undersized but overpriced apartment. I miss my crappy job. I miss my unreliable friends. I miss… my life. And no telethon can bring that back.

BOSSIER CITY, LA — Last week I was able to return to New Orleans for a few days. It was a surreal experience. I tried writing about my time there in narrative form, but it didn’t quite work out. So, I’m going with bullet points.
* For the first time since I moved, I felt like a tourist. This was not a city I had been to before. I took dozens of pictures that I will post when I have access to a scanner.
* One of the first things I learned is that there is no longer such a thing as a one way street in New Orleans. I would turn onto at an intersection and have a near head-on collision with an armored personel carrier.
* The military pressence is astounding. Almost every corner has armed troops. I never expected to see batallions march up Magazine Street and tanks roll down Decatur Street.
* The lack of citizens was creepy. Not seeing downtown as its usual bustling self was shocking. Nothing but military and media.
* Cash was useless. There was nothing to buy. The city has reverted back to a system of bartering and trading favors. The three most prized commodities are alcohol, gas and ice. We had two of the three and we’re able to secure the third and get much help from the military and civil servants. By the way, if you want to put a smile on the face of those working to secure the city, they like beer. Even more than that though, they like clean clothes. Some of these men and women hadn’t changed clothes in eight days.
* I did get some of the experience of living in New Orleans during these horrific conditions. I never realized that my entire life I had taken for granted cold water. Some of the New York firemen provided us with ice cold H2O. It felt so good going down. They also hooked us up with some MREs. They were suprisingly good. I recomend the ribs, poundcake and apple cider. We were staying in a fourth floor apartment. It was unbarebly hot. I decided to sleep on the roof. That was eerie. After the sun went down, the French Quarter and CBD were completely dark. The only lights you saw were from the passing police cars. It was also dead silent. The only noise you heard was from the helicopters, which fill the sky all hours of the day and night. Speaking of helicopters, I got to see Dick Cheney touch down.
* I was interviewed by several members of the international media. If you were watching the news in Europe last week good chance you saw me with some interpreter twisting my words around.
* The city was not America. It is being run by the military and there is only one radio station.
* After the thrid of fourth time swerving around downed power lines, I realized I could just drive over them. But the coolest driving expereince is when we had to abort our exit plan because I-10 was still flooded. We then turned around and drove down the wrong side of the interstate at high rates of speed.
* There were police and firemen from all around the nation. I counted at least 20 different states represented. It put a smile on my face to see these folks still being tourists. Walking around the French Quarter checking out the sights and posing for pictures just like all the other jackass tourists.
* Never in your life do you want to have to clean out a seafood resturant that hasn’t had power for two weeks. I vomited well over half a dozen times.
* There were signs of progress though. Some parts of town already had running water. And the clean-up had begun. Trash and debrit were being removed. Some blocks of the French Quarter were the cleanest I had ever seen them.
I can’t wait to return. I want to help rebuild that city and make it great again. I can’t imagine a world without New Orleans and all of the good times and great art it has brought everyone. I’ll be back, and so will that city.