Its been a little while since I gave everyone an update. \r\n\r\nHopefully, all of the same phone numbers will continue to work -\r\nincluding my cell phone which is receiving calls pretty reliably now.\r\n\r\n6 weeks ago, we had just enough stuff to fit into our car. Granted -\r\nthe car was pretty full. So full that I didn\'t (in one of the\r\ndecisions I regretted later) attempt to squeeze in the golf clubs.\r\nAfter all, we would be home in 3 or 4 days, right? Now, we have a\r\nhouse full of things. We\'ve been back to our house several times to\r\nretrieve things (clothes and art primarily). My in-laws have been\r\nback to both of their houses and retrieved things. We\'ve all\r\ncontinued to buy things that we need to keep living. So, a move this\r\nweekend is actually a problem. We\'ve rented a trailer. We\'ve hired\r\npeople. We\'ve got to start packing up. 6 weeks ago it took about 3\r\nstress-filled hours to get packed and loaded and on the road. Now, it\r\nwill take about 48 hours. We\'re only moving about 2 miles which makes\r\nit sooo much worse. If we were moving further, we\'d be a little more\r\ndiligent about packing carefully. As is, we\'ll be driving back and\r\nforth and back and forth all day with loose stuff jingling around the\r\ncar.\r\n\r\nReally - anyone want to come visit Baton Rouge this weekend?\r\n\r\nWe\'ve found out in the last week that the kids\' schools are both\r\nopening on November 7th. Now we\'re wrestling with what to do about\r\nthat: go back for hte opening, wait until January, go back somewhere\r\nin between? The kids seem for the most part to enjoy school. This\r\nschool is definitely a lot stricter than their schools in New Orleans\r\nare. Carrie brings a \"conduct card\" with her to all of her classes,\r\nand the teachers will sign it if she does something \"wrong\". One day\r\n(according to the words of a 3rd grader), all she did was ask the\r\nteacher whether she could sharpen her pencil..... And she got her card\r\nsigned. Now, as you and I might guess - there\'s a little bit more to\r\nthe story than that. But....I think she is adjusting to the stricter\r\nrules. Yesterday and today, her music teacher has let her bring her\r\nrecorder home to practice. Her eyes lit up like light bulbs when she\r\nwas telling me about it. She started playing it while I was driving\r\nhome yesterday, she serenaded us during dinner last night and tonight.\r\n She\'s been practicing non-stop. Any of you listen to a 3rd grader\r\nplaying recorder? Its *quite* a sound.\r\n\r\nSo anyway, we\'re trying to figure out whether and when to send them\r\nback to New Orleans. So much to consider: Carrie has 2 friends from\r\nher school in her class here in Baton Rouge, both of them will be\r\ngoing back for the 7th (neither had flooding damage). So she\'s\r\ndistressed that her best friends will be gone. Robert started crying\r\nthe other night about how he misses all of his friends. I think both\r\nwould like to be back sooner rather than later. But - I don\'t think\r\nthere schools are going to be anywhere near normal for quite a while.\r\nRight now, in Baton Rouge, we have a pretty normal routine - and I\r\ndon\'t want to disrupt it too many times. Grandparent\'s night is\r\nsometime in November, and both kids have been learning music, working\r\non art all for that night. I think they\'d actually be disappointed to\r\nmiss it. I don\'t think we\'re ready to show the kids the house yet\r\n(they know its flooded, but we haven\'t shown them pictures yet). If\r\nwe go back, we\'ll have to take them to the house.\r\n\r\nSo we\'ve got reasons to stay, reasons to go. Just when we were\r\nsettling into a nice easy routine, we may be tossing everything back\r\nup in the air again. Fortunately, the 1 bedroom place we knew we had\r\nrented has turned into a 2 bedroom place in the same complex. And\r\nwe\'ve rented it indefinitely starting November 1st. So we have a\r\nplace to go whenever we decide to move. And we may even have enough\r\nroom to have guests for Mardi Gras!\r\n\r\nAs for the house.... We\'ve had a few contractors over to look at it,\r\nand generally they\'ve given us some pretty positive feedback about\r\nfixing it up. Unfortunately, everyone is busy as hell, so its proving\r\nto be quite difficult to get quotes or time estimates from them. That\r\nwould probably be another plus to actually being in New Orleans sooner\r\n- we could spend more time working with people to get the house\r\nrebuilt.\r\n\r\nTwo weeks ago, 2 friends from High School (Steve and Paul) decided\r\nthey had nothing better to do than to spend a weekend in New Orleans\r\nhelping to rip apart a house. Generally, these guys are good at\r\ndemolition. I\'m not sure that I\'d hire them for construction - so I\r\nwon\'t. I\'ve posted several pictures from our session on my website:\r\n\r\nhttp://dev.priorartisans.com/paul/katrina/katrina3.html\r\n\r\nActulally - Paul took all of these pictures. I merely reprint without\r\npermission.\r\n\r\nOne of the coolest parts of the demolition day was taking a tour of\r\nthe 17th Street Canal Pumping Station. By now, you may be familiar\r\nwith the \"17th Street Canal\". This is the canal about 3 blocks from\r\nour home, that breached and resulted in the flooding of the Lakeview\r\nneightborhood (including our home). This canal drains water from New\r\nOrleans into Lake Pontchatrain. But what this flood shows is that New\r\nOrleans is lower than the Lake - and as all of you remember from your\r\nscience classes, water doesn\'t flow uphill. So we build these massive\r\npumping stations that lift the water up, so it can flow down to the\r\nLake. The 17th Street Pumping Station is allegedly the largest water\r\npumping station in the world. Steve, Paul and I went for a walk after\r\nripping out the kitchen cabinets (if you look at the pictures, notice\r\nhow wet the sheetrock still was - this was 3 or 4 weeks after the\r\nflood and it was all still drenched), and we went to see the pumping\r\nstation, since its only 3 blocks from our house. As we were looking\r\nout over the canal, a worker at the plant shouts in a gruff voice\r\n\"Hey, are you Tourists?\" He seemed to be upset, so I tried to\r\npolitely say \"No, I live right around the corner.\" As I prepare to\r\nsoothe or run, he shoults \"Oh, want to come have a tour?\" So we go\r\nin.\r\n\r\nNow, if your an engineer you might truly appreciate these pictures and\r\nwhat we saw. I\'m not, but still - this station was pretty cool. As\r\nsoon as we walk in, Randy (the talkative 30 year pumping station vet\r\nwho the gruff guy called over to take us around) points to this yellow\r\n\"Caution\" tape about 3 feet away and says something like \"Don\'t touch\r\nthose, those are the high voltage lines.\" Later, we learn that means\r\nthey might be like 30,000 Volts. I guess that\'s a lot. My friend\r\nSteve, who works in refineries and other big factories said something\r\nlike \"Really, with that much voltage in wires lying on the floor, we\r\n*probably* shouldn\'t be there.\"\r\n\r\nBut Randy shows us the pumps - 17 of them. 14 of them were built in\r\n1901. 3 were added within the last 5 years. This is 4 weeks after\r\nthe flood. The 14 from 1901 were all still out of commission, the 3\r\nnew ones were working. Why? The engines for the new ones were about\r\n2 feet higher than the others. And the pumping station flooded,\r\nruining the engines. Look at the pictures: each of these 17 engines\r\nis roughly 10 feet tall. They are *huge*. Each one is connected to a\r\npipe that was at least 10 feet in diameter which it pumped water\r\nthrough. That\'s a lot o\' water. And you can see the water level that\r\nday (about average) and see how far below the pumping station it is -\r\nthat\'s how much water came in to the city. Yikes...\r\n\r\nNow - what the doomsday prophets have said about New Orleans really\r\ncame to pass with the pumping stations. The pumps flooded and failed.\r\n They were built in 1901. They run on 25 cycle electricity (which\r\nmeans nothing to me), but today\'s standard is 60 cycle (again, it\r\nmeans nothing - I\'m reminded of Michael Keaton in Mr. Mom \"220, 221,\r\nwhatever it takes\") Basically, no one makes these things anymore, and\r\nyou can\'t just plug them into an outlet. They need their own power\r\ngrid. There is one picture of a huge metal thing-a-ma-jig that the\r\nengine turns to pump the water. It broke from the sheer weight of the\r\nwater that it was trying to move. No one makes these thingies either.\r\n So the New Orleans pumping stations are on their own to build or\r\ncontract for these unique replacements. And its going to take a long\r\ntime to get them made.\r\n\r\nSo, here\'s where the doomsday prophets were wrong. The city is dry.\r\nBecause of the work fixing levees, bringing in emergency pumps, the\r\nfew remaining pumps that did work, and the amazing lack of rain, the\r\npumps were able to get the city dry within 4 weeks. The doomsday guys\r\npredicted months.\r\n\r\nAnd as bad as much of this is, it has fallen short of many of the\r\ndoomsday predictions (Thank God). The city is dry. The water was far\r\nless toxic than people feared - one quote was something like \"Its\r\nreally about 1 years worth of normal rainfall and runoff\". OK, that\'s\r\na lot in the span of a day. But its not the true \"toxic sludge\" that\r\nwould contaminate the city for years. Many fewer died than\r\npredictions (even before the Mayor\'s guesstimate of 10,000). 1000\r\npeople is still a lot, but its a lot less than we all feared.\r\n\r\nAs bad as hurricanes are, I thank God that my natural disaster gave us\r\ntime to prepare for it. My heart goes out to the victims of the\r\nearthquake in Pakistan. If you can, consider digging into your\r\npockets one more time to help those people through the Red Cross.\r\n\r\nOur street was filled with people who were busy ripping apart their\r\nhouses to let everything dry. Everyone we spoke to except our 80 year\r\nold next door neighbors are planning on rebuilding. Bless their\r\nhearts, but the McDermotts say they don\'t have it in them to rebuild\r\nat this point in their lives. Mind you - this 80 year old couple is\r\nvery active; she was on an african safari with her grandson this\r\nsummer. But, as I\'m discovering as we try to get started, this is not\r\ngoing to be easy. There are not enough workers, contractors,\r\nmaterials, whatever, in the city of New Orleans. But - it sure looks\r\nlike our street is coming back. With us on it - where else am I gonna\r\ngo?\r\n\r\nOh, and one more good thing: Our front door finally closes! Only took\r\n6 weeks to dry out. I\r\ndon\'t think the back door will ever be quite the same, though.