New Orleans. Welcome to the 1800’s

 Three days after Ida and I’m finding connectivity again, at lease during the late hours or when I’m away from city center. I think everyone has been overloading the system streaming videos of the mess but I’m starting to find times and spots where I can connect. 

So. No power. Likely won’t have it for weeks. Hats off to antebellum Louisianans for their fortitude because this does suck. Even though I am still blessed with running water and gas to the water heater (and stove), as soon as you put clothes on you start to sweat and soon your sweat-soaked clothing REEKS.. and no washer/dryer so every shower becomes a laundry session too. 

I have always maintained a healthy reserve of supplies and I topped it off as the storm was coming, to include spare fuel for both vehicles. But the number of people around me who did not and who are now crying because they want to evacuate but have no fuel…come on people. We all knew this thing was coming with plenty of time to buy gas and batteries and extra groceries.  Yet so many did not. And the desperation of the “have nots” is already manifesting itself. Stores are being looted, gunshots are often heard at night, and the local drug addicts are bugging because they can’t score. It’s going to get worse. 

I screwed up myself so learn from me here. I offered to help out a handful of friends and neighbors with little things like using my camper’s hot sockets to charge phones and other devices. Well word got around and yesterday I had no end of people knocking on my door asking for a charge or wanting a charged device back. And many of these are not the friends and neighbors I made the offer to but the “gimmedats” from a block or two away, mainly the “we didn’t prepare so you gotta help us” crowd. 11pm, 6am…they don’t care, because it’s just about them. Fortunately I haven’t disclosed what else I have in the house aside from the Glock I now openly carry, and Murphy and Belle are only too happy to stand at the window all day and tell the world that this is still their house and their street. 

Morals of the story: be quiet about what you have and get dogs. I’m always happy to help my friends but I am not a community charity and now that I’ve turned off the charging tap people are just mad rather than grateful for what they got for free the last couple of days. 

Oh—the suppressed ARs are locked, loaded and staged for those times when the Glock and dogs aren’t persuasive enough. 

We’ve got an 8p-6a curfew now, and the National Guard is here riding with the local police, but the knuckleheads are still scurrying around in the dark. I’ve taken to porch-sitting at night both for the peace and quiet and to keep an eye on the block. With an AR of course. Hopefully getting a new generator this morning. Lowe’s has a ton and the line started two hours before the store opens but I grabbed one of the Latino day laborers standing out by the road and am paying him to wait in line while I sit back in my a/c equipped van and wait for him to get to the head of it. 

And that’s another thing I’m seeing here. Day laborers abound by the hardware stores, all trying to get clean-up gigs. Meanwhile every major intersection is still plagued by the same able-bodied 20-40 yr old panhandlers asking every driver for money. I tell them that they can go clean for a day’s wage and most of them turn away or scream cursed. Junkies don’t want to work when they can just stand on a corner with a sign saying “I’m hungry but the mostly illegal day laborers will bust ass all day for a few dollars. Personally i think that we should naturalize a lot of these illegals and their hard-working friends and relatives but for each one we take, the Latin American country that they came from has to accept one heavily-tattooed junkie un return. You panhandle or steal or get caught with drugs we trade you to Guatemala for a guy that hangs drywall like a pro. 

More updates later as I can. Meanwhile have a cold beer tonight and think of me.