family

Given that my dad lives just north of New Orleans, I have a vested interest in keeping an eye on things down there. Therefore I have made this page to be a repository of links relating to the approaching storm and (eventually) the aftermath. It will be updated regularly.

Webcam Lists
Master list of New Orleans webcams

Specific Webcams
NOLA.com Bridge Cam
Post of New Orleans

News and articles
Wikipedia page on Hurricane Gustav
Hurricane Gustav links at Google News

This afternoon I took a trip back to the farm to enjoy a picnic and watch our barn get knocked down. After many years of entropy the thing had finally decayed past the point of usefulness, and into the realm of being a danger to those around it.

Many years ago adjustments had been made to its structure to allow more storage space, and these adjustments had ultimately weakened the frame.

Notice that the whole end of the barn is hanging in space, with nothing but the roof beams preventing it from tumbling down.

This is the view from inside, showing how cock-eyed and beat-up the structure is.

This beam, and the one it butts into on the left, are the only things holding the barn up at this point.

Local demolisher-of-large-buildings Herbie Van Aiken provided the bulldozer and told us it wouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes to bring the thing down.

Herbie lined up on the beam he said was the keystone of the structure and, after digging up some sod, gave it a push.

I was looking for a position to take some good shots when I heard CRACK and got my camera up just in time to see the barn come down in a huge cloud of dust.

The demolition took about five minutes.

Another push on the main beam brought down the stubborn remnants.

And all this without touching the silo or pump-house which share a foundation with the barn.

My brother Kurt exploring the wreckage.

And my mother finally has the view to the south she has always wanted.

Here I am, back from a week in Louisiana. In August. Seeing my Dad and Step-mom again was wonderful, as was hanging out with my brother; all people of whom I don’t see nearly enough.

The getting to and returning from Louisiana part wasn’t so great, thanks in large part to the pendejos at Northwest Airlines. On the way down they didn’t put my bags on the plane. The folks in New Orleans International said that every flight out of Detroit that day was missing about twenty pieces, which would show up on the next flight, which would itself be missing about twenty pieces, ad infinitum. I can only imagine that the pendejos of Northwest met at the pendehum (the place pendejos go to learn their trade) that morning and decided to show how indispensable the union was by pissing off all the passengers.

On the way home we were delayed because one of the planes was suffering a case of Mechanic’s Strike and had to be swapped out for one which somebody won in a package of Crackerjacks.

On a brighter note, class starts next Monday so I have been putting together my syllabus for the semester. This year I am coming down like a ton of bricks on, er… goldbrickers… who think they can show up to only half of my classes and have a hope in Hell of passing. I will add cruelties as next week approaches.

Plans for buying a house are moving ahead at a moderate but steady pace. Tomorrow I will talk to a banker to get approval on a loan by showing that I actually have a job and won’t be paying for this house with money earned by selling counterfeit Lava Lamps on the black market. Nope. That money is going towards a new set of 36” rims on my phat Saturn.