Brandie’s Baby Shower and New Orleans with Devin & Chad
To recap with the bad first, during my trip through Houston, Baton Rouge and New Orleans, I accumulated two speeding tickets worth $450 total, neither of which ended up on my driving record thankfully. Everything else was great! Would also mark my meeting of Chad.
After spending a good amount of time at Bush Intercontinental figuring out which rental place was best suited to our rental situation, we left with a Pontiac G6 with terrible alignment. Car was decent, steering on acceleration, however, was dangerous.
We drove into Baton Rouge from Houston around 4am without having researched much in the way of lodging. Ended up at the Ramada Inn on Airline Hwy. Not a very impressive stay but for the price and timing, it had to do.
We got the keycard to our room. Much to our shock on walking in sleepy heads popped up in alarm. NOT vacant. For this error, we got two rooms for the price of one. Didn't really matter the rooms were pretty dingy - namely the bathrooms - Sleep is sleep [as long as no strangers walk in to startle you].
Not a new vid but love it
This video from ReactNow for hurricane Katrina relief on YouTube, of Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails performing Non Entity, a previously unreleased song. It was unexpected in concert and I loved it. I originally tried to post this up in june but WordPress doesn't like dealing with flash embeds. just figured it out!
And with this, I can feel the fall... autumn gloom creeping in.
Long time
I believe this is the longest I've gone without a post. Well the news is that I'd been in Louisiana, specifically Baton Rouge and Kenner for the past week. It was a poorly planned and funded trip not without complications. Mainly the plan was to bring my younger sisters to visit with family there, and go swimming and enjoy their summer.
To make a long story short, Otto was shifting weird once we got into Kenner (right outside of New Orleans). Well the next day, I head back to Baton Rouge and I notice some fading when accelerating or going up hill, as though the transmission is slipping. I generally drive anywhere from 75-95 (governed top speed on the 240), so it's no wonder that things will happen in a 17 year old car. I get into Baton Rouge and first stop, my car will no longer willingly move forward. I pull over, turn it off, back on, try again. I get about 4 miles down the road and it won't go. The engine revving and trying but the transmission nothing. I wait a while, call a few people, and finally get picked up. My car is practically dead at Chevron - OH NO!
My Visit to New Orleans 9 months after Katrina
After so long, one would think that communities could be rebuilt and reinhabited. It is quite the contrary in surrounding New Orleans areas, such as the 9th ward, Chalmette and Slidell.
From what I was told, the rubble that is now piled in center medians, and where lush landscapes once were, at one point filled the streets. Boats still stray from the lake in distant fields and between houses, cars overturned, scattered, and left with the scars of having been completely under water for weeks. Houses from entire subdivisions nothing but damaged shells of buildings left only with a marker of how high the water rose and a vandalistic identifier of search and rescue crews scavenging where they could by boat, few personal effects remain within the houses, and toxic sediment settled throughout every surface some completely demolished by the torrent of water, others rocked off of their foundation and forced into neighboring houses, holes in roofs where people were forced into their attics and out through vents on top of their house.