Progress: It's hard work

I have twice now experienced a particular post-Katrina phenomenon that caught me completely off guard.

I went away for a few days and wondered when I came back would everything be back to normal. It wasn't. I thought there would be progress. Not much.

I was in my home town for Thanksgiving and caught myself looking at a gas station, wondering if it were open or not. That's what being here has done.

What if you were stuck in an airport and there were two people near you having an intense conversation about camping equipment? And one of them was wearing a fanny pack? Would you slit your wrists?

I'll go one better--what if you were stuck on an Amtrak train for 14 hours and a curiously effeminate giant was sitting next to you saying things like "Whoo child!" and "Lawd have mercy?" Would you drink yourself into unconsciousness courtesy of the bar car?

It's almost December. Hurricane season 2005 is over. I'm still waiting for someone to stand up and declare NOLA safe for the next season. Tick tick tick. Hear that, Mayor Nagin? Why aren't we doing it ourselves? I'm not kidding. Call us out. Tell us to grab a shovel and a bucket and when to be there and we'll build up the levees ourselves. If you're in NOLA and you're waiting for the Feds to show up and do their job, you can fucking forget it, buddy. We're on our own, per the usual. Sitting down and waiting and bitching isn't going to help. And I don't know why we can't just start getting shit done. Let's go back in time and take care of this thing with our backs and our arms. I know plenty of engineers who live here and would love to supervise the work.

In other words, fuck the Feds, let's save NOLA together.

The other night when I was visiting Pal's Lounge, somebody accidentally knocked a bar stool over. My response? I jumped up and doubled up my fists in case it was another Invasion of the Rednecks. Thank you for the inspirational words, Shane Macgowan. I need to be in a fight at some point.

"Slammin' drinks with Shelly Duvall and Freak Boy." I think my friend T. Stacy should stage this unusual drama performance about me, alcohol, and the hallucinations brought on by breathing in refrigerator exhaust.

George W. Bush says that Iraq is the center of terrorist activity in the world. Really? I wonder if that has anything to do with 150,000 US troops being there. No really, do you think that has anything to do with it?

I had a bizarre Thanksgiving. I was thankful that I have friends and family who've supported me since the hurricane and that's what I said. But for the first time in a long time I would have preferred to be with strangers in New Orleans than with my family because I just don't think anybody outside of here understands the veil of longing I feel any time I'm away and the painful desire I have to get back. I don't even know if I'm doing anything productive or responsible by being here but even eating lunch at a local cafe makes me feel like a NOLA patriot.