Catching Up

About the time that I quit posting, we were finishing up this year's big improvement project. I built these monstrous planter boxes in the back yard. We aren't too happy with the color, but consider that I spent two weekends and even took a day off work to try to get the colors right. And this was after several weekends of hauling dirt, rocks, gravel, bricks, and concrete blocks back and forth from the driveway. And, oh yeah, it was August. A lesser person would have let nature take its course and actually combusted. I felt my skin starting to rip into flame a couple of times, but I managed to beat out the fire before it did any bodily damage. The only part of these that I didn't do myself was to grade the ground underneath and pour that concrete. We hired a crew to come do that one day, and they did okay with it. The posts aren't exactly square with each other, but they'll do. The evening after they left, I walked through the driveway and noticed two empty beer bottles in the trash can. Normally, this isn't unusual, but the trash had just gone out that morning, and I hadn't yet been home to drink any beer. I have to conclude that a couple of the workers just helped themselves to a couple of beers out of the garage refrigerator at some point in the afternoon. Good think that I don't keep my gold bullion in the garage refrigerator. I finished putting the water seal on the lumber the day before the hurricane hit. How naive we were, in hindsight. I just posted this photo gallery of shots I took when I check out my parents' house in Slidell. Who would have guessed that the people of New Orleans would be displaced for so long? Velvet Elvis doesn't look as good any more as she did when I took these photos. In retrospect, I shouldn't have pushed her back in the water. Being flooded, she listed side to side as the weight of the water moved around in the cabin. Somewhere in the past two weeks, she rolled to one side, took on more water, and found a stable position laying halfway under water at a 90 degree angle to where she should be. Crap. The insurance company won't let me do anything until their adjuster gets to me, and I can't get a return call from the adjuster. If you have the time, I would appreciate if you call Midway Appraisal Services at 985-542-6998. Let them know that they need to return my calls, and that it's important to you. Make up a reason for its importance to you. On the up side, this leads us to a season with a lot more Baton Rouge action. We know that we're getting a few Saints games here. It looks good that we will get the Sugar Bowl in January. If we're lucky, we might get some Hornets games too. (But to be honest, I don't see why the Hornets won't be able to play at their normal arena. Especially late in the season.) You might think it's been nice to see the Saints and Tigers take the role as the national darlings for the past couple of weeks, but I can't say that it's really been a good thing. Playing your home games at the other guy's home field doesn't change the fact that they have the crowd with them. Saturday will be our first LSU home game. It is going to be one of the biggest, craziest tailgates in the history of campus. Consider all of the circumstances:

• The first home game is at the end of September, after we've been watching football on TV for three weeks.


• This is the first home game for a brand new head coach.


• This is the first home game in a long time where both teams are ranked in the top 10. It's the ESPN Game Day game this week, making a good argument that this is the biggest game of the day Saturday.


• It's a night game. Longer tailgate party = better crowd for the Tigers at kickoff.


• It's the first time that the fans get to cheer for the team's effort and for LSU's role in Hurricane relief. It's the first time that we get to rally for our state all together in person.

As if God knows that he's postponed fall around here, He's managed to hold off on cooler (not cool, mind you. Just cooler) and less humid weather. Mid-September is still roasting hot around here, but our forecast should give us some hope for relief. So far, there's none. The RealFeel temp is 100 degrees right now. Boiling hot September reminds me of a story. I was in a wedding one year, which happened to coincide with my birthday weekend and the LSU/Auburn game. It was a typically sweltering day, and the reception was outside. I think that everyone had a deadline to sneak away and listen to the game, and so they chowed down heavily right at the beginning of the reception. By the time the wedding party pictures were over, the only food left were devled eggs. I might have been the only one with the nerve to eat eggs which were warmed to a piping hot temperature by nothing more than the evening air temperature. Hey, I was hungry. And I didn't get sick, but perhaps they caused a little brain damage, and perhaps that's why you're subjected to the lengthy ramble that is this post. As if anyone will ever read this far anyway.