Time Warp # 1 - The Day After

Outside the Algiers Point Grocery. Landed right on that poor bastard's truck.

A blast from the past. Somewhat. As I write this, it is 11:31 a.m. on Saturday, September 1, 2012 in this foul year of our Lord. As I will detail below, whenever this is posted, it won't be whenever I get tired of writing as usual.

 Anyhow. Hurricane Isaac has blown through and, last I heard he's on up into Arkansas making them folks wet and miserable. All in all, it was not as bad as it could've been but worse than most of us expected. It never got higher than Cateogry 1, but even so it was a nasty booger before all was said and done. It had the distressing tendency to sit and stay in one spot, and managed to do so twice. Both times resulted in little areas around New Orleans getting the ever-loving shit kicked out of them.

Storm Update #2

 Well, it's noon and we officially are dealing with a Category 1 hurricane in young Isaac. We're still in the Bywater with plans to ride out the storm. It's rained off and on during the night, raining now as a matter of fact, and the wind's been gusting since yesterday evening. A short walk around the neighborhood an hour ago showed folks pensive and a little tense, but for the most part prepared for the ride and properly hunkered down. I even saw a few random acts of kindness, neighbors hollering across the street "Call if you need anything" or a dollar loaned for a gallon of milk, that sort of thing.

 The girlfriend says that pre-Katrina there was a bit more festivity in the air in the tense hours leading up to landfall but that all changed when the levees broke. It's really never came back. People are polite, helpful and friendly - after all, this is our city - but this is all business. I doubt hurricanes will be any fun for New Orleans for a long, long time. That scar's a thick one.

Funny thing is, today's weather was gorgeous.

 So there's a serious storm coming this way. Isaac, this one's called, and as of right now (9:34 p.m.), it's off the Florida Keys. As of right now, it's still a tropical storm but them that know say it could pick up juice in the warm Gulf of Mexico and become a hurricane. Meteorologists are saying that, sometime late Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning, it'll make landfall somewhere between Mobile and Lake Charles and it's been said it will be a Category 2 storm by the time it hits. There has already been a number of deaths in Haiti and some heavy duty weather in south Florida.

 So far - and with all empathy to those who've already lost to this storm, but it doesn't seem like this thing is all that threatening, really, not compared to the serious shit Katrina or Gustav brought. Then again, around noon today, everyone's mood switched all at once, it seemed, and the lads started taking Isaac seriously. I'm sitting here watching the Weather Channel analyze every damn aspect of the thing to death, but I guess that's their job.