Blogger Blather

My friend Hollis Gillespie was in town over the weekend and I think she left behind some good karma because I had 3 freelance prospects contact me today. It was very fun to have her visit Baton Rouge. Whenever I get around Hollis’ creativity and unconventional attitude it motivates me.

The weekend broke down as follows:

FRIDAY

- Crappy dinner at Mi Padres
- After crappy dinner coffee at Books a Million – my Hurricane Gustav refuge

SATURDAY

- Lunch at Drusilla Seafood followed by a book signing for Hollis
- Shopping at Perkins Rowe
- Matinee of the movie Ghost Town
- Dinner at Kona Grill

SUNDAY

- Visit to Irene
- Ogled hurricane damage

Here’s a photo of Hollis loaded down with all kinds of swag from the luncheon. It was sponsored by Heart of Louisiana, a writers’ group I belong to.

For the 10 days that my power was out I slept on the sofa in my living room. I’m not sure why, but for some reason that’s where I wanted to be while the city cleaned up from Hurricane Gustav. Subsequently, my neck is totally out of whack.

Yesterday it was so bad I doubled my ibuprofen dose and busted out the Bengay. I have the “Ultra Strength” formula and it’s definitely potent, plus it doesn’t wash off easily. Which is fine for those parts of your body that you need to rub Bengay on, but not so fine for the parts of your body that you have to rub it on with. Here’s what I mean …

I washed my hands after applying, but I guess I didn’t wash them good enough because about an hour after I used the Bengay I rubbed my eye — causing it to burn like crazy. That stuff needs to come with plastic applicator gloves (like hair color does) or a fake finger or something.

I flushed out my eyes and put in a bunch of eye drops and today they feel okay. If I had caused real injury I might have had to wear an eyepatch. Since today is “Talk Like a Pirate Day” I guess I would at least have looked festive.

Today my hardworking and trustworthy desktop computer died. I guess all the power outages, blinking lights, heat in the house, and general state of mayhem was too much for its old circuits. When I try to boot up all I get is a “FATAL SYSTEM ERROR” message.

Luckily I backed up my files before I headed to Atlanta, but I lost Internet bookmarks and a lot of specialty software. Guess I’ll be on the laptop for a while — thankfully I have something I can work on. Although I am a desktop fan — don’t like the crunched laptop keyboards very much.

Anyone have a certain computer brand, store or model they want to recommend? I’m a PC fan, but maybe now is the time to switch to Mac. Thoughts?

After 9 and 1/2 days without power (that’s 224 hours — but who’s counting) my electricity finally came back on.

Still no phone, Internet or cable, but air conditioning and a lighted room are very nice.

Obviously, everything in my fridge and freezer had to be thrown away. Well, almost everything. This is what I was able to salvage:

• caffeine free diet coke
• bottled water
• mustard
• ketchup
• hot sauce

Sounds like dinner to me…

I’ve never been a patient person, and my patience surrounding Hurricane Gustav is almost dissolved.

I guess I’m just hot and cranky because sleeping in a 90+ degree house and reading books by flashlight gets really old fast.

Tonight is a new episode of Project Runway and I do not want to miss another week of my favorite non-guilty pleasure. There, I admitted it. I don’t really miss the ability to run my computer at home, wash clothes or cook. What I really miss is reality television.

Hurricane Gustav was “fierce”

I’ve posted a lot of pics of the damage Gustav did to buildings in Baton Rouge. But I’m sure some of you are asking — what about the people? How are the folks in B.R. holding up? The answer is not well.

Here’s a little photo essay of what I’ve been doing during my 7+ days without power (and counting)…

I got attacked by ants while I was cleaning up debris in my mother’s yard. My left foot is hugely swollen looks like it belongs to Fred Flinstone. Guess I need to cancel the foot modeling gig I had lined up – ha! Taken Thursday, Sept. 4.

Here’s a pic of my current state of loveliness. When you don’t have use of a hair dryer or straightening iron you gotta go with it pinned up. Taken Sunday, Sept. 7.

Sweet Stuff looks bored doesn’t he? Yes, taking pics of me and the cats is big fun these days. Actually, that’s always big fun at Casa de Kittyboy. Taken Saturday, Sept. 6.

The cats are hot and bored. Looking out the window is huge excitement since they can’t watch Animal Planet. Taken Friday, Sept. 5.

Irene is without power too. She looks thrilled to see me, huh? Taken Sunday, Sept. 7.

I’m on day 7 with no power. People are getting ornery for sure. Check out this house on my mother’s street. It was under contract and the closing was in a week. $1 million. The seller seems a little pissed, huh? I would guess that sale’s not going through…

These are photos I’ve finally managed to download from my digital camera. Taken on my street on Tuesday — it doesn’t look much different now. Still no power or landline phone at my house. Reading lots of books at night by flashlight; but, no complaints — thankfully none of these houses are mine…

The following is a re-print of an email I just sent to a friend in Atlanta.  This pretty much sums up post-gustav craziness in Baton Rouge, so read on if you want to know what’s happening with me.

Yo!  I’m alive!  Yippee!

It’s Friday afternoon and I am sitting at a Books-a-million right now — first time I’ve had a/c, a cold drink, and Internet since Monday morning.  My power is still out and my landline is down. 

My street looks like a war zone.  Seriously. 

FIVE houses on my street have trees on top of them.  Remember how Cabbage Town looked after the tornado?  That’s basically how the whole city looks.  

I went to the grocery store this morning and it was a madhouse.  Plenty of bread, but no cookies!  The whole cookie aisle was empty — I guess people think they need some comfort food — and that’s not a slice of Wonder Bread.  So, I went to the bakery and bought brownies.  Screw pre-packaged sugaration — I got the fresh baked stuff.

I am trying to conserve the charge on my cell phone so I have it turned off unless I need to make a call.  But, text messages and voice mails are welcome. 

Lynn

Pic of the street in front of my house.  This is tame compared to other photos I took, but they are stuck on my digital camera at the moment.  More later…

First Katrina, now Gustav.  What’s up with these Russian-named hurricanes hating on Louisiana?

I had to cut my trip to Atlanta short — arrived home Sunday night on the very last inbound flight into Baton Rouge.  They were shutting the doors behind me as I was wheeling out my little suitcase.  My flight was full of people who worked for FEMA, Red Cross and international newspapers.

Well, the rain has started here.   I’m going to go get under the blankie on my couch.  If you don’t hear from me for a few days that means I’ve lost power.

Do svidaniya!