check this!
Had a most unfamiliar phone call yesterday: "I have your check ready...do you want to pick it up or shall I hold it for you?"
My checks have come in the mail for so long that the 'earned income' patter sounds very unfamiliar. The merry-go-round effect of rising early, rustling supper at 7:00 p.m. and hurrying toward the bed to facilitate waking early again has worn a little thin after only a few weeks. How do you guys do it? On the one hand, I'm getting more than I'm worth, probably, and on the other hand, it sure isn't enough to justify being handcuffed to a paycheck. Wish me luck and perserverance.
I didn't set an alarm last night, had a wonderfully refreshing sleep, rose at 7:30, dressed, swiped at my face and walked over to the courthouse to vote. I considered traipsing to the coffee shop, but decided to save the $6-7 bucks and savor some home-dripped with my newspaper on the front porch. It was CHILLY!
On election day I'm moved to ruminate on whatever arguments are to be made against re-arranging the lower-lying subdivisions and residential blocks post-Katrina. One persuasive point in favor of compression and urbanization is the ability to WALK on everyday errands. It's true that the very same rose bush might not bloom exactly the same way if you moved it a couple of blocks east or west of your current street address, but golly -- won't it be nice to look out on a playground or green, treed walkway and walk to neighborhood grocers, cafes and postal kiosks? Reconstructing smaller/more efficient homes around a slightly different footprint in the same neighborhood might not be the worst thing that happens to Lakeview, Gentilly and some others. Let's see: close your collective eyes and revisit the scenes of chopping holes in attics and pulling hollow-eyed children and pets from rooftops and porches in the aftermath of another flood. Better yet, take another look at this week's Picayune, where workers are recovering the remains of newly-unearthed victims from 8 months ago. I wouldn't want to be the one to say, graveside, four months from now: "Sorry grandpa, we just didn't want to move from 688 Geranium Drive. Flooded or not, it's HOME." The current need to rearrange isn't anyones fault: it is what it is.
While none (or almost none) of the front-runners for mayor have articulated the need to re-distribute our homes around a new urban reality, any one of them who rises to the post will be required to state it unequivocably soon after the election. The sooner it gets underway, the safer and more affordable New Orleans living will be.
Don't know for sure how I'll feel tomorrow. So many ups and downs all the time lead to confusion, even within one's own psyche. For instance, it's awfully sad to envision no homes and fishermen along some bayous, the little towns of Lafitte and points beyond, as I drive on fishing treks. Heck, maybe noplace to drive on fishing trecks. It's a black day, that's for sure. The election, and all the trappings before and after, are but distractions from the looming bad and worse choices ahead. We all consider them in private, pitying the less fortunate who will suffer the loss of their land and lifestyle, but woe to the public figures who must espouse and enforce these wrenching choices, for they are choices: of life and sustainability over tradition and foolhardiness.
My checks have come in the mail for so long that the 'earned income' patter sounds very unfamiliar. The merry-go-round effect of rising early, rustling supper at 7:00 p.m. and hurrying toward the bed to facilitate waking early again has worn a little thin after only a few weeks. How do you guys do it? On the one hand, I'm getting more than I'm worth, probably, and on the other hand, it sure isn't enough to justify being handcuffed to a paycheck. Wish me luck and perserverance.
I didn't set an alarm last night, had a wonderfully refreshing sleep, rose at 7:30, dressed, swiped at my face and walked over to the courthouse to vote. I considered traipsing to the coffee shop, but decided to save the $6-7 bucks and savor some home-dripped with my newspaper on the front porch. It was CHILLY!
On election day I'm moved to ruminate on whatever arguments are to be made against re-arranging the lower-lying subdivisions and residential blocks post-Katrina. One persuasive point in favor of compression and urbanization is the ability to WALK on everyday errands. It's true that the very same rose bush might not bloom exactly the same way if you moved it a couple of blocks east or west of your current street address, but golly -- won't it be nice to look out on a playground or green, treed walkway and walk to neighborhood grocers, cafes and postal kiosks? Reconstructing smaller/more efficient homes around a slightly different footprint in the same neighborhood might not be the worst thing that happens to Lakeview, Gentilly and some others. Let's see: close your collective eyes and revisit the scenes of chopping holes in attics and pulling hollow-eyed children and pets from rooftops and porches in the aftermath of another flood. Better yet, take another look at this week's Picayune, where workers are recovering the remains of newly-unearthed victims from 8 months ago. I wouldn't want to be the one to say, graveside, four months from now: "Sorry grandpa, we just didn't want to move from 688 Geranium Drive. Flooded or not, it's HOME." The current need to rearrange isn't anyones fault: it is what it is.
While none (or almost none) of the front-runners for mayor have articulated the need to re-distribute our homes around a new urban reality, any one of them who rises to the post will be required to state it unequivocably soon after the election. The sooner it gets underway, the safer and more affordable New Orleans living will be.
Don't know for sure how I'll feel tomorrow. So many ups and downs all the time lead to confusion, even within one's own psyche. For instance, it's awfully sad to envision no homes and fishermen along some bayous, the little towns of Lafitte and points beyond, as I drive on fishing treks. Heck, maybe noplace to drive on fishing trecks. It's a black day, that's for sure. The election, and all the trappings before and after, are but distractions from the looming bad and worse choices ahead. We all consider them in private, pitying the less fortunate who will suffer the loss of their land and lifestyle, but woe to the public figures who must espouse and enforce these wrenching choices, for they are choices: of life and sustainability over tradition and foolhardiness.
posted by Pelican Stories at 12:16 PM
1 Comments:
Yeh you rite.
Post a Comment
<< Home