7 AM Friday 9/5
Up around 4:30 this morning in a pool of sweat. Around 5:30 generator on as frig was reaching danger point. Nevertheless when I took the dogs out around 6 it felt very cool. I wish we could sleep outside somehow, but I got about 6 bites in the few minutes it took to take dogs out. Skeeters are getting bad with all the standing water around. It needs to dry up, let what we have around soak back in the ground. I hate Off but nothing else works so On it goes.
Sun just came up over the levee, always my favorite part of the day when it just starts to peek over. Looks like a pretty day if you don't look at the yard carnage. One nice thing about the levee is there are no trees on it so on downed branches so it gives the eye a rest.
We scored yet more gas last night. I persuaded Gary to go out to dinner at surreal Lucky Louie's around 5 or so last night. We put the empties in the car just in case the line was down & we felt up to it. Lucky Louie's is a place I never would have ventured but am kind of glad we know it now. No casino action for us--I don't get that & have no interest whatsoever--but the cafe was nice enough, dark and coolish, and they were serving 2 things: burger & fries or red beans & rice. I had the former and ate with appetite for the first time in many days. Also am feeling better due to salt. Began craving it yesterday & ate some salted nuts, felt better, so I put what would normally be way too much salt on my fries and gobbled them. I must have had a salt deficiency--I think that attends a kind of overheating somehow, I forget. After supper we waited about an hour in line at the adjacent gas station & filled up 7 gallons worth in cans. So returned home feeling flush, ran generator a couple of hours & watched some Errol Morris episodes of First Person on my laptop.
Our waitress last night saw me doing my blood glucose and we had one of those sympathetic connections-PWD to PWD (person with diabetes). She said her BG was over 1200 when she was diagnosed. Good lord, I said, and you lived? She went on to tell the tale--a tiny little woman, she said at that point she weighed over 350 pounds. She acted out how her clothes fell off her, etc. I recognized the bartender as the woman I saw vacuuming in the AM; she came over & we commiserated on stuff. I like the staff at LLs cafe a lot and will add it to this list of haunts when everything goes back to normal. Who would have known I'd like a place that lures truck drivers in to gamble? Gary had the red beans and left not a crumb.
Hot meal someone else cooked, gas, salt, good people--a good night.
And to top it all off we heard on the radio that Port Allen, Brusly, and Addis may be back on power tonight. Be still my heart. Estimates for many places are up to 3 weeks, so that is a huge stroke of luck. We will continue to forage for gas today because this seems too good to be true. One concern is that we have some vines on the power line from the road to the house, and the last bit of line going to the house across the side yard hangs a bit low. All of this has been this way for at least 2 years and we have had Entergy out to look at it, asked that the line be raised since riding the tractor under it is a bit scary, and we also need frequently to move a ladder or do stuff to trees over there. But they said it was still within acceptable height and not to worry, and wouldn't fix it. Now since they have made clear that if the problem is your trees or your house they will deem you not ready to receive power and won't turn it on to you. we want to make sure this doesn't create a problem. A couple of days ago an Entergy pick-up cruised by here and a guy hopped out, motioned something to the driver, then hopped back in and they took off. I hope that wasn't a "that line is too low" assessment that will come back to bite us in the ass. We plan to do sentry shifts on Entergy trucks today, hopefully getting this straight with them if necessary.
Have been looking at websites this AM: the LSU Reveille, the student paper, has some detailed info about the state of the campus. WAFB list of electricity restoration estimates; from that page there is also a video showing the electrical issues & breaking it down sanely. Entergy website with damages photos and animation of restoration process. the only bigger disaster for Entergy was Katrina. Looking also at MSNBC for what Hanna has done to Haiti, where the bitch is headed, and what Ike is doing--enough, enough, enough, and I hope everyone gets out of harm's way.
Time to plan the rest of the day.
8:45 AM: plan
Gary to get some stuff he needs at Port Allen Hardware which is open despite no electricity--love those guys. Then he will try with fiberglass pole to knock vines off power wire, very carefully. It actually looks like Gustav loosened them a lot.
After this a gas run to Louie's. Oe of us to stay here as Entergy sentry.
If power comes back on try to get tractor started and start clearing the huge branches from blocking the way to get trees removed by garage. That will be a part chainsaw job. From there we can get into garage to tarp part of roof that is gone and move stuff around. If no power postponing this. It will be hot work on what will be a hot day and no point unless there will be refuge. If no power I will take it easy and just take my yellow cart around and start clearing the small garden patch and nice part of the yard (relatively) of smaller debris. The air feels much drier which is why it feels cooler this AM but we will be in the 90s today.
Power or no I am going to bag up all the stuff in the freezer and put it out with the trash then clorox the freezer. We tried but there was just not enough gas to run the frig enough to keep the freezer below freezing for enough of the time. There is no point whatsoever in gambling on any of that food. Putting trash out may be wishful thinking but tomorrow AM is supposed to be pick-up. Will seal it as best I am able in the can & cross fingers.
Also need to poke around with a stick in the drainage ditch out front to see if we can't get it moving & stop breeding mosquitos. It is probably very clogged with debris. There's still a lot of water in places in the yard but that will just have to soak in and/or dry up.
Just filled all the hum feeders I have and there are swarms of them feeding. Cats fed, dogs fed, next the regular birds--there are far fewer about than normal, and this is a concern. I bought a big bag of seed on my Wallyworld trip last Saturday, good thing.
Hattie and Beckett are playing a game where they roll around on the parlor carpet and pick up a stuffed bunny & run through the house with it, then one of them steals it, etc. It is good to see them acting goofy and like normal dogs again. I don't think Scout slept much last night as he is napping and ignoring Steal the Bunny.
Since the sun is out I am going to drape the porch with all the musty nasty damp towels we've accumulated plugging up window leaks and showering and wiping up various messes all week. Got to fight the mold.
Plant and animal day, apparently.
