b.rox

If the United States can’t take care of its own, maybe they should sell us back to France.

The New York Times published this editorial today:
We are about to lose New Orleans. Whether it is a conscious plan to let the city rot until no one is willing to move back or honest paralysis over difficult questions, the moment is upon us when a major American city will die, leaving nothing but a [...]

Our electrician came by tonight (with a crew of old friends from Brooklyn) and hooked our generator up to our electrical panel.

Now we can run what’s left of our wiring, post-Katrina, off a gasoline-fueled internal combustion engine.
So tonight, for the first time in over a hundred days, a few electric lightbulbs burned on our block [...]

I’ve spent the better part of the last two days hauling stuff from Xy’s old school to her new one. Just a short drive up and down DeGualle. Five car loads and half a pickup truck too.
A lot of people don’t realize that teachers tend to have to furnish all their own supplies, out of [...]

According to the Damage Assessment Wizard on the City of New Orleans website, our house “is NOT substantially damaged.” It also says: “You may continue to FastTrack Permitting and you will NOT be required to elevate your structure in order to secure a permit to restore your building.”
Perhaps that’s because our property is listed as [...]

Today was Xy’s first day at Eisenhower Elementary. It was strange. Only two of the old Eisenhower faculty have been re-hired. There were former Eisenhower teachers in the building, retrieving their possessions, berating the new principal, and breaking down in tears. Xy feels guilty for having a job when other good teachers don’t. [...]

Xy got a call today confirming that she’s got a job teaching at Eisenhower Elementary in Algiers. She starts tomorrow morning at 9am. The principal advised her to “wear your dungarees” so we can only assume the school needs some clean-up. School starts on the 14th, half-days at first, with full days in the new [...]

Last night the sky was luminous. Even though there are no streetlights for at least three blocks in any direction, the city was still reflecting light off a thick layer of low-hanging clouds.
The light coming in our windows was brighter than the full moon. It was hot and damp. Spooky, unsettling weather.
I was awoken in [...]

Looking around our immediate neighborhood, I’d have to say our house is just about the only one ready for re-occupation. Mainly that’s because of the architecture. Our house is a “raised basement” style, meaning the front door is actually to the upper floor, which is the main floor.
Our “basement,” which sits on a concrete slab, [...]

Entergy said they’d send someone to hook up our gas service, sometime between 7am and 7pm.
That’s a nice big window. I got up before dawn, and got to our house around 6:30am, with a cup of coffee and a cranberry muffin.
A cold, miserable day of waiting. No heat, no hot water. That’s what we need [...]

The electricians started work on our house today.

Also, the plumber got the city inspector to come by and certify us for getting our gas service restored.
Also, Xy made the cut. She was amongst the 200 teachers (out of over a thousand applicants) who got called back for an interview (for one of 60 positions).
So: Good [...]