Dynomoose rants and rambles

I was offline for over a month and I have to say I got so much done. Joe kept nagging me to fix it (and eventually got his way) but I held off as long as I could.

I've been back since Friday and have wasted countless hours.

On the productive side, I'm downloading all the fonts I lost with the crash plus a few hundred more.

On the sad side, while I was gone an internet friend of mine died. Cesar was a pretty fun guy. He could be in a screaming, if-this-were-real-life-blood-would-be-spilled, fight with you on one thread and joking around with you on another. He was bright and funny and snarky and he shouldn't be dead. Everyone who thinks AIDS is a manageable, go-on-with-your-life kind of disease is deluding themselves. The medications alone are crippling and they don't always work. As was the case with Cesar.

It's funny how important people online become. I mean, they're just words on a screen, right? Honestly, I felt the loss of the three dead internet friends (Cesar, Tommy and James) more deeply than my own grandmother's death.

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Joe is LOVING his job. We're all loving being back home.

I've dripped a bunch of weight just by being back. Even though I actually like the food down here.

It is sad driving through the city and seeing all the destruction that, nearly two years later, is still everywhere, rotting. All because people can't afford to rebuild and the city doesn't bother tearing these structures down. I even still see the occasional Katrina Fridge.

Saint Bernard and Jefferson Parish both tore down abandoned buildings. In Orleans, Ray Nagin is too busy being an inept, divisive fuck-wit to actually put resources toward rebuilding and clean up. Companies are leaving in droves because rents and insurance rates are skyrocketing, crime is INSANE and all Nagin can do is blather on about his imagined white government conspiracy to drive all the black folks out of New Orleans. I swear, if Louisiana didn't have term limits, Nagin would turn this city into Detroit. He has so much in common with Colman Young, it's terrifying.

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Persephone's walking now and saying a few words. She's such a klutz, though. I keep finding new bruises on her face and body. Even had to take her favorite toy out of her play cage because most of her face bruises had a xylophone shape to them.

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The apartment is nice but waaaaaay over-priced. Luckily, there are so many more homes for sale here than there are buyers right now that, assuming we can get a mortgage, we'll be able to find a nice big house for lower payments than our current rent. That is the one and only advantage to post-levee-break Louisiana.Cheap real estate. Once we qualify, the big dilemma will be whether to get a place in the suburbs or Orleans Parish. Even with the crime and decay, there are advantages to Orleans. the International school there is one of the top schools in the country and, being a public school, you have to live there to attend. Plus New Orleans needs working non-criminals living there. If everyone who can afford to leaves the city, well, it WILL turn into Detroit.