Our community cleans up

Today, a crew came to get the tree off of our roof. I didn't get to see the actual removal because the owner of the company was regaling me with non-stop, manic speech-making about everything imaginable. The neighborhood has been cleared of a lot of debris in a short period of time.

This afternoon, a fiber optic cable was accidentally cut in our parish, and we lost telephone service to anywhere outside of a few miles. That problem was also fixed in a relatively short period of time.

Helicopters are everywhere. Today, a plane--I presume a military plane--flew so low over our house that items rattled on their shelves. There is an aid station at the Target store not far from us, and the National Guard is all over the place. We've had mail delivery for a few days, but today was the first day I had a chance to go to the Post Office and collect the back mail. However, the Post Office was closed, so I have to go back tomorrow, after the roof repair man comes over. Some time soon, we have to get the gutter repair man over, too.

All of the radio stations in New Orleans have personnel in Baton Rouge and are broadcasting 24 hours a day from a makeshift station. Right now, the general manager of a large New Orleans station is sharing the microphone with a woman who does a gospel program on another station. Since we have no television, I keep this station on most of the time. The broadcasters provide information, answer questions, air public service announcements, interview people, check out rumors, and help with missing persons and pets.

I haven't heard from most of my clients and haven't been able to reach them. I also haven't been able to locate people I know in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes. I have tendonitis in my right elbow from using a touchpad for hours on end, and I ache all over from those nights of not sleeping when the cats went berserk at the hotel. They are glad to be home, and spent the morning growling at the tree removal men and their machinery.