Year: 2006

I like the the reflection of New Orleans street in this shot. The humor seen on the sign is typical of those seen – just lacking the foul language seen everywhere on T shirts and signage.

After good nights sleep in my own bed – I am back.

It is obvious that everything we experience changes our perspectives and how we perceive and interpret our existence on this globe we call earth. My vacation to visit my friends in Mississippi is on my list of altering experiences. I left with wonderful memories of a exciting visit with my friends, tours of Stennis, Fredericksburg, and New Orleans. I reveled in the excitement of seeing the U.S.S. Cairo in person and played with the displays at the NASA exhibits. I also came home moved deeply by the enormity of the hurricane damage.

The sheer size of it all, miles upon miles, it seemed to never end. All the lives affected. It has left me with many, many questions and frankly just stunned that after eight months the clean up efforts, well, heck, in our country, my county, it almost seems that we have just turned our backs on them. I have hundreds of pictures taken around the area. Hardly a shot does not have a trailer or tent in it. Homes from both sides of the tracks demolished, trees downed, it just goes on and on as if it would never end.
Blogging about political rhetoric seems so pointless right now. Irrelevant. To be polite I am pissed and impressed. Pissed at my country and it’s lack of compassion and at the same time impressed with the spirit of the people in Bay St. Louis and the private groups of citizens that have shown up to help in the area. I need some time to sort it all out.

Another try at using my DSC-F828. I also made the link picture file size smaller. Clicking on the photo will no longer send you into a long wait. The picture will still open an overlay and will not take you away from this blog.

I will be packing tommorrow and my flight leaves early – too early – Monday morning. Mississippi here we come.

When I purchased my townhouse in the very early 80,s the association property was bordered by a pig farm, some houses, and a small school stood across the street. Two large apartment complexes later we are now gated in. I say we are gated in because the fencing does not keep anyone out it just makes it harder to get out. Our neighboorhood has gone from a quite one of mixed ethnicity one to a sometimes violent one – with a lot of racial tension. We have been there and done that when talking about the bloods and the crips. We have seen a mother riddled with bullets laying in the main drive three doors down, numerous childern jumped into gangs, and the getto bird (helicopter) flying overhead everynight. We have answered our door to find a youngman pointing a gun at our faces.

Many of the long time neighboors moved, I believe they called it white flight. The unfortunate few who could not afford to leave and those of us who refused to leave remained. We organized neighboorhood watches, we fought back, we finally figured out that the police were no help. We formed calling list chains. We held programs on bicycle safety to get the young children and their parents out so we could meet them. We held neighboorhood barbeques with free food and music. Did any of it work? I hope so.

The gangs have moved south. Younger couples have begun purchasing homes in our neighboorhood again. Yards are well kept now and every once in awhile you see a family sitting out in their front yard enjoying a nice night. It is looking up. We only hear gunshots every once in awhile instead of everynight.  It took over ten years to get to where we are now. A nice quite mixed neighboorhood.
There is a new crowd of young people entering their teenage years. They are starting to get noisy, not normal teenage noise but the loud cussing slang violent verbage type of loud. I hope that this is not turning back again into the hell we all experienced. I am too old to fight the good fight again. To tired of it all. If it goes where I think we are heading I too will probably rent my townhouse and move. That really sucks.

Saturday around ten after six in the evening a young man was shot at an intersection that I have to drive through a lot. The police think he was shot because of the color of his shirt. He is not involved in any gang activity, has a family, he just was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong color shirt on. Today I took the long way back from the veterinarian to avoid the intersection because there have been sirens and the ghetto bird in the area the last few nights.
And, so it begins. ..