Point Made

The weather headlines on television tell me there are floods and tornados in Louisiana. The front causing this activity is covering the entire US from Northern Michigan to the Gulf Coast. In Wisconsin, we were predicted to get 8 - 10 inches of snow. Mandeville got some rain. Appleton got 3 inches of snow. What does 3 inches of snow look like? Note the garden hose is crawling off the picnic table. The pictures and paintings are crawling out of the boxes, scattering themselves about the house, some of them have scaled the walls and are hanging in place. Pieces of furniture have found their final home after a tortuous journey through various rooms.  We settled o ne benchmark in house history . Lucy's food and water bowls have found a place in the kitchen. Take a look at the photo above and note her paw prints in the snow. Lucy is reacquainting her backside to the snowy surface. Not joyfully, I must say. This snow will be gone before you read this blog. It is ...

This is our new backyard. The water will recede. It will become a swamp, then a dry hole, but it will always be Lake Maria. (Thanks to Jeramey Jannene for the Name.) Yes, there a pair of Ducks setting up housekeeping. Yes, I'm concerned about them building a nest in an area that will soon be a pile of wet leaves. I know what it means to move to a place only to find out you're going to be moving again. But enough about moving, let me tell you what happened when we moved from subtropical Louisiana to snow storm threatened Wisconsin. Someone has to explain to me how you can move twice in less than a year and, you throw away, give away and sell stuff you think you don't need and the same sized truck is still full when you pull away from the driveway. But I digress. The crew dropped the moorings and the good ship, with its port o call, Miami Florida on the ships papers, pulled out of Mandeville, Louisiana, on Monday, March 14, 2016. Our destination was Effingham Ilin...

And why I choose to disparage female dog's, I can't explain. I'll hazard a guess that  it's just a bad habit. Each room of our house has a stack of packed moving cartons and a couple of open, partially full cartons waiting for completion. In some ways, this is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle that has multiple solutions built into it. As I pack, I use the balanced weight theory. A box full of books is heavy. A box with some books and some knickknacks or linens is easier to pick up and move. This takes planning flexibility and patience. As my wife will be more than glad to inform you, I have some capacity for the first two and almost none of the last. We'll see. We agreed that only in some circumstances would we move something we haven't touched in the time we've spent here. If we haven't needed it in the last eight and half months, we more than likely don't need it. Since she hates my corduroy sports coat I'm sure she's hoping that...

I had a long conversation with my landlord the other day. He was showing the house we rented from him to prospective renters. We are leaving in the middle of March for our return to Wisconsin. Our mission is complete here. There is a Democrat in the State House. It's time to get one in the Governor's mansion in Madison . (This my story, and I will stick to it.) He told me a story about how after Katrina struck New Orleans, his son had a tough time handling the loss of his friends and the family home. His friends didn't die. This young middle schooler merely lost track of them, as they scattered all over the area. This happened naturally as their families made decisions on how they would deal with the loss of their homes, neighborhoods, and schools. The young man experienced two middle schools and three high schools as his parents bounced around the Northshore trying to resettle. I suppose one could say that while this experience isn't anything you would wish on any...

It's come to my attention that while there is a noticeable absence of snow in SE Louisiana, there is an abundance of fog. It's all about the moderate temperatures and the onshore wind from the Gulf of Mexico. This morning the temperature is in the mid-fifties, and the matching dew point is fueling a moderate fog that will take a couple of hours to burn off and give us a sunny day. Having this short experience here might be an anomaly, but it appears to be a common experience. I'm making that judgment from the reaction of the weather people down here; they are not reporting this with that golly gee whiz was getting a lot of fog presentation.  Let me see, fog versus snow? Fog wins because you don't have to shovel it. Back to Provincial Environs. It's looking like the Jordello's (Jordan/Costello) will be relocating to Appleton. We are working with a landlord for a lease. Why Appleton? It's not that Maria has a job, although things are looking good. No, rath...

I was emailing my Granddaughter this morning. In a previous email, I had been extolling the experience and history of Mardi Gras. I mentioned that people go kinda crazy. She replied she might like to visit Mardi Gras someday. Her reservations reflected a concern for her safety amid the celebrated antic's of Mardi Gras attendees. I assured her that while it might sound somewhat threatening, she should experience it. I cautioned her that while I might be grousing about being stuck out here on the Northshore and all of its baggage, the City of New Orleans is different. Specifically, I said that you can find someone or a group of people with whom you can be comfortable in almost any major city. I know it's a cliche, but Cities are nothing but a collection of villages. Reflecting on that, I realize that while we, as a society, find ways of segregating ourselves, we habitat with like thinking people. From out and out ethnic ghettos to parish dominant neighborhoods, we have used o...

Oh Yeah! It's Mardi Gras time in SE Louisiana.  If you think that Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) is a one-day or possibly a weekend event, think again.  The celebration runs for almost two weeks.  While centered in the French Quater / Downtown of New Orleans, Mardi Gras extends its tentacles of celebratory madness to the Northshore of Lake Ponchartrain and down to Holma with stops in between. Mainly, these celebrations are parades of floats dignitaries and marching bands sponsored by Clubs or Krewes , as they are called here. These Krewes are launching Parades daily. Often two or three of these are happening in New Orleans while there are parades on the Northshore in one or two communities. My guess is, barring the ownership of a helicopter and significant planning, no one could attend the entire slate of parades. Many of the Krewes select Royalty. King, Queens, Captains, and Lieutenants reign over their parade and the subsequent Ball for one year. Th...