Home, Sweet Home

We made it back home late Wednesday night. It is a long drive from New Orleans. Had a slight mishap on the way home when I was driving through heavy traffic in Houston on I-10. Someone lost a wrought iron patio chair that was in my lane--Don yelled for me to dodge it but when I checked the lane beside me there were cars so I could not avoid hitting the chair unless I pulled in front of a car. So it put a nice dent in the rental car's fender. We reported it to Red Cross the next day but they weren't too worried about it. I guess that happens lots with all the rental cars they have out on a disaster.
We made it to Josh and Kara's in time for a wonderful supper. They had picked up our car from the airport where we left it when we got the rental which saved us lots of $$. Was so good to see them---and poor Sunny, the cat, who was in hiding recouping from her dental work. Poor thing.
It is just so good to be home. Our dogs and cats were so glad to see us--well, the cats had to act very nonchalant at first but then they were all over us. And my, how my chickens had grown. They are babies no longer. I have enjoyed just watching them and today let them out of their yard to roam where they wished. They had a grand day.
Spent the first two days home doing laundry and getting things back organized in the house. I am always energized to do housework when I return from being gone. But yesterday afternoon I sat down and went through the huge laundry basket full of mail to unearth my birthday cards at the bottom. Lots of wonderful cards and gifts. And then Amber, Hayden and I went to Supertaco to get my Mexican food fix. I have missed Mexican food something awful. Sure was good--and talk about growing--Hayden is such a big boy. I can't believe how big he has gotten.
It is so nice that it is so cool in the mornings. I just love it! Fall is in the air. And Starbucks has declared it fall and has their scrumptuous pumpkin cream cheese muffins out. I discovered a Starbucks near our hotel--wouldn't you know I didn't find it until the last day--and celebrated the beginning of fall with one. Sure was good---so Marme, ya better get out and get one soon. I thought of you the whole time I was eatin' mine.
Amber and Tammie gave me the Learn Spanish game to go to my Nintendo DSL so I am off to see how I do.

Homesick

We are still in New Orleans and I am so ready to come home. We got talked into staying and closing down the kitchen. There are only a handful of us left. Don spends his days on the forklift (which delights him) loading the big 18 wheeler trailers and I spend my days in those trailers inventorying what he puts in them. Not too exciting. At least the weather has cooled off some. It is just not the same as when it is a busy bustling place. It has been three weeks and I am missing home. I want to hug my cats and dogs and just go sit in the chicken yard and watch my chickens. I want to sleep in my own bed. I want to wear something besides a Red Cross vest. And I want a big glass of milk and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And I want to go to my Bible study. And I need to hug Hayden, and Grant, and Blaine, and Morgan, and Brock--who all (but Hayden) have had or will soon have birthdays that I missed. I even missed my own birthday and still have cards and presents to open. YIPEE!! I miss my plants and the hills of home. I miss my friend Leslie who already flew back to Washington. Ok--enough of that. I guess it is plain to see I am looking forward to coming home. We should leave here on Wednesday and get home that day.
We have really enjoyed the Louisiana cuisine. Did you know that it is traditional for Louisianans to eat red beans and rice every Monday and fish every Friday? We have eaten lots of red beans and rice, and seafood gumbo, and crawfish etoufee, and catfish, and shrimp and OYSTERS. I don't think I have ever eaten oysters before but since I have been here I cannot seem to get enough. I love fried oysters and oysters cooked any way they do it. Can't say I have gotten as far as wanting raw oysters yet--but Don has enjoyed those. I even went to the grocery store and stocked up on Louisiana spices that you cannot buy at home so I can try and cook some of these delicious dishes.
We are staying in this fancy hotel now and it is nice and all but not very convenient. The valet has to park your car and there is no quick cheap or free breakfast to get close by. We miss the staff shelter.
Just thought I had better blog to let you know we were still here. Hopefully next blog will be from home. It sure is heartwarming to get to read everyones blogs and get a touch from family and friends. I love all the photos, too. And the laughs.

Day of Changes

This is inside of kitchen.

Don heard they had the world's best fried chicken here but it was closed.

Looking down a French Quarter street

Paddle boat on the Mississippi

Our little part of the shelter

I got to refresh my skills at operating the forklift again.

The other day the governor of Louisiana came to see our kitchen but he never got out of this helicopter--we were all disappointed.

Our friend, Leslie, from Washington.

Don having fun on the forklift.

Our two kitchens are those trucks. They are really amazing.

Today was our day off. Had the best meal ever down in french quarter. I had an oyster poor-boy--and I am not an oyster lover but this was the best sandwich I had ever had and the oysters--fried ones--were scrumptious. And a cup of the best seafood gumbo to go with it--ooh, it was sooooo good. Don had the seafood platter and loved it, too. We walked around and I took pictures of the neat little buildings. We walked along the Mississippi but the winds---oh my gosh--it was near tropical storm winds--I felt like the weather man on the weather channel when they broadcase during a storm--it nearly knocked you down. In fact, while we were out there we got word from our kitchen that they had called in all the ERVs and sent them all back to our shelter and were closing down our kitchen until Sunday. We felt really guilty we were not there to help with all that work but our boss told us all was under control and to enjoy our day off as we would be on lock down over the weekend in our shelter.

The staff health nurse is driving us all nuts. Oh, please, don't let us be on lock down with her. She is way over the edge on cleanliness and everything--a real stick to every rule kind of person. I got fussed at for putting my gator aid bottle with my name on it in the same ice chest as the bottled water. Cross contamination, you know.

I have a few pictures to post. Then we are going to escape and go out and eat as a group before they lock us all in. Everyone has been buying games--and at least we have a blockbuster next door so we can rent movies. It should be a fun adventure. I must say I am shocked at how bad the winds are with this storm still so far away and not expected to hit Louisiana. Ike is a big bad boy.

I don't wanna move

We just had a meeting in our shelter and we can ask to be moved to a hotel if we want to. I don't want to. I love our shelter--I like to be with my fellow workers and have a chance to visit and laugh and live together. It is a great shelter. I guess it is crazy to like sleeping on a cot or air mattress in a room with 50 other people from across the country, and to have to wait in line for the shower--but I love it. One thing nice, though, is that you can also just choose to have a motel room for your day off--ours is tomorrow--so you can sleep late without the lights coming on at 6am. That would be nice. But we have a day off tomorrow and this does not begin until tomorrow night. Frankly, the way I feel right now, I just want to do nothing--I just want a day off to lay around here and rest up and maybe later in the afternoon go see some of New Orleans and eat at a nice place downtown---maybe my birthday dinner.

It is just too much trouble to move around again. And besides, I think we are winding up here within the week and with a new storm about to hit Texas, I think we will be moving again soon enough. I want to stay put.
Speaking of storms--our home is right in the projected path of the hurricane. Which is great if we get some good rain but not so great if we get some strong winds. Kinda scary.
Almost time for lights out.

I Wanna throw Helen in the Mississippi river

I have really had it with Helen. Helen is our GPS and she is nuts. I kept hearing that the French quarter was only 10 minutes from our work site so when looking in the yellow pages for a drop-off laundry I saw there was one on Bourbon street. Everyone said it was just a straight shot down highway 90 and across the Mississippi and we would be right there. So I programmed the cross streets into Helen and off we went to drop ours and other's laundry off. Thank goodness Don decided to ride along with me. We went over bridges and across toll roads and down dark alleys and scary places and made so many u-turns we lost count and we seemed to be only getting farther away. I mean, before we left work, Helen said it would take us 13 minutes. We had driven untold miles and twenty minutes and she still said 14 minutes. I really wanted to grab her and toss her out the window on one for our trips over the Mississippi but Don saved her. We turned her off and on our own found Bourbon street and our little laundry.

This trip was in the morning. I loved the french quarter--such quaint, pretty architecture and houses. Enjoyed the drive once we were there. We managed to find our way back to work on our own, too, and it WAS just a straight shot down business 90 to the west bank where we work.
So you would think that the trip back to retrieve our laundry would be a breeze. WRONG! We decided to use Helen again. What a STUPID idea that was. We were lost less than a mile from work. I don't know how she does it. We were making so many turns and u-turns it was driving us both crazy. We were turning around in really scary places in downtown New Orleans. I just knew we would never find our laundry again and it closed at 8 and we were so FRUSTRATED. Then we finally found the french quarter-- but it was the famous part of Bourbon street that was blocked off for foot traffic and loaded with people---not the quiet, quaint part where our laundry was. It took forever going down tiny narrow streets and turning and backtracking until we finally got there right before 8.

We got the laundry and Don turned Helen off and said he knew how to get back to work and that was how we were getting home (even though we knew we were only about 10 minutes from our shelter--we just did not want to trust Helen to get us there. So it took us another 45 minutes to get home. Boy were we tired and disgruntled. I am still not speaking to Helen.

Our Senior Tail-gate Party

Today was a very busy, but fun day. I, along with another guy was sent to deliver 50 meals and serve them at a senior center. We got lost getting there but did go right through the middle of downtown New Orleans in the process which was a fun side trip. When we got to the senior center it was locked up. It was kind of in a housing authority kind of area and the residents were very excited to see us drive up. They wanted food badly. Since we thought we would be serving in a senior center kitchen we had brought no serving utensils. Several women heard that and quickly wheeled themselves back to their apartments and reappeared with a whole bag of utensils. But then we had no table to serve from. And we had delivered these meals in an SUV that belonged to our boss. So we backed up the car into the shade of the breezeway, opened the tailgate and set up our serving area there. It was amazing how these folks got the word out to all their neighbors that there was food and we soon had a long line forming. We were serving barbecue sandwiches (more like a sloppy joe), green beans and an apple. We served every last drop of food we have--made 68 servings out of what was supposed to be 50. They were just delighted with us. We cut up with them and had such fun. And it was much cooler serving in the shade outside than from inside a hot ERV. It made my day.

We are staying in the nicest staff shelter we have ever been in. The shelter staff (Red Cross volunteers also) fixed us eggs and pancakes for breakfast--made to order. And tonight the pastor of the church we are staying in fixed us authentic Louisiana jambalaya and boy was it good. And the members of the church have offered to take our laundry and wash it for us. How blessed can we be? And tonight I just walked into the bathroom and right into the shower with no wait at all. Life is good.

Still no word on if we will have to evacuate our kitchen. Have not got to listen to the weather channel tonight as the guys are all watching football on our shelter TV. I hope it does not hit New Orleans as these people will not evacuate again I don't think.

Well, it is lights out so I must go.

New Orleans Bullets

• We are in New Orleans with Red Cross at a big mobile kitchen. Today we served 14,000 meals to people in several parishes who have been affected by Hurricane Gustav. Power is still out in much of the city. We are located in the west bank. These people are so gracious and appreciative of our help. I know they must be tired of no power in this intense humid heat--and because the pumping stations need electricity they can't use their toilets either.
• It is very hot and very humid. We feel like we never dry out. Have lots of work to do and not enough staff but the ones we do have are the greatest. Everyone works and works and cheerfully does whatever asked of them. A great group of people working in less than ideal conditions. We are staying on the gym floor of a Baptist church--but there is power and AC here so it is wonderful. Only two showers for about 60 folks but somehow the hot water never runs out (probably because we are so hot we don't want much of it anyway) and the line is never too long. It is kinda fun in a shelter as you get to visit more with everyone.
• Our friend, Leslie, from Washington state is here--we worked with her in Katrina and last year in San Diego and love getting to laugh and work with her again. It is always fun to see familiar faces from previous disasters.
• We are all wondering what Ike will do and if we are going to have to suddenly dismantle our kitchen operation and evacuate. Time will tell. That will be a big job.
• There is an alligator that lives in the small pond/swamp near our kitchen. The park people feed her and I am hoping to get a picture of her--with my telephoto lens......
• Don is supervising the yard--all the trucks that have our food and supplies--driving the forklift and all--he is happy--except for the intense humidity. We are having great difficulty getting our supplies here--in fact we have been out of bottled water for three days now so we can't even offer water to folks out on our ERV food routes. Even FEMA has no water to pass out--don't know what is up with that--usually we have tons of it. That is not a good situation.
• Somehow I got assigned to be the assistant to the kitchen site manager so I do a little bit of everything. Mostly putting out fires--trying to fix stuff that goes wrong and just helping things to run smoothly. I guess I am learning new things. We have a great manager. And our kitchen manager--she is awesome. She ran mobile kitchens when she was in the Army and she sure is amazing. Tell her the meal count has gone from 500 to 14,000 and she just says ok and does it--and that with the limited food supplies we have since our food trucks have also been delayed. I just love watching her work. She has such a pleasant but commanding way about her. She sure gets the job done.
• On my birthday everyone sang to me at our morning meeting which was nice. And I got to go out on an ERV and served 300 meals so that made me happy. We have chefs from the culinary institute cooking the meals and that night we had really good chicken and rice and green beans so I had a wonderful birthday meal on the ERV. And had a package of Lorna Doone cookies for my birthday cake.
• So many little things happen I wish I could remember to blog about but I am tired and it is almost time for lights out so I will sign off. Just wanted to let you know what is up with us.