Renovation

I traveled to Atlanta this weekend with my brother-in-law to begin the renovation of my townhouse. Right now I'm paying both rent and mortgage, so it's important that I rent out my old place as soon as possible.

Next weekend I head out that way to begin the process of painting the walls. Then I have to put in a new refrigerator and start looking for possible tenants.

I wish I didn't have to worry with this, but it'll be great when it's finished. Hopefully it won't have too much of an impact on my law school studies.

What's Changed?

After the September 11th attacks, I sat glued to the TV for hours and hours. I cannot remember even once seeing a dead body, even though thousands died. The rationale at the time, I believe, was that the images would be too graphic for a national audience- especially an audience composed of children. (For the same reason, footage of the planes striking the towers was quickly pulled from the air.)

Fast forward to Hurricane Katrina- I've seen three dead bodies on either TV or major news websites, such as MSNBC.com. These don't include the ones wrapped in sheets, either. The images are quite graphic- one especially disturbing one shows a woman floating facedown in the water.

What has changed in the last four years that warrants this shift in journalistic focus? I don't have children yet, but I guarantee you I wouldn't want them seeing some of the images I've seen. Why has the filter been removed?

Did I just miss the footage of the dead bodies after the terrorist attacks, or do I have a valid point?

Here's Another One...

This one should be quite obvious, I would hope.

This Is What I Do When I'm Bored...

I created this using the free software ArtRage- kudos to the first person who correctly guesses who it is.

Adoptee

Due to the hurricane, hundreds of dogs and cats were displaced and abandoned along the Gulf Coast. Since I had recently lost a dog of my own- Hunter- I felt that it would be appropriate to take in a dog that had no home.

Looking through the cages, I settled on a female Alaskan Husky mix. Her eyes are white and haunting, but she's a friendly little devil. My wife has decided to name her either Shira or Xena.

The United States Humane Society was on hand, and told me how she was rescued. Apparently, she was in a Gulfport shelter when the storm surge came in. The water level rose to within just a few inches of the top of her cage. Which means she had to stand in the rushing water and breathe as best she could until the waters receded. Half of the dogs in the building didn't make it.

I'm pleased to report that the other dogs have accepted her, and they're having a ball in the yard. She also loves hot dogs.

Squirrel Babies

Two days ago I was sitting in my plastic Adirondack chair and enjoying the shade. As I turned to go inside, one of my dogs expressed interest in something laying on the ground. The object started to squeak. I ran over, fearing that my dog would quickly kill whatever she had found. It was a baby squirrel- roughly four weeks old, I think. Its eyes were still closed.

Looking around, I quickly found another. My best guess is that they fell out during the storm. It's a miracle they lived, considering how cool the nights have been lately.

I quickly warmed them up and ran them down to the Coliseum in Jackson, where several wildlife rehabilitators were on hand due to the hurricane. They stuck them with IV drips (literally) and the little guys perked right up. They'll raise them until they're ready to be released back into the wild.

Hurricane Poem (In Three Parts)

Part One: Prelude

We had the hubris to have it named-
The Western sense preoccupied
With controlling the untamed.
It began as a small storm untried
Swirling off a distant coast-
If it garnered any headlines
It was page five, at most.
But she grew and organized
And barrelled out to sea
Still the world turned a blind eye
To the coming tragedy-
It skirted Florida- a sigh-
A bullet that we'd missed
But it quickly grew and drew a line
And prepared the Judas kiss.
Finally we saw the signs
And told the people "Go."-
Either folly or a lack of time
Which one we'll never know-
But many masses stayed behind
And huddled in a dome.


Part Two: The Meeting

The wind roared and rushed
Bringing in waves and salty slush
A mixture of dead fish and sand
Overcoming the helpless land.
Boats and yachts strewn about
Leaving the living with no doubt
As to the storm's remarkable strength
Tempered only by its shortened length
The water carried out its debris
As quickly as it set it free
And headed back down toward the beach
The rubble left proof enough of the breach.


Part Three: Repercussions

The levees broke in Orleans-
Flooding the city with liquid filth.
Twenty thousand men, women,
And children moan and die in the
Flooding streets. An old lady,
Dead in her wheelchair, sits rotting
Against a wall, her casket a sheet.
Babies wail next to corpses
And tongues grow stiffened and thick
With lack of water.
Tempers rise- people, the primal urge
To live so strong, resort to violence
To make their presence known.
(All the while the old lady rots.)
Bodies float in rusty water
Lit up by fires that go unchecked.
Much more than buildings-
Hope has been wrecked.
No sandbag can fix it-
No mortar restore
The spirit of the woman
Trapped in her attic
Losing strength and letting go.

They're Doing What They Can

I'm as big a conspiracy theorist as there is, but I don't think that the government is intentionally neglecting the victims of Hurricane Katrina. I understand that people are upset- I would be too- but the government is sending what they can as fast as they can.

Nothing like this has happened before- most hurricanes are either very concentrated (Camille) or just cause minimal damage over a very broad area. This one caused catastrophic damage over 90,000 square miles. No government is fully prepared to deal with this.

Ships are arriving- but they take precious time to get there. The National Guard is arriving in full force.

Sadly, I know that it will be too late to save many. But I refuse to believe that the government could have moved resources any quicker. Bush declared the area an emergency area before the hurricane even hit- allowing the pre-positioning of troops. The problem was that no one could foresee the devastation this particular hurricane would cause. We've probably been hit by a hundred hurricanes in the last fifty years- for some reason, this one was different. It's a tragedy, to be sure- but it's not the government's fault.

Once in a lifetime such a storm strikes- let's focus on the recovery, not criticize the valiant efforts of our rescue workers.

Long Wait

My wife just spent the last SIX HOURS waiting in line for gas. Luckily, they didn't run out, and she was able to fill up. The line was so long that Domino's Pizza was driving by selling pizzas. Fortunately, the police were there to maintain order.

A car ran out of gas right in front of my home earlier tonight. I took the driver a Coke- thankfully, he was able to hitch a ride with another guy he was following. I fear that there will be more cars littering the side of the road in the future.

I yearn for the days when I had nothing to blog about.

Living off the Land

I think most people don't realize how much we depend on gasoline. Almost every item on the grocery store shelf comes in on a truck. If you've ever been to a Wal-Mart late at night, you've seen the convoys arrive like clockwork.

Our only saving grace might be the fact that most semis run on diesel, which I imagine isn't in quite as short a supply. We'll have to wait and see.

Right now the local news is putting gas conservation tips on the TV. This is surreal.

My goal right now is to plan for the long-term. I'm fine for two weeks, but what happens when two weeks passes and there's still no gas?

I have two ideas. One involves two rather large chestnut trees in the field behind my house. Last time I checked, they had dumped quite a lot of fruit on the ground. I need to pick them up and store them just in case. I know it sounds crazy, but I'd rather have them than not.

The second idea is to procure a fishing pole and some tackle. There's a small pond behind my house that I believe is full of fish, and a rather large river is about a mile down the road. That would be almost an endless supply of food- if I needed it.

Once again, I don't think it will come to this, but I'm prone to think ahead.

Hope for the best- prepare for the worst.

Canned Ham

I headed north to get some non-perishable items today- canned hams, mixed vegetables, baked beans, etc. I think that if I had to, I could last two weeks here with what I have.

There are two main problems being caused by the gasoline shortage- stores aren't being replenished and people can't get to work. I tried to buy gas today but they were only accepting cash- by the time I made it back with some, they were out.

I'm not leaving here until at least Tuesday, when I'm supposed to go to law school. Something tells me that won't happen either, as most people won't have the gas to make the trip.

I fear this is only going to get worse.