I spent a fair amount of my holiday weekend involved in volunteer work for the hurricane evacuees. Please hold your applause — as I clearly stated in my last post, I was simply doing my job as a human being. Or a saint. I’m too tired to remember which. I’m sure anybody reading this has already had their fill of eye-witness accounts so I shall refrain from adding my own. I will say that I was mildly surprised to find that the expected Louisiana Invasion of Houston was handled quietly and without fanfare. As much and as often as I make fun of Texans, and as much and as often as they in turn make fun of their “crazy neighbours” in Louisiana; these people opened their hearts, their minds, and their wallets. They gave of their compassion and their time.

There was also a lot of late-night catch-up partying when some of us more determined lushes volunteers staggered into the local bars to replenish our dehydrated blood-alcohol levels.

I had every intention of attending Chad’s music benefit. Instead, most unfortunately I was selfishly caught knee-deep in packing baby wipes, toothpaste, and suchlike frivolous toiletries. (I’m not sure why, from what I’ve been told Louisiana residents don’t have that many teeth anyway.) While helping to load boxes onto a truck, I also got to use my gym-trained muscles for something not-quite as strenuous as hauling 40-lb boxes of kat littah to the upper floor of my overpriced elderly townhouse. I did, however, crank-call Chad to warn him of the idiocy of posting his phone number on the BlogNet™. As I told him, all sorts of Danjerus-types could call and murmur nasty English-accented suggestions in his ear while he yelled “HOLD ON, I CAN’T HEAR YOU!” I also put in a charitable call to Pete and Jenna to see how their road trip was coming along. It was not. They were not actually leaving until the next day so all I managed to do was interrupt their dinner. Still, we had a delightful chat.

What scares me, in all honesty, is that allegedly some of the New Orleans jails didn’t evacuate their prisoners; they simply LET THEM GO. (Hence the looting, rapes, etc.?) We can only hope that the stupidity of the criminals will land them back in jail before they get as far as Houston. On the bright side, some of the local singles might find a bigger dating pool available to them, albeit briefly. Sadly, I am still seeing many local homeless people standing at intersections clutching their pathetic little cardboard signs. Yes, I KNOW that some of them are “professional” panhandlers who make a good income from sucker-induced cash handouts. However, a fair percentage of our homeless are mentally ill, chemically dependent, and so on. While our sports stadiums are swollen with the welfare recipients of another State, what about our own homeless? No, I don’t have the answer(s), I am merely speculating about other aspects of this horrible situation. Ask yourself this: Would the nation have responded so compassionately if New Orleans was not the beloved Disneyland for Alcoholics and Flashers?

I must admit that I am relieved to be back in my day job. That’s the one where I get paid to write these impudent little stories for your delight and admiration.

Current Mood: saintly … and exhausted

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 6th, 2005 at 4:24 pm and is filed under Reflective. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.