blatherings

first of all, i called entergy about the absurd catch-22 gas situation, and they put me on hold for a while and then came back and said that when the underground gas company gets the water out of the lines, they will 1. put fliers on doorknobs and 2. call us to let us know that we can schedule a turn-on. so that made me feel somewhat better. we'll see if they actually do it.

home depot told us they were getting a shipment in on friday night of the tall, 40-gallon, 12-yr warranty, gas water heaters that we've been looking for, so after the annual fete du beaujolais nouveau at will & lisa's, we borrowed their pickup truck in order to hit home depot nice and early on saturday morning. chris drove over at 8 am while i took care of the dog (TJ and anna went to a B&B for their first anniversary), but came back empty-handed; the entire shipment had been reserved by special order. so much for that. i went to ballet class and chris went to the gym, then we met up at the house. before chris arrived, i spent some time chatting with julie and two other neighbors that i hadn't met before, louise and marie. louise was full of neighborhood gossip (tulane is DESIGNED to drain into our neighborhood; that guy that just drove by is mad at me because i reported him to the city for trying to turn a duplex into a fourplex without the proper permits; etc), but eventually the conversation devolved into a rehashing of the horrors of the convention center, which were apparently witnessed firsthand by a neighborhood couple in their 90s who were left behind by their kids during the evacuation, and then into the kind of conversation where people start lowering their voices in case there are any black folks around and using the pronouns "they" and "them" a lot. i extricated myself as soon as i could.

we broke out the lil'giant ladder, which was luckily salvageable from the flood (i guess the infomercials don't lie; they're pretty indestructible), and started cleaning the gutters. they were jam-packed with pine needles (thanks to the four pine trees next to our house), oak leaves, and gobs and gobs of mud. we didn't finish cleaning them on saturday, because the AC/heating repair guys that will & lisa recommended showed up to check things out & give us an estimate (you don't want to know). they're two brothers, and they have the talkative brother/silent brother dichotomy going on, which is pretty funny. they thought the estimates we got for our roof were high, so they called their buddy and he's supposed to be coming out today to give us an estimate.

on our way to dinner at will & lisa's on saturday night, we got the FEMA do-you-want-a-trailer phone call. no thanks. at dinner we were joined by steve bass, his friend juan, and a newcomb student who is apparently dating juan, although he is twice her age. juan is in the december issue of GQ as one of 6 or 7 NOLA men who were selected for the "men of the year" feature; he rode around in his boat and saved around 20 people and a bunch of dogs & cats after the storm. the newcomb student has been volunteering with the red cross. chris & i were going to try to make the 11 pm set at snug harbor (my friend angie gets us in free), but we were beat, so we had to bail.

on sunday we finished the gutters and started tackling the demon shrubbery, without much success. we met our neighbor across the street, gerri, who has apparently moved back in, and even has power restored to her second floor (her electrician just turned it on, since entergy is being so slow). it's encouraging that she's back.

meanwhile, julie still has not even had a homeowners adjuster out to her house. she's still thinking about selling, but she can't really do anything until she knows what she'll get from the insurance companies. our homeowners' finally mailed us a check-- about six weeks after the adjuster came out-- but mailed it to the wrong address, so they just called to tell us it was returned to them. chris had already told them about three times that they had our address wrong. the amount of the check was a few thousand less than the roof estimate we originally got, so i'm really hoping the AC guys were right.

speaking of mail, i did something really boneheaded. we'd changed our address to chicago when we evacuated, and did a permanent rather than temporary change since we had no idea how long it would be. well, since they've allegedly restored mail service to all NOLA zip codes (though that may mean mail is delivered once a week), i went online and changed my address back to NOLA. it didn't occur to me that this meant my mail would be forwarded to chicago, and then back to NOLA. i had to go to the post office and fill out two forms and i have a feeling it will be months before i get my mail straightened out. sigh.

we were hoping to move back to the uptown campus this week, but tulane is totally dragging their feet on finishing our office, which had relatively minimal damage but still needed work. our dean checked it out today and was seriously pissed off to see what a mess it was. we were originally going to stay with TJ & anna until my office moved back uptown, but i think it's time for us to stop waiting for tulane and get out of TJ & anna's hair. we're dog-sitting at john & cindy's in the lower garden district from wednesday through sunday, and i think after that we'll move over to will & lisa's.

people whose homes i have stayed in since evacuating:

darrelle, houston, TX (friend of my friend angie)
jonathan & anna, houston, TX (chris's friend dave's cousin)
rick & beverly, nashville, TN (john's aunt & uncle)
jim & laurie, wheaton, IL (chris's dad & his SO)
mom & dad, duxbury, MA
meg, sturbridge, MA (chris's mom)
TJ & anna, metairie, LA
steve & erin, NYC (let us stay at their place for their wedding)
will & lisa, NOLA
(and, soon, john & cindy, NOLA)

the great thing is that thanks to all these people, i've only spent one night in a hotel, and that was to catch my 6 am flight out of bradley after missing the original one due to flooding.