On the river

This is a ship a couple days ago, heading out to the Gulf

Mornings, my friend Carol and I try to go for a walk along the Mississippi River. We text each other, and meet at Crescent Park - New Orleans' downtown waterfront now re-purposed as a park. We walk about a mile upriver, just below the French Quarter, before turning back.

The Port of New Orleans is still a vital economic engine, and on our morning walk we see its activity.

This morning's ship

This morning, a big red painted freighter came upriver.  As we watched, it navigated the serpentine curves of the stream - the ox-bow loop around Algiers Point, giving way onto the smooth curve that gives New Orleans its name of Crescent City.

Someone I talked to once about ships on the river said navigating these curves is an art. The pilots let the Mississippi's current do the work, shifting the ship's ass-end around in a counterclockwise turn.

Check it out.

Hi, Nate!

Our weekend guest Nate just arrived.

Out in public!

You know how when you were a kid adults would act scandalized to think you might dress or behave a certain way when out in public?

Well, that's what Southern Decadence is all about!

This weekend-long festival has been taking place  over Labor Day weekend in New Orleans for 46 years. It's said that even during Hurricane Katrina, the parade took place, attended by French Quarter hold-outs before evacuation.

Sunday was the parade that culminates the celebration. Friends and I went down to the Quarter to join in.

As might be expected, there were several organizations and people who didn't get the joke, didn't enjoy the spectacle. In face, certain religious figures even blamed Southern Decadence for the hurricanes that have hit the city over the years.  

Party poopers. But no matter. The spirit of fun and revelry will always prevail.

If you can imagine it, there was a costume for it.

You're not going out in public like that, are you?

Sordid decadence

What happens when Southern Decadence + Sordid Lives + New Orleans + Vaughan's Lounge meet?

This.

El Chapo got into the act too!

Good morning!

This morning's rainbow.

Weathering the storm.

Here in New Orleans, we knew to expect heavy rain from the outer bands of Hurricane Harvey. Since the city's Sewarage and Water Board's incompetence has put our neighborhoods at risk of flooding, everyone has been nervous about the severity of the downpour.

Yesterday the rain started around 1:00 pm. I was at work on the University of New Orleans campus. My office window looks out into a courtyard, and we could see the pavement within pool up with water. As the wind dashed rain against the glass, we could hear a strange geyser sound, and I caught video here - it must be that as the downspouts reach capacity, they back up and burst up into the air.

Heya Harvey

Here's the New Orleans skyline this morning, with grey clouds to the west and over the Gulf.

The Texas coast is bracing for Hurricane Harvey. Here in New Orleans, we are bracing for rain, and hoping our city's pumps and drainage system won't fail us.

While I don't expect much flooding where I live, on the "sliver by the river," I'm still laying in supplies in case of power outages.

I also have a cute new pair of red rain boots, just in case!

Too Darn Hot

In tour guide school, they cautioned us to be careful giving walking tours in the heat of summer. Sunscreen. Plenty of water. A hat or a parasol to shield from the sun. Keep the guests in shade as much as you can.

We were told to watch our guests for signs of heat exhaustion. To place a cool wet-nap on the back of their neck to cool someone down. To duck inside air-conditioned places if possible.

During breakfast, Friday morning, WWNO announced the heat index would be 109 that day. I had a tour on Friday morning, and I kept all this in mind. I gave my opening speech inside the cool courtyard instead of out in Jackson Square. I cut short my stop at the Washington Artillery because there was no shade. I kept my six guests beneath the galleries and balconies on the street. I had a big bottle of water and carried a parasol.

Nevertheless, at about 12:15, standing on the corner of Royal and St. Louis streets, as I began to tell my guests about the old St. Louis Hotel and its infamous history as an antebellum market for enslaved people, I suddenly felt a strong urge to sit down.

"Whooo," I said. "I think I'm a little light-headed." My vision began to grey out around the edges.

My guests leaped to my side. "Let's go inside," they said, and supporting me, they guided me across the street and into the vestibule of the Omni Royal Hotel - the hotel built on the site of the old St. Louis Hotel.

I felt immediate relief in the air conditioning, but I was still dizzy and lightheaded. "Hey," I said. "This is embarrassing. I'm supposed to take care of you guys, not the other way around."

I ended up lying down on the cool marble floor with my feet elevated on someone's backpack. The hotel's concierge arrived with two cold bottles of water - I drank one and someone laid the other on the back of my neck.

"I guess this is the end of the tour," I told them. "Sorry about that." I urged my guests to go have a pleasant lunch.

Fifteen minutes later, I felt okay enough to sit up and call an Uber.  The concierge went outside to flag the driver down for me.

There are two morals to this story. 1) Be careful in the heat. It can happen even when you're prepared. and 2) People are kind. I am so grateful for the kindness of my guests, and that of the Omni Royal Hotel staff.

Here comes the rain again

It was close to two in the afternoon on Saturday, and John Boutte was playing under the tent at the Satchmo Festival. The lawn beneath the tent - the lawns everywhere at the Old U.S. Mint - was thickly mulched with pine straw, although it failed to completely staunch the oozing black mud that had been generated by a torrential downpour yesterday. New Orleanians have learned that tall rubber boots are de rigueur festival footwear.

Still, the band was rocking. The canopied bar area was full of people drinking margaritas, bloody marys, and frozen daiquiris. You could smell the delicious aromas from the food tents - smoked sausage, meat pies, fried catfish.