Buicks Love Hurricanes

I had another really long, cool day yesterday. I am using my Spanish all the time here and have been proposed to on quite a few occassions by contractors gutting houses. I'm going to keep my options open for now, though. :)

I have to mention that I have seen some sharp looking 1998 Champagne Buick Regals in these parts. Real resilient American vehicles built to whether a storm. Some cars didn't have such an easy time of it. My Dad would cringe if he saw what I saw today. We went into St. Bernard- Orleans Parish where the 17th St. levee broke. Real affluent neighborhood full of some mansion type homes all wrecked. Some of those home owners had nice old car collections... I saw more than one 57 Chevy up a tree and a whole lot of old VW bugs floating in muck. Boats from the marinas are lodged in the side of homes. Huge yachts are in piles sinking at the end of docks at the Yacht Club.

It is SO insane how powerful water is and it is very humbling. This neighborhood is right off Lake Pontchartrain. It has been ~ 80 days since Katrina and I can't even imagine how horrendous it must have looked in the first few weeks. The water level on buildings is at 10ft. at the minimum and nothing and no one is in their place. One lone cat walked the street looking scared and hungry. Just as I saw spray painted on a house- 'Katrina, what a bitch!' Other houses were spray-painted 'XXXX, where are you?' by people looking for loved ones. That is the scariest thing to witness.

The best line I heard all day when asking if a man would like a case of water... "Honey, I ain't turnin' down nothing but my shirt collar these days." Absolutely perfect. There are SO many characters down here and it amazes me that they are still funny even when the hurricane picked their house up and put it three blocks over in a pile. One guy I was talking with said, "Ahh, I'll be good, once I find my damn boat- that was my escape vehicle from my wife."