pantoum's Diaryland Diary

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HE HAD A REASON TO GET BACK TO LAKE CHARLES

(No. 234 � Sunday � 28 August 2005 � 6:30 PM) Pottergrrl and I just returned from a day on the river to make the perfect August meal: grilled fresh corn; broccoli cooked on high in olive oil and lemon; green beans cooked in garlic and onions and olive oil and balsamic vinegar with chives sprinkled on top (a Pottergrrl speciality); Swiss chard cooked in lemon and salt; red potatoes cooked in garlic with chives and rosemary; and grilled, spice-rubbed salmon. She brought an amazing chocolate sour cream cake with a lemon and condensed milk and vanilla and chopped pecans glaze down from the mountains too and oh my Gawd is it good!

I�ve been logged onto weather.com ever since she left for her long drive back to back home, checking on status of Hurricane Katrina. I grew up near the coast, saw the street signs bent in half after Hurricane Hugo left Charleston in tatters, survived Hurricane Fran back in September 1996�and, let me tell you, that was one sobering experience.

The GInger and I were fortunate though, because we just lost our fence and a large portion of our roof and our deck furniture and a few trees.

Our ninety-year-old windows damn near rattled out of their panes too and the cats dug their claws into us in fear as our solid walls of thirteen inches of stucco started dripped onto the hardwoods and strange flowers that we did not plant in our yard started sprouted up there. We lost power for over a week and I wound up grinding my coffee beans with a rolling pin and brewing it on the grill.

Our neighborhood had so many downed trees that no one could leave our street. So, when it became obvious how widespread the damage was, we neighbors decided to pool our food and grilled out meals in the tree-strewn streets together (and enjoyed my three boxes of melting lime popsicles after chopping down trees all day too lemmetellya).

We sweated like pigs and cursed our bad luck and didn�t think about going into work even once and the men grew beards and we all drew straws to see which unfortunate neighbor would have to stand in line at the grocery store all day for a few supplies for us all and we worshipped our few smart neighbors who owned generators and stored all our beer for us so we could have cold ones together after chopping up trees together all day.

What�s sobering to me is that our town sustained that much damage and lost power for five to ten days despite the fact that we are a good two-and-a-half hours from the coast! And Fran was only a category 3 storm.

Gawd I hope Katrina spares Lake Pontchartrain. I�ve always wanted to go there�and not just because Lucinda sings about it! In fact, I�ve always wanted to drive to New Orleans with my friend Zulu, do a real down-home delta drive with this bud that involves juke joints and drinking bad beer in tall cans and charming all those little ol� ladies and smalltown cops as we eat pie in diners and party our way to The Big Easy.

I submitted a budget request to attend the AAUP conference in New Orleans in June 2006 and really hope it�s approved�if New Orleans still exists, that is.

�

(Monday now) An Alternet reader pointed out that the UK has announced guidelines for deporting �extremist religious leaders� who preach hatred and violence. This means they could deport Pat Robertson and Fred Phelps, right?

And, incidentally, another alert AlterNet reader pointed out that Pat Robertson supported Charles Taylor (who was convicted of war crimes) and said on The 700 Club (in 2003, during the time when he was petitioning Congress to drop sanctions against Liberia),

How dare the president of the United States say to the duly elected president of another country, "You've got to step down."

And, while we�re on the topic, did anyone else note that Dr. James Dobson of the conservative Focus on the Family told fathers recently that they can prevent homosexuality by showering with their boys (to affirm their maleness) and teaching them to pound square wooden pegs into square holes? Yes, it�s all comes down to our inability to hammer those pegs, folks.

BEST OF SPAM SUBJECT LINES: No more penis enlarge ripoffs � Expand Disgusting fats BONK � do you want white teeths?

12:02 p.m. - 2005-08-29

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