living in New Orleans is a treat I have to admit. I love living here, and wish I had moved here two decades ago. I don't know if I would have survived the city at that time. In the years since I moved here in 1997, I've seen more people than I can name get chewed up and spit out by this city. I've been chewed up a number of times myself, but have managed to live through it.
This weekend, we are awaiting the arrival of Hurricane Dennis. This is the first time in history a hurricane the strength of Dennis has made it to the Gulf of Mexico. The forecast at this time is calling for landfall in the Florida panhandle, or Alabama, but New Orleans is on the western edge of the possible path.
Yesterday Jefferson and St. Bernard Parishes called for voluntary evacuations. Orleans Parish has not been so quick to move in that direction. I personally think that the call for evacuations was pre-mature, but then I'm not a professional, so who would actually give a fuck about my opinion anyway.
I don't expect to evacuate myself, but will be pulling out my ice chest and preparing later this afternoon just in case.
It's long been a tradition down here to throw hurricane parties...another excuse to drink massive amounts of beer and partake in a number of other recreational pharmaceuticals. This year is a different matter for me...the only beer I will be drinking is non-alcoholic. The only other substance I'm interested in is a little of the ole marijuana to combat certain sides that are occurring from the interferon/ribavirin therapy.
Speaking of sides, I got another bout of Riba-Rage™. For the last two days at work we have had phone and computer problems. I wasn't all that effected mentally on Thursday, but on Friday it got to me. When I arrived at work, the first thing that happened was what I felt was a total mis-communication with one of the sales reps from another office. It seemed that either I couldn't get my point across, which is highly possible in my current state, or he just couldn't get it, which is the perception that I had at the time because of my current state. In the end it turned out ok, and our client had already received their check.
The next thing that happened was what began setting me off. The first call that I made dropped and that menacing "ABANDONED CALL" notification showed up on the LED screen of the tele. I tried a few more calls, keeping my temper in check for the time being, and when the dropped calls continued, I decided to begin doing some skip tracing on the Internet to avoid the day being a total loss. Well, welcome to the wonderful world of our IS department. The speed of the inet slowed to equal dialup when 14.4k modems were the norm. Fuck me; I couldn't any page I needed to load at work, so my Riba-Rage™ slowly escalated as the day progressed.
By 3PM, I was grinding my teeth, and ready to break my phone and beat any warm body with the monitor of my computer...but I did survive, as did the world at large, so I was successful.
It's noon now, and I think I'm going to jump into the shower and get out of here for a while.
Unix Fast Food