Busted:::::::::::::::

Today was a work day again. The move to DMORT is one of endless work here at the beginning. We are still working over the server and actual domain configuration out there. We got our lock to our door and I scrounged a cabinet so we can lock up incidentals out there. Knocked off at noon and took a drive to take pictures of the countryside.






This is kind of typical of rural Lousiana as far as I can see. Get just 4 or 5 miles outside places like Baton Rouge and people live in places like this. Notice how they are elevated up on pilings... Saw things similar to this in Belize and also the Yucatan from the locals there.
















Another ramshackle pace.. but they are in such pretty locations. Everyone sits outside on their porches rain or shine. Must be too hot inside no matter what the day














This is a Catholic church near the DMORT. There is storm damage still evident on the front and also the rear of the steeple. There is a quite old cemetary behind this place too. Very pretty in the country like this








Ok.. this last pic is of the DMORT, the new and at the time of this photograph, unoccupied, DMORT. Just seconds after this picture was taken we were rounded up by the security forces of our National Police (odd black uniforms) and detained long enough for them to establish our identity. We were on the Levee with our backs to the Mississippi nearly 400 yards from the facility when we took them. Lets say it was not a comfortable moment... :-)... I resisted the urge to be a wise ass and we were eventually released... oddly enough. it was my fema credit card that convinced them we were not terrorists bent on stealing bodies or news people trying to stir up trouble. Who says I cannot show a girl a good time eh?? Who WOULD NOT like a sunday afternoon in handcuffs after a quiet picture taking episode eh??



The front building you can see left of the phone pole is where I work and is over 400 feet long. They are almost triangular in cross section and made of the same material of the DIA roof. I can attest they do not leak after a deluge last night.

New Digs...a move to a different office

Today was interesting...... I was reassigned to a different building this morning doing the IT work for a different group. It was an upgrade in responsibility [gulp] in that I have a tiny little kingdom of like 248 users and all the network responsibility for them all in a remote site.

My new group is DMORT... which stands for Disaster Morturary O.............. Response Team. These guys live and breathe taking care of victims of the disasters that did not survive. They are trying to identify a number of dead(there are still hundreds unidentified) by distinguishing characteristics, x-rays, dental records and DNA where possible. They are moving from a temporary morgue to a permanent one that has been constructed on ground that FEMA purchased in a tiny little town south west of Baton Rouge that was once famous for housing a leper colony. The temp morgue was an abandoned elementary school..... They housed people in classrooms, fed them in the cafeteria and entertained them in the gym. These people are still working virtually 24X7 to identify the dead. They housed the dead in Trailers with freezer units on them.. an endless line of hastily white painted trailers with deisel engines running freezer units. The autopsy room was a tent...... aparently doing that outside was a blessing but it created very unpleasant smells throughout the compound. I saw some of the effort to identify people ..... most that have been recovered are horribly disfigured ... this climate degrades them very quickly especially in the water. The teams trying to identify them are still sleeping on cots in barely ventilated abandoned classrooms and eating off paper plates to get this job done... makes me kind of ashamed I was complaining about the hotel I was staying at.

The new digs are very plush however. Nice wide parking lot, the buildings are made of the "tent" material that the roof of Denver International is made from. All the wires are run in the walls or in the ceiling, it has a dining room, a huge dorm for sleeping, a warehouse, an excercise room and a kind of TV/Great room with a wireless router for doing personal computing. My job gets tough when these foolk get here as they are bringing in computers of dubious heritage that have to be joined to a finicky network with all kinds of restrictions that doctors do not like to hear. My first mission is data retention to make sure nothing is lost. I am in this place to promote a "FEMA presence" to this and make sure our protocols are followed.. one of those situations guaranteed to grate somewhere... I will send pictures as I am allowed to. As you can imagine this is a very sensitive area with lots of privacy restrictions. The compound has 9 foot chain link fences with canvas tied to the fence to block views of anything. After the things I saw today, I doubt I will be making any "Dawn of the Dead" references again anytime soon.

Style::::::::::::::::;

The JFO has a “dress code” that is widely ignored. While I have seen few people actually in shorts, you see all other manner of clothing deemed appropriate by the person that put it on that morning. I have to admit sometimes I want to ask some of these folk.. “did you LOOK at yourself in a mirror this am?”…… There is a woman in planning that has found some of the most unusual outfits I have ever seen. She seems to gravitate towards spandex.. (this is a serious mistake except I am sure it is comfortable)… Now she has a completely matching outfit every day, jacket, blouse and pants… These have run from a desert camo type outfit to a Jimi Hendrix experience type psychedelic number that Has more bright colors than a mardi gras parade. She has a total Flamingo pink outfit, forest camo, a kind of watermelon stripe thing and one that is totally black that is stretched SO tight you can see her white thong undies through it…. I keep wondering if she wrestles heavyweight on the WWF or something….

There is a park that the interstate 10 bisects with a lake (swamp?) that runs on both sides. In the evening the trees have hundreds of Cattle Egrets sitting in them (big white heron looking birds). In the mornings they are all separated and standing in the shallow water fishing for breakfast…. This is very pretty with the lily pads and elephant ear growing on the banks. I remember that it is not a good idea to just go “swimmin’ ” down here.. you tend to forget that there are leeches, snakes and gators in this environment till you get here. The frost we had the other day kind of burned an edge or two of some of the bedding and garden plants. But there are still banana trees and all kinds of ferns and tropical palms and such here that are blooming outside.

Monday:::::

Monday:::::

I took these pictures on Sunday… an idea of what parking is like, and the outside of the building I am in.. (yes it was a grey day).. My rental is in the foreground here.. kind of peppy for a Pontiac.. J … The second is what some of the internal life at FEMA and disasters is about. We are hiring approx 500 people in the Baton Rouge area between now and Dec 7……. This is a standard Sunday move of people.. this is the Admin department and all these people are splitting it into two parts and moving them. They gave everyone Sunday off in this department so they could all be rested for their new location Monday morning…… so here comes the fun part. Half the group was up and running at 7:30 am this morning and… and……. And.. powers that be decided they needed to be in a different location…I actually thought the lady responsible for this group was going to come to blows with the building people and there was an actual intervention performed to settle the issue… needless to say they are all moved and we had to set up all their computers yet again. They were all moved and “back at work” by noon.. but wow!!!!

We reduced hours starting this week, it will lessen my work load some and give me some time to see part of the city perhaps. Looking forward to that . Found a ship thing down by the river that looks interesting and a big museum down there so there are cultural features to see as well. For those of you stuck in northern climes, it is going to be “seasonal” this week meaning temps at or near 70 degrees….. the humidity is just perfect and it rains occasionally. I do not even have to wear jackets out in the evening…………….

We are starting to plan Thanksgiving things here in the JFO… seems lots of people are staying here as we mostly only get one day off. There were a ton of people cycling out at this time but the ones not going home for a period of time are not going to work and are planning Thanksgiving things. I have not exactly done that but will likely go to Ruby Tuesdays for Thanksgiving dinner… They are planning some kinda thing there… Wishing you all an awesome Thanksgiving.

Friday::::::: “Working For the Weekend”

Friday::::::: “Working For the Weekend”

For those of you that might like to know. New Orleans will be open for Mardi Gras. The airport is currently building its flights and if you can stand the smell, you will find the French quarter actually somewhat better than it was last year. Good luck finding a place to stay…. What was once a 70 or 80 min drive down I 10 or I 12 is now on the order of 3 and a half hours if you are lucky apparently due to traffic rather than damage. Everyone working in the city has to leave to eat and sleep for the most part.

There are still about 1800 people living in tents in the state, I read they have put up 30,000 “blue roofs” with another 30,000 to go these are tarps in place of a roof on a house. FEMA is still serving three hot meals to evacuees in a tent city just across the river from me. Some folk are staying there because the food is so good. Several of our Local hires are people displaced by both Hurricanes.. One just get set up in a trailer and her remaining belongings put in safe storage when the trailer she was in got destroyed by Rita after Katrina and 30 days later. She lived on a cot upstairs for 30 days eating meals here and working during the day.. and has been sharing hotel rooms with co-workers on Per-Diem and with fema supplied housing since there is simply no place to live in Baton Rouge either. That is actually one of the success stories, FEMA was going to stop paying for hotels for evacuees on December 2, but got it delayed to December 15 as it apparently would have made 52,000 people homeless if they did that (/? The math of that does not pass my sniff test but I cannot prove or disprove it)

We had two bomb scares this week that we evacuated the building for, the first one we moved outside the compound fence, the second one I actually went to lunch for the duration.

I found a place to do my laundry, they do wash and fold and they came out real pretty…. 8 lbs of laundry was $10 folded.. this seems very cheap to me but I was able to run the clothes in and get them during the work day on my breaks as it is so close to work. Our presence seems to be impacting this laundry lady in a very positive way.. she has hired her sister to help and they are doing very well it seems (Doc’s Laundry if you are ever here for any Length of time.. on Government Street) Laundry is a little sub story of this whole place. One savvy lady has bribed the hotel laundry person to do hers on Sunday when she is very slow for about $12 a week.

Parking is insane. The old mall parking was too small anyway so they park on sidewalks.. grass medians, parallel and in every possible way on the parking lot itself.. it forces you to walk on the street which is death defying anyway… This place opens at 7, and if you get here at 6:45 you can park anywhere you want.. if you get here at 7 you will hear honking and tire squealing I am very surprised there is so little paint swapped in this lot.

Hats::::::::::::;

Hard to live long in this country and not notice the racial overtones of this place. I certainly work in a more racially diverse climate than I have ever been before. The mall is full of differences, there are black sales people and Hispanic mangers and professional people. Two of the MD’s here at FEMA are both black and women, so they are double dippers in that regard. I have seen no mixed race couples at all here, but I commonly sit in restaurants in the middle of families of a variety of backgrounds winding down their days. There is a pressing need for Vietnamese translators here in Louisiana for disaster relief. I cannot wait to hear Cajun incorporate Vietnamese in it’s patois.

I want to talk about fashion though. I am sure this will perk up the ears of at least one of my readers. First is a comparison. There is a Bennigans on Mississippi and I 270 in Aurora. Once upon a time we used to have an AOL luncheon there on Sunday afternoons. This place is very close to a Black gospel church and I had the opportunity to watch many many of these stylish women exit church and come to the Bennigans for Sunday Dinner. I was always delighted to see the amazing hats these women wore and the elaborate hair styling under the hats that they wore. They are hard to describe from memory but they were intricate, very very matched with the rest of the wardrobe (I decided they bought the hat, and then bought an outfit to go with it, cause I am sure it was not accidental in those colors) The hair was also amazing.. swooping curves, impossible balance, perfect ringlets.. quite amazing… Actually I bet that show still goes on every Sunday……. Ok.. fast forward…..this past Sunday I was eating in the golden corral. It was 12:30 ish and right after church.. and there were a number of families in this place a preponderance of which were black. Clearly these folk were just coming from church, the men were dressed in ties and slacks… the women in nice dresses on balance, but not one hat.. and.. not one seriously interesting hair style. Do you suppose it is regional?

There is going to be a big announcement tomorrow about staffing in the JFO and other FEMA locations …massive hiring… they are putting more local hires on the payroll and letting contractors go… lots of them coming up to terminate December one. So this is a good time to be hired into FEMA here if you have certain skills. Lots of people will draw a pretty decent pay check for quite a while here. FEMA apparently leased this building for three years so a long time for some people.

This is a picture of some of the water available. Likely this is from one of the brewers… it IS water.. but is more like a chlorine cocktail than something fun to drink. I am positive it is safe, but it is also something you could use to fumigate an apartment with. Makes your eyes water.









This is a partial project plan up on the wall about removal of debris... the FEMA part of the plan runs into 3Q of 07 and is the solid dark line in the middle.. these are sites in every declared parish. This is a very simple project plan, each limb is very clean and has no real dependencies, but the sheer volume would be a very challenging project to manage.

Sunday::::: Pictures!!!!

This is the lobby and the Nurse stationed there. On a weekday this place is a crisscross of people going between west and east. The escalators in the background go to a giant room where all the maps you see on the walls are printed on site. There are some beautiful graphics that demonstrate the severity of the damage and all.

The second picture is the main concourse of the building... most of the assistance, mitigation and evaluations are done on this floor. Note the bundles of cables up on the walls to the upper right. These are a combination of telephony, fiberoptics and Cap 5 computer cabling that enervates the building.

Here is a hastily created sign.. hopefully you can catch which one.. :-D I love our language

Here is the work area for a group called PA (I think it is assistance for individuals.. anyway.. the insurance and planners sit in this area.... ) When it is a weekday during the day this is very much like images you have seen of one of the trading pits at the Mercantile exchange in New York. Chaos is amazing in this area....

This is the cafeteria late morning and before they set out all of lunch. It has sandwiches and at least one hot dish each of the morning and noon meals. They quit serving dinner as the work load decreased so you have to eat out of machines if you are here that late... most are gone by 7 pm most days.

Saturday::::: End of a week...

I over heard my boss this evening saying they were going to cut back some on staff for our group. I am not at all sure what that may mean for me here, things have been a little bit slow for our group, perhaps we set it up so well it will almost run itself. Anyway.. short day tomorrow only four hours 8 to noon and I am going to get some sunshine and try to find a new pair of shoes anyway.

Lots of tidbits and facts come out of doing desktop support in these different areas... some of the information you would just as soon not know... Health and Human Services are still trying to locate the parents of something in excess of 1800 children... most of which were just abandoned in aftermath of the storm..... what is considered the worlds largest colony of madascar (?) termites is living UNDER bourbon street in the french quarter of New Orleans... aparently the flood and sudden abundance of ready food has brought them and all their cousins out of the ground and they are actively munching on fallen trees, scraps and what remains of otherwise healthy dwellings in all of South Lousiana..... potentially a different kind of natural disaster triggered by another the hurricanes......

Traffic alone in this area will turn you grey. I am somewhat used to pushy drivers etc....but theyse guys take the cake.. :-D... More as time and energy allows. New Pay Period starts Tomorrow!!

TGIF:::::::::::: Southern Food

Ok.. got to the new hote. What can I tell you... The Hampton Inn rocks. Thick soft towels, King sized bed, all my stuff fits on or in something and is not in the way, there is a coffee table in front of my loveseat , a small microwave and fridge.. and a nice sized bathroom. I have four pillows on the bed and it is a big pillowtop thing that is comfy as hell. it even has one of those laptop things like a table that you can write or work from in bed... very nice and I believe I will be very comfy here. They even have breakfast from 6 am for three hours.. so I will get a banana every day or something.

I went out for dinner when I got here this evening. Ended up having BBQ at a place near here called "The Grill". I am very near LSU campus over here so it has a college flair. I got to thinking about the similarities and differences in both Southern cooking and Southern regions.

To begin with, I believe you can define the "Modern South" by looking at the breakfast menu's of wherever you stop. The border of the south is defined as those restrauants where they offer grits with eggs, In the Deep south, you can substitute tomatoes for grits in season :-) . Now BBQ is very different in the regional South... Texas BBQ is sweeter, darker and has a more of a vineager tang to me, here in LA, it is pepper spicier but still nice and red, and more semi sweet. Some of the BBQ in the south even has a mayonaise cachet to it..... anyway.. tonights BBQ was very good. You can define the south as well by ordering iced tea. In the south IF they ask, they will ask if you want your tea sweet or unsweetend. Standard iced tea for the south is sweet tea and it iis with real sugar and is more like brown cool aid than a refreshing drink. If you travel in the South, you may as well make a contest of discovering the best chicken fried steak ever. In rural communities and on highways not on the interstate, you will have your best luck either taking without question whatever the "special" is.. or.. asking for the chicken fried steak. The South will have a preponderance of these steaks NOT deep fried (one of the few foods preferentially NOT dropped in gallons of boiling grease down here) rather they are pan or griddle fried. Proper southern white gravy will not be clotted rather.. thickened and not overly black peppered. If the mashed potatos come with any other seasoning than butter and salt, you are in a gay bar. ;-) . More on Southern food here soon.

My group is getting at least some of Thanksgiving weekend off. I am going to get Thanksgiving day for sure and also Sunday following it off... but will have to work for sure one of the two days in between, and likely both.

Today I sat at the help desk near the front door. This desk has phones for the receptionist for this whole place as well as the walk up help desk. People with problems for anything walk up to the help desk and make a paper ticket for help on their issue. This is quite familiar but instead of wearing a head set taking phone calls, the people walk up to the front desk and talk to you directly about their issues. (yes.. shoot me now)…… Same issues to deal with but with the addition of all the spin these folk want to let go of for their frustrations of the working day…….

Speaking of which, there is a stress reduction center upstairs, and a cubby for a set of conflict resolution specialists who apparently help people resolve differences without resorting to name calling, finger pointing and rolling around on the floor. There is an on staff doctor, (hopefully not one of the ones discussing euthanasia in New Orleans during the Hurricane) and Nurses everywhere with ibuprofrin, Neosporin and bandaids as well as stuff for flu symptoms. There are tens of thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer on every level surface and everyone is constantly applying this to try to reduce the amount of contamination you get. Since I spend all day with my hands on other peoples computers (keyboards are the nastier than a toilet seat according to “Mythbusters””) I use this alcohol based gel by the gallon it seems.. it is very good for removing the dead skin from my hands… For those of you that know me and my terminally dry and scaley hands….. the humidity here plus the treatment of this antiseptic have very much removed the layers of deep dead skin on my left hand in particular.. but both hands very generally… I will not apparently have to whittle a finger out of the callus here.

I spent last evening preparing for my move tomorrow.. I had substantially unpacked in the room and spent time packing again. Put one big suit case in the car trunk where it may stay for quite a while and got the rest of the place organized so I can do it pretty easily tonight when I get done and get out so I can be on time for work in the morning. Then tomorrow night in a new place!!! Maybe there will be more of my peers living there. But for sure some sunshine by the pool next chance I get and the access to the gym for workouts.

Time for CSI and some time with my feet up in the air.... hope you all have a great day...

Second Wind Tuesday

Today FEMA man Traced a network cable from a balky printer to an obscure box in a wall way back in the back of the mall. Imagine a mouse cam view of a blue network cable going through amazingly hard to get into places to this switch. The net effect of the effort was to find the location of a problem and help a bunch of people to be able to print. These connection problems are a daily thing.. In Places where cables are on the floor they get run over by chairs or walked on by heavy shoes and get bruised so they quit working… then.. you have to trace the end of the wire through hell and gone to where it connects to the network and often pull replacement wire along the same route. Not a good day to have on your cape usually.

I had to take computer parts out to the depot this evening.. last thing of the day. This is where they are marshalling and shipping out among other things, the trailers that the people evacuated are going to live..... Oh My God.. what a bunch of trailers. Trucks to the horizon bringing them in and shipping them out.. 24 X 7 they are handling them.. it is simply the biggest operation I have ever seen.

I am going to take and post pictures from this building on Sunday… it is the slowest day and least likely to draw any flak for doing so. I have just decided it is too interesting not to document and post.

Only three more days after today till I get a different Hotel. Going to move on Friday so if you have not sent snail mail yet please hold off doing so. I am moving to a place where I get towels delivered to me and that has a pool and a gym… :-D I am pretty happy. Some of the people that have been here a couple months are getting transitioned over into apartments and condos (?) not sure how that would work but I am pretty happy with a smaller room and someone to make my bed and take out my trash. For now I am ok with restaurants for my food, lots of diversity here in types of things to eat and I am avoiding fried chicken and burgers for now.

And on that subject (written at work during break) I stopped at a Sushi place on the way home from work tonight and ate $35 worth of prime Sushi. The Yellowtail was simply the best I have ever tasted.. buttery and sweet. I had Tuna and Salmon too.. along with a tiny portion of eel for desert (it is served with a sweet sauce). YUM!! Nothing funny today.... the announcements for cars parked illegally are getting more creative (parking is horrendous for those folks that try to get to work EXACTLY on time).. this afternoon they threatened burning a Hertz rental that was blocking four other cars..... I never saw smoke so I presume it was moved.

:-)

Random Thots:::::::::::::::::::

Long if uneventful day at work, well as uneventful as things go here. I was met at the door this morning by a woman wearing the security guard uni that our door and gate security wear (feds on the gates, security on the doors lotsa sidearms on people I am not sure can hit a barn with them).... anyway.. she was wearing the uni.. all dark black with shiney silver chrome and badges.. very sharp... wearing 225 lbs of silver jewlrey fromher haiir to her neckline.. and black patent leather high heels with four inch heels and very pointy toes....when she caught me looking at them she told me that if she did not wear them, her ass looked fat in her uniform....

I was very productiive today, felt like I earned my pay for a change as I was able to work more on my own. I am glad I was not out of IT for another year I would have had a very long way to go to be useful. This is a very complex and odd way of getting masses of people on a government internet ...... as many of you might imagine, I would do it different.... :-D

I did dinner again at the Golden Corral... the guy cooking steaks picked out one just for me and made it medium rare just like I like it.. (they were not very busy) so I got this huge steak done my way.. very nice...

More when time and energy allows

Half a Day off!!! how nice!!

So the center closes after noon on Sunday, usually a good time for network weenies to make major changes, but this time it was time to send people out for a days rest. I went to the mall (funny since I seem to work at a mall) but I needed one where I could buy some shoes. I could not find either my style or size that I wanted even though I hit every shoe selling store in the "Mall of Lousiana" but Payless. Oh well maybe next time.

I got informed by my hotel that they will only clean my room once a week and that if I need more towels I have to come to the front desk. There are no Klenex or paper towels here either.. I am somewhat non-plussed by this place. They were insistent that I come to the front desk and pay with my credit card on a daily basis, rather than charge me for a week or let me run a tab ........ it is so very bizarre... I am looking for another place but it does not look good till after Christmas. I think if I get some luck, I will find some places around Thanksgiving with people traveling out of town to see relatives.......

So..to treat myself I went to a seafood place that was recommended to me. I ordered something called "Seafood Platter" and had a very pleasant surprise. Biggest plate of fish and fish products I have ever seen. Shrimp, stuffed shrimp, catfish strips (best I ever had), a cup of seafood gumbo, oysters, crab stuffed crab and one soft shelled crab ( and a mountain of french fries) ALL FRIED....... Ok.. I have to say, I have seen soft shelled crab in a sushi place in handrolls and always thought it looked good butttttttttttt..... This one was fried golden crispy.... I could not shed the image that it was a batter dipped and fried spider........ like it was going to try to get away when I munched on its little legs.... that when I bit into its carapace it was going to shriek EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All this visualization made me just a bit queazy...... The place had more stuffed critters on the wall than any other restrauant I have been to yet.. lots of fish too.. but they had these tiny little elk up there.. I asked the manager why they had to stuff the little one and he looked at me funny. The Buckhorn Exchange on 10th and Osage in Denver has the biggest elk in the world in it, one head going from waist high on the first floor to almost waist hi on the second inside a stairwell... wow.....

I was glad to get a half a day off. I learned to burn mass disks in the copy room today as desktop support was otherwise quite slow. More as time and energy allow

A Day in the life of FEMA Man

Workdays::::::::::::

Workdays are interesting. There are a number of help desks (down here they are Hep desks) where people can call or walk by and fill out a trouble ticket to get assistance with their computer. The issues are standard help desk stuff except for the scale and scope of the operation. Imagine picnic tables sitting back to back two deep and running 150 feet or more per unit and then people sitting at these tables elbow to elbow such that they are all full. There are military units, EPA, Several State agencies, Debris, Corps of Engineers, groups for helping towns and individuals, plus groups for support of the infrastructure here like billeting (place to stay) and medical and cafeteria, APO where you get all your supplies, training and security….. like a small city really. I walk down to the call in desk and get the paper copies of the trouble tickets and then try to follow either a paper taped on signs or little group signs hung from the dividers between groups. You look for the location of the person needing help in that group and then try to fix what you can. I literally go everywhere in the “WEST WING” which is my area… maybe 250,000 square feet that is still growing. Todays unusual event was ... the mens bathroom in the main building went out.. not so bad you say.. but it is the only one for the building.. say... 2000 people and 1000 men. We got directed to 4 porta poties outside (thankfully) where the temps were 85 deg with 90% humidity. Wheeeeewwwwweeeeeeee!!!!!!! how long can you hold your breath. Porta poties were not designed for southern living.... ewwwwwwww

The commute in is in the dark, the drive home is in the dark so I cannot really show much in pictures that way. People are very image conscious inside the building where we all spend 12 hour days. No reading, even on breaks, no headphones, no music playing (thankfully) and everyone appears busy. No cameras on the inside, I think this is more of the political side of things so I cannot take pictures of the place……. So you are going to have to try to visualize my descriptions.

My rental car had the “Service Engine Soon” light pop on yesterday…. I love American Engineering. Pontiac whatever it is… although it will get up and run on the interstate entries, it smells like an ashtray so I drive around everywhere with the windows down.

I am going for a Seafood dinner tonight. Somewhere South down by the Mall (off Bluebonnet Lane… ) and also look for a new pair of shoes. Grocery store last night got me a couple frozen dinners, some fruit and bread and some drinks. I think I am going to have to drink more water here even though it is quite humid….

More as energy and time allows.

FEMA Mans Fortress of Solitude

The Air trip was uneventful. I did get virtually strip searched in Midland which would have been much more fun under other cirucumstances. Arrived at Baton Rouge FEMA operations about 1 and went home about 6. Found perhaps the last room in the city to stay at, and will be moving if I can find something open during the next couple weeks closer to work, I am about half an hour away down some very busy and ugly streets.

The room is ok, the hotel has lots of evacuees here, what seems like thousands of kids loitering around the front door. It has a microwave and toaster and fridge. It is the Crestwood Suites on Sherwood forest Blvd.. (yes.. rob from the rich, give to the poor place)and is 225-2915200.

FEMA is pretty crazy, there are lots of odd things to get used to. Over 3,000 people in the place where I work. It is literally an abandoned mall (I am reminded of Dawn of the Dead). Everyone has a laptop, wireless connections are common, but there are waist thick bundles of cables and chellenges to be overcome.. crazy. Hours are 7 am to 6 pm on normal days so... i will see if tomorrow I can take some pictures of this cavernous place.

This is also "doo-gooder" central. I ate at Golden Corral next to a quite large group of uniformed "Victim Chaplains" from Dallas. Bright yellow jackets with GIANT crosses on the back with black pants and yellow bowling looking shirts ..... There were matching Ford Explorer type vehicles out front with logos of "Victim Chaplains" on the doors and BIG ROTATING FLASHING LIGHT BARS ON TOP>>>.... I could only think that if they drove up to someone in dire need of immediate prayer or something they could stop traffic so it could proceed without hesistation. It is possible this type side show is common to all disasters but this seemed over the top.. and reminded me I needed to take my camera to Dinner at least.... Who is going to believe there are roving gangs of aged Dallas Bible thumpers with more money than sense invading a disaster area to pray over a bunch of Catholics..... I love this country.

More as energy and time make it available.

Moving Day

Hi All, Sorry for being absent but no new news to report till this afternoon. When things move they all seem to move at one time. I have been assigned to the Baton Rouge Joint Field Office (JFO) (( Lets get used to these acronyms!!)). I would be traveling today, but the Midland airport has no connecting flights not sold out prior till tomorrow so I will be flying out on Thursday morning and be in Baton Rouge about noonish on the same day. I am getting a "Compact Car 4dr Auto AC" to drive (POS) but at least it will blow cool air (one hopes). Here is the fun part, the travel agent says there is no hotel availability in town anywhere and I am waiting for a phone call from my on site supervisor about a place to stay. I am informed that I may be sleeping in the field office till a room opens somewhere (imagine me without coffee).

I will more fully chronicle the actual travel day , maybe even as it happens since I have layover in Houston and some time in the Midland airport as well. I am carrying two giant suitcases, a shoulder bag suitcase and my laptop bag. Call it 140 lbs of luggage. So.. for my fashion concious friends, on occaison my underwear will not match and.. AND.. my shoes will not be the cutest I own for the outfit I wear. No pictures till I get unpacked as I do not want to have to try to get all that through security. Here we GO!!