New Orleans Week Three

I'm sitting in the Laplace Public Library. It a very nice place. Absolutely up to date and featuring just about everything that a person could want. It's been a long day, and I am looking forward to a little alone time. I've decided that I'm a bit of a loner. I can take working with the same people for most of the day, but I do need a little alone time.

I've decided that the weather down here is different from what we have in Michigan. Up there, for instance, thunderstorms are purpose driven machines that march across the landscape dropping their load of rain and then they get the heck out of town. Down here, the storm clouds just sort of wander in off the gulf. They grow fat and lazy, and spend several hours bumping into each other like sumo wrestlers jostling past each other to get into the lunch room. Finally, around five o'clock, it starts to rain here and there. There is much thundering and a little lightening, and then it rains hard for a half hour before the clouds dissipate and go home.

People around here take it all in stride. They react to it no more than they react to the alligators that turn up in unusual places around here. I do not think they realize what a truly different sort of life it is around here compared to the suburban blandness that rests upon the rest of the country.

Yesterday at sunset, I went to a local fishing spot located under a freeway overpass and watched the gators come out as the sun set. I had several small ones eyeing me. I got the impression that I was no more than a walking pork roll to them. As it got darker, they moved in closer. Finally, I blinked and left. They seemed to be there to stay.

Ah, Louisiana, you are an interesting place.