Hey Knotheads, anyone miss me?  I’m still here, just been a bit busy for the past week or so.  St. Tammany Parish took a big blow and pretty much wiped out all of our communications for several days, and we have a long way to go yet.  I’ve been living in my office here at the Emergency Operations Center for the parish for over a week, with paramedics sleeping in my hallways, under the board meeting table, and anywhere else that we could find place for a cot.  Almost tripped over one curled up asleep, like a cat, outside my office door one morning.  I just threw a blanket over her and let her sleep.  But, things are picking up now and we are seeing a can-do attitude take over.  Spirits are lifting, and that is a good thing.

On a more personal note, I faired quite well.  I had a couple of trees blow over on the house and shop, with only a couple of holes in the roof to patch.  I put temporary patches on those the day after the storm, only to be hit by looters that night.  They appeared to be kids so my shop tools were of no interest to them (whew!).  My 9-1-1 call takers are pretty well whipped, crying and quitting on me, but help is now on the way.  The beaurcratic red tape has been very frustrating, but I’ll save those stories for another day.  Let’s just say that we had to obtain drinking water by clandestine means for a couple of days.

Oh — on Friday I finally made it to my marina on Lake Ponchartrain and amidst all of the destruction sat my sailboat, in her slip,  in perfect condition.  My extra lines and sailor knots held her just fine!