Just SO Wrong...

My wife, aka SWMBO, out flashing her boobies for beads at the Spanish Town XXXPress Yourself Parade yesterday. Got a sunburn. Serves her right...

Snowmageddon? No, Sneaux Day!

Baton Rouge, LA:

Y'all heard the one about the Louisianian quitting and moving to Hawaii? He'd only read the opening line of this news story.

I come here to the Sportsman's Paradise State every winter not for the fishing, but for the lack of shoveling. The absence of icy driving conditions and power outages due to ice and snow are the cherry on top.

Not so, yesterday. A heavy, wet, icy blanket covered the outlying parishes and the roads were sloppy as hell as I made my way to the clinic so my SIL could have a steroid injection in his back to relieve the pain of severely strained muscles caused by a woman deciding to make a left turn in front of his ambulance while he was responding Code 3 to an emergency.

Admittedly, it was all over by the time we exited the clinic. Roads were clear and temperatures were edging towards the forties. Still, it was a very unpleasant reminder of why I no longer choose to make my home in Maine during the winter.

For those of you digging out of the monstrous snows across the middle of the country recently, you have my sincere sympathy. Do try to squeeze out an alligator tear for my predicament. There isn't enough snow left to cool my ice tea...


Sneaux Day: The Baton Rouge Advocate's slideshow of scenes around the area yesterday is here.

Present and accounted for

Well, we made it to Baton Rouge in mid-December. Thanks to the comment by Lois in the last entry, I felt sufficiently guilt-tripped to post his update (grin). The weather has been a delightful mix of sun and rain, until a stray snowflake tickled my nose yesterday afternoon. Looks like my friends in Canada are being overly generous again, shipping their "Alberta Clippers" south to Cajun Country. Tonight they are forecasting a low of 25�° F. By Friday they're predicting a frigid 17° F. Global warming – my left foot. Seems more like the onset of a new ice age to me.

The holidays were pleasant, New Year's Eve was a repeat of the suburban war zone I described two years ago and now the the new year let-down begins. Looking for work sucks in this economy – unless you are physically able to work “offshore”. There seems to be quite a few opportunities for oil & gas platform and related industrial jobs. Not so much for old duffers who can't stand longer than 15 minutes at a time...

I hope you all have a healthy and prosperous new year. Really, who can afford to get sick these days, even if you are so fortunate as to have health insurance coverage?

Hot Stuff!

SWMBO* & I visited Avery Island and the Tabasco factory on Sunday, as I mentioned in the entry below. It was a beautiful day and temperatures were perfect for a road trip.

Avery Island, Louisiana, viewed across a sugar cane field. Photo credit: This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons. Source-English Wikipedia, original upload 7. Sep 2006 by Skb8721

From the English Wikipedia entry:

Avery Island is actually a huge dome of rock salt, three miles (5 km) long and two and a half miles wide.^[1] It was created by the upwelling of ancient evaporite (salt) deposits that exist beneath the Mississippi River Delta region. These upwellings are known as "salt domes." Avery island is one of five salt dome islands that rise above the flat Louisiana Gulf coast.^[6]

At its highest point, the island is 163 feet (50 m) above mean sea level.^[6] It covers about 2,200 acres (9 km²) and is about 2.5 miles (4 km) across at its widest point.

1. ^ ^{a b} Tabasco, History of Tabasco Pepper Sauce
2. ^ ^{a b} Inventory of the Avery Family of Louisiana, 1796-1951
3. ^ History of McIlhenny Company and Tabasco sauce
4. ^ Shevory, Kristina. "The Fiery Family: The McIlhennys Make Tabasco Come What May," Wall Street Journal, March 31, 2007, pp. B1 and B4.
5. ^ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=861201 NPR Morning Edition, November 29, 2002
6. ^ ^{a b c d} History of Avery Island where Hot and Legendary TABASCO Sauce is Made!

The factory building is relatively new and covers more than two football fields in area. My wife's health is such that we are not up for a long walking tour. Tabasco didn't disappoint.

Click 'em to enbiggen...

The oak barrels formerly held Jack Daniels whiskey are what the pepper mash ferments in for 3 years.

Shade is a rare commodity out in the bayous.

A bit of the Tabasco history presented in the waiting room of the factory.

"Guided tours" go off every 20 minutes or so and consisted of a brief explanation of the rules ("No smoking, no photos of the line, please.") history of the facility and island and then it is off to the projection room, where a professionally produced video is shown that details the history of the company and the actual process of making the world-renowned pepper sauce (all you need are red ripe peppers, salt and water and patience - the pepper mash is fermented for three years!). Then it's off to a stroll along the bottling line behind a glass enclosure (the line runs Monday through Thursday so we didn't get to see the sauce being bottled and labeled for distribution to over 160 different countries).



Next we visit the Tabasco store, sampled some Tabasco ice cream (!) and various other concoctions with Scovil ratings anywhere from 600 to over 3000. Hot stuff - washed it down with ice tea and lemon to cut the heat. Tasty, though.

Off to "Birdland" and the "Jungle Tour" -- a self-guided drive and walk through the nature reserve on the island established by the McIllhenny family. We kept a sharp eye out and were rewarded with alligators,

This 3' long fellow was swimming along in the bayou next to the road we were driving on, keeping pace in hopes of a snack when a boat came up very fast and he sank below the surface.

Next stop was the Buddha Garden. The pagoda-like structure houses an 800 years old bronze bodhisatva. Sadly, you can't get in to touch or take a clear photo. But, I did see this four foot specimen eyeing my calf while I was trying to focus:

I failed to oblige him or her by offering it a munch, so it lazily swam away. This isn't a captive gator by any means - the pond is connected to the bayou beyond by large culverts under the road. We then visited the Crater of the Palms.. This is a large depression in the surface of the salt dome which used to be the site of a large number of stately date and fig palms which found the sheltered micro-climate to their liking. Hurricanes Rita & Ike decimated the palm population (Katrina struck much farther east of here).

The Avery Island Trust is working to bring back the palms. starting with this big fellow.

Those Live Oaks that survived the hurricanes' winds are thriving and covered in Spanish Moss.

As any gardener will attest, bamboo is a pest of gigantic proportions. Once established it is darn near impossible to eradicate without resorting to some pretty heavy artillery. Imagine, if you will, importing over a thousand varieties. The stuff is everywhere on the island. It's kinda pretty, though.

Look behind the pagoda - bamboo wall!

"Pesky Bamboo Eats Truck - Film at 7"

More to follow as I find the time.

We Made It!

After the weather gods finally let us loose from the sub-zero blizzard followed by nearly Spring-like monsoons accompanied by extremely high winds, we had a false start involving missing trailer brakes that suddenly reappeared and didn't bother the rest of the trip, we would have made it to Maryland in near record time - except for the pea-soup New Jersey smmog that forced a layover for 12 hours. Nevertheless, we made it on Sunday. After a nice visit with my Uncle and Aunt, we took off on New Year's Day afternoon and arrived here in Louisiana this evening! We even squeezed in a nice visit to Mystic Springs Airstream Camp yesterday on the Florida panhandle.

Off to bed, I'm beat. More on the flip side.

MEME: Monday Music Mambo -- Let It Snow...

Rfduck, chief Drake at this here 'Monday Music Mambo' pond, lets fly a cold, wet one, thusly:

"Hello everyone! It's snowing where I live, so today's Mambo will be snow-themed."

1. They say every snowflake is unique. Name a musician who you think is unique and sounds like no one else.

Joe Cocker isn't going to EVER be mistaken for any one else when singing. There are some others that come close, but his unique combination of voice, inflection and phrasing makes a song his own.

2. Snowfall covers everything in sight. Tell us about a cover song you enjoy.

If you've read this blog any length of time, you should be able to predict these answers, ;) Make mine Suzanne, written by Leonard Cohen and covered by just about everybody at one time in their musical careers.

3. It snows a lot in Canada. Tell us your favorite Canadian musician.

My absolute favorite is the aforementioned Leonard Cohen, but Gordon Lightfoot and Joni Mitchell are tied for second place.

4. Watching the snow fall can be very peaceful. Name a song that brings you peace.

Lots of songs do, depending on my mood and blood pressure and glucose level...
How about Gordon Lightfoot's "Early Morning Rain"?

Speaking of rain, we've been having rainy weather here in Cajun Country, about 3" worth last week alone. The rivers, streams and bayous are all lush with moisture. There was a real toad-strangler on Saturday night that caused the horses to seek shelter next to the trailer in a little lean-to off the back of the shed where I park the "Busted Moose" at night. They were rather rambunctious in their enthusiasm to make life absolutely miserable for the usual occupant of the lean-to -- a big tom turkey the owner bought one year as a poult to fatten for Thanksgiving but then couldn't bear to kill. Seems his 60+ pound carcass was not appreciated underfoot by the horses, so they kicked at him and kicked until he lamely stood out in the rain. Poor old bird - he's all bruised up and was so bedraggled when I saw him Sunday...

I've been sick the past week with pinkeye and now what I suspect is strep throat. Damn snotty-nosed kids are walking Petri dishes and the cultures they're festering gore just love yours truly. I've been sicker since coming down here in November more than the past four years combined. To add insult to injury, the baby is over his pinkeye, while mine persists and we came down with it only a day apart.

There's been some cold weather, too, with snow falling over much of the northern half of Louisiana for a time last week. We had sleet one night here just as we were headed from the house to our trailer for the night. And we've been going through LP gas bottles at a steady clip. Fortunately, there's a good hardware store nearby that refills them.

My wife's work is decidedly unhappy that she needs more time to recover from what ails her and has put her on unpaid leave. Oh joy, we get to COBRA our health insurance for the next couple of months, to the tune of a couple of grand a month. Sadly, going without isn't an option, as I'd never be able to get full coverage insurance again, nor would she. Hell of a racket, the health industry and health insurance.

The repairs seem to be holding up, with a minor exception of a piece of trim that succumbed to the toe of my slipper the first night. Still too sick to pick up our stuff at the daughter's as her son had eye surgery in December and has a weakened immune system - so my approach with conjunctivitis onboard is a no-no. I'd really like to hit the road and see someplace that doesn't involve SNK's.* I'm tired of sitting in one place, dependent on family and subject to all these diseases.

Heard from the Pet Spa at home. The Cats are doing wonderfully, eating like the wee piglets they are and running up a tab that will require taking out a second mortgage when we get back. The phone at the house has gone berserk and is issuing a constant busy signal, but our neighbors assure us no one is at home.

Oh well, it still beats shoveling snow... Hope you enjoyed your snow, Russ.

SNK = Snotty-nosed kids

Brrr.... It's Almost Cold (And the promised update)

Blew a gale here on Saturday morning. Picked up 2 1/2" of rain with the heavy winds. Interesting driving -- seems like it never occurred to the local road builders to crown the pavement sufficiently to allow drainage from the inevitable ruts created by the heavy traffic, particularly on the concrete roads so prevalent here. Some really impressive hydro-planing results. Fun ... not.

Cleared out about mid-morning and started getting colder. Hit a low of 29 overnight. Ground surface still too warm to freeze, but standing water puddles froze with skim ice - some Louisianians are now convinced that global warming is a myth cooked up by freezing Yankees to extract oil price concessions from Southern refineries. (Not so - we all want cheaper gas!)

Back up to the low 30's after the sun came up, but I'm sure the damage was done - muy mucho frozen and/or busted pipes. Stopped by the Flea Market of Louisiana (no link available) yesterday afternoon and the venders were absolutely miserable. We ended up having to put the kids back in the van after 20 minutes -- they were approaching hypothermia.

So far, the repairs are satisfactory, so I'd give the RV Service Center (new name on Jan. 1st - formerly Family RV Center, LLC) of Walker, Louisiana, a qualified 3 out of 5 stars. The repairs were performed in a workmanlike manner. They used factory manufactured parts whenever possible. The quality of the part(s) manufactured on-site is fair to good (they really aren't skilled cabinet makers). The negatives have to do with failed promises and unrealistic estimates of what the work entailed, resulting in having to request supplemental funds for the work done from the insurance company. (My cost remained the same. If there hadn't been an insurance company footing the bill, I suspect the results would not have been as satisfactory -- an additional 10 days and over a thousand dollars above the original estimate for nearly double the amount of labor originally estimated. And then there's the cost of motels for an additional 10 days over the original 4 working day estimate, some of which is attributable to weekends and sickness of the employee doing the cabinetry. Still, it means an additional grand in motel and food costs and the possible loss of my wife's job due to the likely miss of a mandatory return-to-work date. All collateral consequences of the delays in completion of the job.)

Damned Yankees

Here's a forecast you don't see very often in Baton Rouge:






Today

Chance
Snow
Hi 46°F

Tonight


Mostly
Clear
Lo 27°F


Today: A 50 percent chance of snow showers before noon. Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 46. North wind between 10 and 15 mph. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 27. North wind around 10 mph.


Can't blame me for bringing this with me, either -- I've been here for over two months!

Picked up the trailer on Thursday afternoon. Of course, the better half is getting sick again, so I've been doing all the packing and setting to rights. Repairs effected and complete. It survived the monsoon rains we got last night -- now let's see if they did the insulation right (heh, heh, heh - not likely. It's Louisiana after all -- they put their bloody pipes above ground, for Jack Frost's sake!).

Maybe, just maybe...

They called this morning. Supposedly, our Airstream is finished. Only a week longer than promised (par for the course down here, it seems).

We'll be leaving in a little while to pick it up. I'll let you know if the repairs are satisfactory.

Keep your toes and fingers crossed...

Go ahead - yank her chain once more -- I dare ya!

My wife is a short-tempered beast with all bureaucrats, ignoramii and anyone else who gets in her way of providing quality patient care. The rest of the time, she tries very hard to be even tempered, even when she is sorely tempted to rip someone's head off and stuff it down the gaping hole in their neck.


So, imagine the supreme restraint she has had to exhibit when dealing with the local board of nursing whose employees took a double dose of the dumbass and refused to cooperate with the simple task of renewing her license. Rather than treating her as inactive in the great state of Louisiana, they decided she has been delinquent since 2001!


OK - so after driving down to New Orleans to the board, she is then informed that only a certified copy of our marriage certificate will be sufficient evidence to change the last name on her Louisiana nurses license to her current name. Only problem involved is the amount of time needed to acquire said marriage certificate. Go through Maine's vital records and it'll take 7 to 10 business days after receipt of payment. Maine doesn't fax copies of vital records -- only originals are acceptable. And so it goes.

Keep an eye on the news. If you hear of a crazed nurse taking out the security windows at the Louisiana Board of Nursing, you'll know why...