Another long three day weekend, but I certainly am not complaining. Give me any time off where I am not expected to be where "the buck stops" is wonderful.

Yesterday, we went down to New Orleans for the day. For me, it was my first visit to the city since the Friday after Aug.29th; Katrina's landfall. It was a true test for me because it was a full month after Katrina before I could fall asleep and not wake up screaming in the night from the night terrors I had.And I didn't want to trigger those off again until I felt I could stand it.

Well, we drove in around 2:00 PM. Coming in from the west on I-10, things really didn't look all that awful. True, there are quite a few "blue roofs", those Blockbuster blue tarps that everyone has to keep the rain from leaking in. And there were a few homes that were very heavily damaged, but overall, and I KNOW this sounds terrible, but things looked their usual trashy ways.

It was suggested to us that to really appreciate what had happened to the city on that fateful August day, one should exit onto Causeway North from I-10, then take Veterans Blvd. east to the infamous 17th Street Canal which serves as the dividing line between Orleans and Jefferson Parishes.So, we did.

Driving down Veterans, things looked fairly normal. A rather normal traffic flow, not quite as heavy as usual though. As we approached the canal, it was hard to tell anything was out of the ordinary. And then, we crossed the canal.

I was actually prepared for much worse. Do not get me wrong, the devastation was jawdropping. And I cannot possibly imagine what it must have been like to have been in that neighborhood when the levees gave way and sent the wall of water rampaging into the city of New Orleans.

But, it was not as awesome as I expected. Maybe because material damage always has struck me as a setback but ulimately replaceable. We rode around the Lakeview neighborhood for a little while; there was very little that was even close to being normal. Virtually every house had the lower/first floors literally blown away. But then you'd see a building where the windows were still intact, at least those facing the street. I think we saw one house that was occupied, had electricity, and appeared as it might have before Katrina. And I do suppose so much has been cleaned up already.

The thing that really leapt out at me was the lack of working traffic lights. I guess that the lack of people on the street should have impressed me more, but I found it actually nice to see so few "street people". It's had to put into words.

We went into the Quarter as it was getting dark. We had met up with a friend while on the edge of the Quarter; he told us parking was going to be hard to come by, and suggested that we do like everyone else...just park up on the sidewalk. I'll be damned if we didn't see tons of people doing just that. Nothing else I saw the rest of the time we were down there was more appalling to me than that simple display of unlawfulness.

Yes; I realize people there have been through a very rough emotional and financial crisis since August. But the parking on the sidewalk just REALLY rubs me the wrong way. And I can't put my finger on the specific reason why.

I think Mardi Gras will not be a good thing to do this year....