The View from the Peak

Lafayette, LA

2007-01-12T09:02:00.000-06:00

I usually don't get political in any way on this blog. But this week, I got an email -- one of those silly chain things that I usually just glance at and delete. This one got under my skin. The original message and my rebuttal are below. Yup, it's a long read:

WEATHER BULLETIN -- DENVER

Up here, in the "Mile-Hi City", we just recovered from a Historic event--- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with a historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds, actually thousands, of motorists in lethal snow banks (some weren’t even located until 1/03/07), closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.

FYI:
George Bush did not come.

FEMA did nothing.

No one howled for the government.

No one blamed the government.

No one even uttered an expletive on TV.

Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit.

Our Mayor did not blame Bush or anyone else.

Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else, either.

CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC did not visit - or report on this category 5 snowstorm. Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards. No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House.

No one looted.

Nobody - I mean Nobody demanded the government do something.

Nobody expected the government to do anything, either.

No Larry King, No Shepard Smith, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson. No Shaun Penn, No Barbara Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found.

Nope, we just melted the snow for water.

Sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars.

The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a penny. Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snowbound families. Families took in the stranded people - total strangers.

We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal & oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns. We put on extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die".

We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin at home' checks.

Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.

"In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the world's social problems evaporate."

It does seem that way, at least to me.

I hope this gets passed on. Maybe SOME people will get the message. The world does Not owe you a living.

My reply:

After spending the last several months in Louisiana and having grown up in blizzard country, wish I knew who wrote this -- it needs rebuttal. I could take it line by line ("Nobody expected the government to do anything"? Oh really! Who plowed the roads? Not your city, county and state governments? "CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC did not visit - or report"? Funny, who was on my TV here in Lafayette?).

But I'll just hit the highlights.

In a blizzard, people hunker down in their own homes with generators, Coleman lamps and well-stocked pantries. They don't get ordered to leave everything they own and go away, knowing there may be nothing to come back to. When a blizzard is over, neighborhoods, businesses, roadways and infrastructures haven't been destroyed, they've just been covered in snow that can be moved, albeit laboriously, with a simple tool called a shovel. Try moving floodwater out of the way before it's damn good and ready to move itself.

In a blizzard, trees and powerlines may come down and the odd roof may collapse, but if you're in trouble, chances are your neighbor is fine and help is as close as the nearest 4WD, snowmobile or pair of skis. Hospitals, banks, stores and emergency personnel may be hard to get to for a while, but they're still there. When a Category 5 hurricane wipes out a major metro, if you can't carry it, you don't have it. No food. No water. No shelter. No medical care. No transportation. No money. No job. No way of knowing when or where you will get any.

Blizzard-choked highways and runways can be cleared; snowed-in homes can stay warm and tight; stuck and stalled cars and buses will run fine again once they're unstuck. Everything washed away in a hurricane and flooding must be rebuilt, often from the ground up. But before the rebuilding can even begin, all the tons of flotsam and jetsam that used to be houses and stores, bridges and roadways, public and private vehicles, must be hauled away and junked. And the bodies. Don't forget the bodies. Twelve died in Denver's blizzard. More than 1300 bodies floated and lay rotting in the streets of New Orleans after Katrina.

In fact, this writer sums it all up in the first ten words. Denver "just recovered" from its blizzard, in less than 14 days. New Orleans and other communities hit by Katrina and Rita may never fully recover. More than a year after those storms, tens of thousands of what were once homes and businesses remain completely uninhabitable. More than HALF of the city's former population is still in exile.

I'm genuinely sympathetic with what Denver went through. I'm sure it was tough for a while. But this isn't even an "apples and oranges" comparison -- it's "apples and A-bombs." And the difference doesn't have a gawdam thing to do with the latitude OR the attitude of the people affected.

If you don't understand the difference, that's a REAL tragedy.

P.S. Seems this whole load of crap is nothing but some rehashed plagarism. This Snopes article debunked a North Dakota version last winter ...

Lafayette, LA

2007-01-10T12:43:00.000-06:00

Any wonder we love Louisiana? Bilingual signage and labeling is almost as common here as in Quebec -- I walk past these signs every time I go to the medical center where I do my physical therapy.

And that therapy, by the way, is going well. Three days a week, Fran, a quiet, petite woman with a soft lilt in her voice and a warm spark in her eyes, supervises my two-hour treatment. I'm heated and tingled for 20 minutes, then start a 90-minute exercise routine. Finally, Fran plays the Marquessa de Sade, slowly stretching my stiff shoulder. She pushes, pulls and leans against my arm until tears come to my eyes, then, while I pant like a LaMaze student, holds me at the point of agony for a countdown somewhere between a NASA liftoff and a network commercial break. Rinse and repeat for every direction a shoulder moves. Bless her heart, she always apologizes for having to be "aggressive," in between sotto voce reminders to "relax ... relax."

But it's working. I can reach the top shelf of the cabinets again. When I can hold my arm over my head long enough to fix that ceiling light that blinks intermittently over my chair, we'll be ready to travel...

Duson, LA

2007-01-09T23:10:00.000-06:00

OK, OK, I've been roundly and soundly rebuked for failure to keep up our travelogue. So I'm trying ANOTHER new tool. As usual, I work under the theory that if it's easy enough, maybe I'll keep up with it.

Anyway, it's about time I entered the "blogosphere." (Have you seen the new T-shirt with Samuel L. Jackson, pointing a pistol, with the quote, "Say blogosphere again..."? As usual, I'm a dollar short and a day late.)

It's not as if I don't have excuses ... at least recently, anyway. For those who don't know, I tripped over Murphy's dog food dish in early October, fell into the refrigerator, broke my right humerus in two places, up high near the shoulder. So for about six weeks, typing was a miserably slow, painful, left-handed affair. In fact, standing, sitting, lying down, walking -- all were miserably slow, painful affairs.

Broken bones suck. As Cory's Aunt Eva said, "The girl has to learn to look down."

Anyway, my resolution for '07 -- keep in touch. And keep my feet under me. The camera is charging.

On the way to the Soo

2006-09-27T19:45:00.000-06:00

We've lost Uncle Al. Services will be Friday. We're on our way north.

Eagle River, WI

2006-09-01T19:22:00.000-06:00

We're back in Wisconsin, hoping we'll get out of here by the end of the month. Cory's dad had his cast taken off Tuesday, but the orthopedist doesn't want him putting any weight on it for a while yet, so he'll be in the home for several weeks longer. We want to get him settled in, either at his old home or a new one, before we leave.

Elgin, IL

2006-08-18T19:34:00.000-06:00

We took a break and headed to Chicago for a few days--trying to get some of our long-delayed doctor's appointments taken care of. PLUS we've been invited to a backyard barbeque at our "home address" -- hosted by friends JoAnn and Irene. Looking forward to having conversations that don't revolve around aging, relatives and long-term care...

Eagle River, WI

2006-08-01T19:16:00.000-06:00

We checked Cory's Dad into a nursing home late last week and have spent the past few days trying to help him settle in.

In a couple weeks or so, after he's had some rehab and thorough evaluation, we'll have a better idea of what will happen next. Right now, the family is concerned about him going back to the house -- it's four levels, with no bathroom/bedroom on the same floor, too far out in the country for quick access to healthcare, and even a walk to the garage is about 300 feet away, all uphill. He fell last winter and, of course, there was the fall a few weeks ago. Everyone is concerned that at his age (90 in October), another fall could be disastrous.

Eagle River, WI

2006-07-24T18:59:00.000-06:00

We rented the house in the Soo without problems, and were hanging out for a while so Cory could visit with Aunt Edith and Uncle Al. Then we got a phone call from brother Tom. Her dad Jim had fallen, broken his right arm, and Tom wanted us to come to Three Lakes ASAP to give him some reinforcement.

So we arrived here on Thursday. On Friday, Tom went to work at 6:30 am. When we got to the house that afternoon. Jim was asleep in his chair, so we didn't disturb him. Tom came home, we talked, then with Jim still asleep, we left. About 20 minutes later, Tom called to tell us he couldn't wake his dad. He called the ambulance right away.

It was a long, tough weekend, waiting at Jim's bedside. Last night, he finally woke up. This morning, he's sitting up in a chair, drinking from a cup and asking to walk to the bathroom.

Sault Ste Marie, MI

2006-07-05T15:19:00.000-06:00

During our time in Sault Ste Marie, we visited the TenderCare facility almost daily to visit with Cory's Uncle Al. A sweetheart of a man, he's the proverbial "bachelor uncle" -- never married, never moved from the house where he was born. But his nieces and nephews revere him, as do hundreds of students at Lake Superior University (especially the hockey players!), where he worked as a maintenance man for many, many years.

(Sorry--the quality of photos taken with my phone is pretty sad.)

This is Aunt Eva's oldest daughter, Lucynda, with her nephew (sister Patti's son), Jack. Jack was a real pistol ... we had a great time with him.

Belvidere, IL

2006-06-29T14:34:00.000-06:00

Jim and Joe have become enthusiastic bowlers. Aunt Cory couldn't bowl, but she kept score. Aunt Mary June couldn't bowl either, but she tried. Some day, I'll break 100 ...

Rockford, IL

2006-06-28T14:26:00.000-06:00

Since the boys were toddlers, we've been taking them to Rockford's Magic Waters. And they still love it. Truth be told, so do we.

Bozeman, MT

2006-05-27T16:22:00.000-06:00

At Jim and Mary's RV Park in Bozeman ...

Bend, OR

2006-05-13T14:35:00.000-06:00

We rode the mystery train with Mom and Dad. Had a great time, and Cory got a kiss from a good lookin' cowboy.

Reno, NV

2006-04-24T23:53:00.000-06:00

What a beautiful view ... the park at Boomtown Casino is nothing special, except for the view of the mountains that surround Reno.

Tucson, AZ

2006-04-18T23:49:00.000-06:00

Well, we called ahead to reserve a special site -- to our knowledge, this is the only RV resort in the country that has sites with private jacuzzis, right at your site. But on arrival, none available. Perhaps we answered wrong when the reservation desk asked us "Are you in the market for a new RV?" Beaudry's is also one of Tucson's biggest RV dealers.

Las Cruces, NM

2006-04-16T00:05:00.000-06:00

This one was a pretty little surprise. We stopped first at "the lowest price RV park in Las Cruces"...and drove right through. Even if they'd had a site big enough for our rig, we wouldn't have been comfortable there, as it looked rather rundown. Sunny Acres, with our Escapee discount, was even less! And we had a big, grassy site and free WiFi, to boot.

Fort Stockton, TX

2006-04-12T23:59:00.000-06:00

Finally, we're on our way to Oregon! We spent the night right off I10 in the first RV park we ever visited that features 15' arrows buried in the ground...and a "herd" of silhouette buffalo just off to the north.

San Antonio, TX

2006-04-01T15:32:00.000-06:00

Mission Concepcion, in San Antonio.

San Antonio, TX

2006-03-27T15:43:00.000-06:00

Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch, just northwest of San Antonio. We've been to petting zoos where the animals weren't as tame ... and these fellows wanted to be handfed!

San Antonio, TX

2006-03-25T16:24:00.000-06:00

We took my sister Susan to the Alamo ...

San Antonio, TX

2006-03-11T00:30:00.000-06:00

Arrived January 29. Surgery for our old Barney required that we hole up in San Antonio for a couple months. We've had a great time here, especially during the week sister Susan flew in to join us. We went to Sea World, which was less than a mile from our RV park, had dinner with Shamu and saw ALL the animals! And of course, we did the Riverwalk. (One really can't miss the prickly pear margueritas at Boudros on the river...)

San Antonio, TX

2006-02-26T00:07:00.000-06:00

Ah, the Riverwalk! Truly, San Antonio may have one of the most pleasant downtown areas we've ever visited. We'd heard about the famous prickly pear margueritas served by the water, so we made sure to stop for one.

Whatever you think prickly pear tastes like? You're probably wrong. It's sweet, delicate, delicious ... and PINK. We enjoyed ours...

Seguin, TX

2006-01-24T00:43:00.000-06:00

Lost the turbo in the truck about 50 miles outside San Antonio, so we wound up staying in Seguin for a week for repairs.

Carencro, LA

2006-01-20T00:39:00.000-06:00

Lafayette is one of our favorite destinations. Spent three weeks...and ate all the crawfish, crab, boudin and cracklins we could handle. Stayed at Bayou Wilderness RV Park.

New York, NY

2005-10-29T15:00:00.000-06:00

We stopped in Brewster, New York, to visit with Cory's cousin Susan, whom I'd never met and Cory hadn't seen in nearly 30 years. Susan and her friend graciously played host for a visit to The City. Though the day was frigid, we did the open-air doubledeck bus tour anyway. Then we took in a Broadway show (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, starring John Lithgow) and had dinner.

UPDATE: Sadly, only a few months after our visit, Susan lost her long battle to cancer. We will miss her ... and we'll long remember our visit and her warm, gracious hospitality.