|
Sep052008
|
Home |
I got up early enough this morning to shower and help myself to the waffle maker in the lobby this morning. We checked out of the hotel shortly after nine this morning and headed home. We had to take a detour to Baton Rouge to pick up Jeff, Dad’s car and a number of items we left in Jeff’s apartment. After entering the city we could see more of the damage we saw on the way out a few days ago, mostly downed signs and fallen trees that occasionally landed on houses.After getting the cars packed, we got back on the road. We had to take Highway 30 to 74 because the I-10 just south of Baton Rouge was closed. The right was largely quite smooth but there was a significant slowdown at the I-10, I-55 merge. Driving through the city, things looked a lot better in New Orleans than they did in Baton Rouge. There was some damage to a few businesses and billboards, but overall the city looks fine. Our neighborhood had a lot of tree foliage in the street, but nothing else of circumstance. Our house looks fine but more than a few of our shingles were in the yard so we’ll need a new roof and soon.After unloading the cars, getting some of my stuff back in order and removing the boards from the windows, I helped clean the refrigerator. Everything in the fridge and freezer had to be thrown away. Mom had the foresight to triple-bag all the meat in the freezer so thankfully there was no vile stench.This evening I noticed that one of the boards holding up my waterbed fell over. Since a collapsed waterbed would be a huge mess I started fixing it immediately. Dad has a utility pump so I didn’t have to start a siphon to drain the bed. I took advantage of the situation and cleaned the liner and vacuumed behind the bed where a couple years of dust accumulated. It took the rest of the night to get that done so I went to bed with a big mess on the floor in my room.