Dee-Rob

A fine Monday holiday, this. Both M. and I have devoted uncalculated hours to good personal hygiene and grooming. Of our core compatibilities, vanity ranks pretty high.

I’ve been thinking about New Orleans, and saw the flick “The Skeleton Key” last night, which reminded me just how much of the area is swamp, river, lush bumps of land and more swamp. The San Mateo bridge here runs for miles and kind of reminds me of the bridge over Lake Ponchatrain. Although, here, it feels more terra firma on either side.

It’s kind of interesting that major parts of Boston are giant land fills built over marshes, where sand was dumped hundreds of years ago to build up a city. Same for San Francisco. But, for some reason, down in the bayous of Louisiana and the Missippi River, they didn’t build the ground up above sea level, they worked on holding the water back. Maybe it has something to do with the difference between ocean ports and fresh water, where it was relatively easy to build up Boston Harbor and San Francisco Bay. Don’t know. Maybe it’s just one of those things that’s part circumstance and cultural attitude and back in the 1700s, they were just digging on the swamps and voodoo instead of piling up sand.

I’ve also been thinking a fair bit about globalization and what not involving the world. ‘Course, these days, there’s a bit of me that’s getting paid to think about the globe.

Among the many individual stories that depress the fuck out of anyone with a conscience who doesn’t believe any other human deserves the fate of scrounging for food and shelter in a fetid swamp of flood waters, I’m perversely cheered by the international response. Although, all the countries hating on the U.S. and Bush (for good fucking reasons) must be ratcheting up their disgust 100 fold for our failure to care for our own. Seriously, though, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia are kicking in the donations to help out a US disaster.

The U.S. should learn something.

The only other thing on my mind is settling down after a buddy visited from Boston. It’s weird to have a little bit of my old home show up in the new one. Didn’t make me homesick, it made me sure that I did the right thing.