Thursday

Katrina-"Anchor Baby Boom" in Lousiana; Guest Writer Tells About Surgery and Computers

We've got a Katrina update. Since this hurricane I've been tracking all the politics of the storm and now the wobbly recovery of that hapless city.

There's a baby boom because of Katrina although it's mostly "anchor babies".

Guest Writer Michelle tells of recovering from surgery and computers that act up when you most need them.

Pic of the Day
cat hides in fake leg



Quote of the Day
(From Guest Writer Michelle's own sig line: "The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson



Web Site Worth the Visit
See Tidbits Below



TIDBITS

Passing along this information about FREE assistance for riparian buffers for land owners in Delaware along the Red and White Clay Creeks or their tributaries. Great opportunity!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: FROM STROUD WATER RESEARCH CENTER June 26, 2006
Contact: Jessie Benjamin 610-869-4285 or jessie@taprootnativedesign.com

WHAT: Federal Monies Available to Landowners for Planting Native Trees & Shrubs

WHEN: Available Now

WHERE: Along Streams in the Red & White Clay Creek Watersheds

Scientific research at the Stroud Water Research Center has shown that planting trees along small streams is very effective at improving water quality. The Center currently has a grant that enables it to offer free technical assistance to landowners in the Red & White Clay Creek Watersheds who want to help improve the creeks on their properties and help restore water quality in the region.

The greatest challenge to water quality is excess nutrient and sediment runoff. Forested stream buffers are the most effective tools for removing nutrient and sediment pollution from stormwater runoff.

A Riparian Buffer Consultant from the Stroud Water Research Center will create a Riparian Buffer Management Plan for interested landowners at no cost. This plan will give the landowner all the information required to plant and manage a riparian buffer. A variety of native trees and shrubs will be specified for planting. Additionally, the consultant will be available to address any questions that may arise over time concerning the management of the buffer.

Once the plan has been completed, the landowner will be eligible for cost share assistance to install the buffer. Funding is also available for fencing to exclude livestock from the stream, streambank crossings for livestock and equipment access, as well as for streambank restoration. In order to be eligible for this assistance, the landowner must have a stream on their property in the Red or White Clay Creek Watersheds that is not forested. The property may be commercial or residential.

The goal of this program is to restore fifty miles of riparian buffers in both watersheds.

Linda Stapleford
River Administrator
White Clay Wild and Scenic Program
802 Dallam Road
Newark, DE 19711
302-731-1756
riveradministrator@whiteclay.org


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Let us update just what’s going on here.

About two or three days after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf states, about the time cannibalism was running rampant in New Orleans’ Superdome and citizens were left to die on rooftops, heh, I began documenting the aftermath of the hurricane.

It’s been almost a year and a half and I continue to keep track of how New Orleans and Louisiana are faring because like the hysterical ancient Media is wont to do, they had absolutely nothing right.

Also, Hurricane Katrina continues to be pinned onto President Bush when it was the local government who failed so miserably. Thus, what with all the caterwauling about abandonment and goodness knows Bush has no problem whatsoever throwing money at a problem, I still keep track of how it is going in New Orleans now that the flood waters have receded and taxpayer bucks have been bestowed upon the wise leaders of Louisiana.

See, I do this for Kaitlyn. For history has already been re-written what with that 9-11 Omission Commission and other liberal lies. So whatever the unionized public school teachers manage to have put into the history books about Hurricane Katrina, know that Grandmother will have it all documented right here on this Blog. It’s Hurricane Katrina…soup to nuts.

Cops Charged With Murder For Bridge Shootings

Kaitlyn, this shooting at a bridge where people were waiting for rescue was at first, of course, blamed on President Bush.

No one failed more miserably in the aftermath of Katrina that the New Orleans police. Already well known for being corrupt, the NO police failed to show up on the job after the hurricane and indeed many became looters their own selves.

This bridge incident was more of a failure to act responsibly but note that the cops who did the shooting have been charged with murder.

From Hot Air.com:
At the time we heard about lawless mobs shooting at rescue helicopters on the Danziger bridge. Then the description of the Danziger bridge “gunfight” dialed back a bit. These “rioters”, although charged with attempted murder, were cleared by a grand jury.

And now, seven New Orleans policemen are charged with first-degree murder over the Danziger bridge shootings. Six people were shot there, two fatally.


It’s 2007 and New Orleans Experiencing Major Crime Wave

One of the biggest problems NO faces after Hurricane Katrina, Kaitlyn, is the failure of its many citizens to even bother coming back. But hey, they re-elected Mayor Naginhead and you get what you elect. This man left those same citizens to drown as school buses sat unused and flooded as the levees broke.

Much of the few who returned or stayed in New Orleans are criminals, pure and simple.

From Yahoo.com:
NEW ORLEANS - With at least eight slayings in the city in the first week of the new year, officials are considering a curfew to help stem the violence, the police superintendent said Saturday.

"It's something we're just sort of talking about, to see if that will make a difference," police Superintendent Warren Riley said.

Mayor Ray Nagin, meanwhile, urged residents not to leave the city, still rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina, because of the recent killings. He said the slayings could be a tipping point that "galvanizes our community" to find solutions.


Barney Frank Mumbles On About Katrina

We can’t understand the man either, Kaitlyn, but Frank is a Massachusetts liberal and in the below video he’s going on and on about Katrina and, as always, he makes no sense at all.



Baby Boom in New Orleans

Problem is, the babies are “anchor babies”, those bundles of joy born to illegal immigrants that-if born in American-guarantee their parents citizenship.

From IMT.com:
The large increase in babies being born to immigrants in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is putting maternity hospitals in that city under strain, The New York Times has reported.

Hundreds of babies are being born to Latino immigrant workers, who flocked to the city to work during the reconstruction. “The throng of babies gurgling in the handful of operational maternity wards here has come as a big surprise — and a financial strain — to this historically black and white city, which before the hurricane had only a small Latino community and virtually no experience of illegal immigration,” according to the report.

Because many immigrant mothers cannot afford to pay for prenatal care or delivery services, New Orleans’s newest citizens are adding an unexpected load to the decimated health infrastructure in a city abandoned by many of its doctors after the hurricane.

I predict, Kaitlyn, that by the time you read this, the demographic of New Orleans will have changed drastically. It was, before Katrina, a predominantly African-American city with French-Catholic roots.

With the influx of illegals into NO to help with the tremendous amount of construction and rebuilding work to done, New Orleans will morph into an enclave of Spanish-Americans and I doubt the Mardi Gras will ever be the same.

Proof My Theory Above Is Already Underway

New Orleans and its famed French quarter will never be the same. Bank on this and know that by the time Kaitlyn reads this, she will likely never have known a New Orleans renown for its Mardi Gras and charming with its French Quarter and history.

From APNEWS:
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The hookers are back on Bourbon Street. So are the drug dealers, the strippers with names like Rose and Desire, the out-of-town businessmen, the college students getting blitzed on candy-colored cocktails and beer in plastic cups.

But a closer look reveals things are not back to the way they were in the French Quarter. Sixteen months after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans' liveliest, most exuberant neighborhood is in a funk.

"The money's not the same. I remember when I made $1,200 a night," said Elizabeth Johnson, a manager and dancer at a Bourbon Street strip club, frowning at another slow night. "I know girls who used to never let people touch them, and now they're resorting to prostitution."

Robert Boudreaux, a beefy hotel bellman in an olive green vest, scanned the street with folded arms and said: "Very boring."


more Katrina Posts HERE.
~~~~~~~~~~



 Posted by Hello


Surgery and Diablo

A memory about dealing with surgery recovery time...

Drivel: Enforced Rest

The recovery from my hysterectomy surgery goes slowly, but well. I'm to rest, rest, rest and hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Even days after the surgery, conflicting instructions reign. If I rest, I don't hydrate much. If I hydrate, I can't rest because I'm in the bathroom. A lot. Sigh. It's a doctor conspiracy, no doubt.

God, however, intends for me to get the rest I need and is seeing --in his divine way -- that I get it.

I play an online video game on the computer quite a bit. It's called Diablo (I play the expanded version II) and after learning the basics, doesn't require much thought. It's a bit like Christmas, as every game maze is different and the items found vary with such range that it's very hard to find the same item twice. I have a couple of folk I talk to on there, who look for me when they play just as I look for them.

The thought of six to eight weeks of playing Diablo (doctor's orders!) made me tingle.

When did my computer first start to screw up? I can't recall, now, but it was weeks before the surgery. Diablo began to run really slowly. Where my character once ran lithely over the grasslands of Act 1, she was now running through molasses. When the molasses went away, there she'd be, dead upon the field.

The monsters didn't have molasses to deal with on their end.

This just wouldn't do. I called Dell, and spent some time troubleshooting. Because we have two identical laptops, they wanted me to switch things between them. Since Harry's PC is out with him, I'd have to wait for him to get home.

So a typical call would go like this: Is it plugged in? Is there power? Do other programs work? Is it messing up now? Play a movie. Does it play? Hmm. Okay, switch the hard drives between the two PCs. Then I'd tell Dell I had to wait for the other PC to be home. Three or four days later, it'd be home and we'd be ready to deal with Dell, so we'd do the switch and call Dell back.

Is it plugged in? Is there power? Do other programs work? Oy vey.

At the time of the surgery, my PC (laptop body) had Harry's hard drive, and vice versa. A couple of days after I got home, when I was well enough to handle all the "is it plugged in" questions, I called Dell again, and they had us switch CD/DVD ROM drives. So now my PC has Harry's hard drive and my original CD drive. Got it? Good, because I don't. You should hear us talking to Dell when they ask us to do something with a PC and we aren't sure which laptop body they're
talking about.

During this time period, the port replicator died. That's the little doodad that connects the PC I'm currently using (Harry's laptop body, with my hard drive, and his CD drive) to the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and stuff that let me sit in the computer room at the computer desk. With me? Good.

We called Dell. They're shipping another port replicator, but in the meantime, I have to stand if I want to use my PC (Harry's laptop body, my hard drive, etc). Standing isn't something I can do much of just yet. So if you wonder why I haven't been writing as much as usual, now you know.

My mom came and spent a week with me after my surgery, helping around the house, cooking, making sure I rested, you know, mom stuff. (Moms are great and if yours is still around, thank her for all she's given you. Even if you don't like her much, she gave you life, right? Give her a round of applause. Come on, I want you to.) Before she left, my mom carefully arranged stuff in the house so I could do whatever I needed to do without violating the Surgery Recovery Laws. (No pushing, pulling, lifting, or driving. No sex, either, but that's not relative to this particular tale.)

Computer messed up before surgery for guest


She got my paperwork out of the filing cabinet that requires a bulldozer to open and close. She moved a box so the fast-growing puppy could jump onto the bed. She pre-prepared meals for the weekend. She arranged Harry's PC (my laptop body, Harry's hard drive, my CD drive) on the kitchen table so I could use WordPerfect during the weekend. (It's Harry's motorcycle weekend, you know, and he went, under duress. For some odd reason he thought he should stay home with me.)

Perfect, right? Well, no. I can't get my email in the kitchen (wrong hard drive) and I can't stand very long to get it in the computer room (right hard drive, dead port replicator). I can't move my PC (Harry's laptop body, etc) because that would require violating the Laws.

The good news is that today the CD drive in Harry's PC (my laptop body, etc) screwed up so now we know for sure ... something. Was it the mother board or the CD if we moved it and it messed up? I can't remember. Harry will, or Dell will, so as soon as Harry gets home we call Dell again.

(Is it plugged in?)

Somehow I think God knew that if I had access to a dependable, working, easy-to-use PC during this time I'd sit up way more than is good for me. Since the kitchen chairs are only comfortable for a couple of hours, and standing for longer than is required to shower is still out of my reach, I'm stretching out reading more often, or relaxing with a movie.

God does indeed work in mysterious -- and even technological -- ways.

Michelle
winebird@inreach.com
===================

Michelle
The Desk Drawer writer's exercise list
~~~~~~~~~~
More Guest Writer HERE

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