Protest

Back in the 60's when I was in my late teens and early twenties there were all kinds of protest about all kinds of things. We protest Vietnam, why we couldn't have legal pot etc. I haven't been involved in a protest since then until now. A group called Murdered Gulf sponsored a protest against BP in New Orleans in Jackson Square. The group says they are a small group of New Orleanians who are pissed off about the spill. They had a good protest, a good size crowd and it was well planned and attended by a cross-section of protesters. The only problem I had with it was that I don't think enough people knew about it. Also the national press didn't give it any attention although the local stations did. Looking back on the all the 60's protests I'm not sure what good they did. Oh, the photos of those protest are used to show anger and discontent but what did we accomplish? I'm not sure protesting against BP will make any difference either, but it sure as hell feels good!

Oil

According to officials the oil spill is getting near MS. This comes from noaa the agency that I have found to be extremely conservative in their predictions of oil coming ashore. I don't think many people here on the coast are ready for it to happen. It seems that most, including the news and TV folks are sort of living in a denial mentality. If they don't think it, it won't happen. Most everyone here is concerned with tourism. I can understand that and I understand that the fishing, shrimp, and oyster fisherman and industry are in great peril. I think that this spill is going to destroy the economy of the Ms, Gulf coast in a way that no hurricane, including Katrina has. Following a hurricane, clean up starts, rebuilding gets going and people are able to get their lives in some kind of order although it takes years to do so. And the people of the Ms. Gulf Coast are remarkable in their ability to persevere and to come back, although the Coast has not returned as swiftly following Katrina as it did after Camille. I'm not sure the Coast will be able to do that with the oil. It's going to destroy the Gulf and it's creatures like nothing ever has. The group from Alaska that came to Louisiana tried to tell the people that it takes years, sometimes a lifetime and then things are never 'normal' again. That is a hard fact to wrap one's mind around. It's depressing, scary and sad. It is such a huge impending disaster that we sometimes do better to ignore it until we have to accept it.

NEW POST ON SAPS!

DESERTED SIX FLAGS NEW ORLEANS

Rio and the baby Duck

Yesterday one of the many little ducks that live at the apartment got under the net wire fence that we have around the bottom of the patio to keep the dogs in. Rio went out and came face to face with the little fuzzy critter. It scared both of them. The little duck was tweeting for his mother to HELP! And Rio looked at me like WHAT??? He always runs up to the fence after any of the ducks in what is a show of his male badness, but when faced with a real live duck he had not clue. He has a lot of toy ducks and loves them but this THING was live and running around. IN the meantime the mother duck was trying to peck him through the wire. It was a wild five minutes until I caught the little duck and returned him to his mother. When that was done, Rio turned and came in with the look of a watch dog who had done his duty on this face.

Charlie

We have a HUGE salamander that invades the patio each day. Charlie, the 'winnie' dog wants to kill and knowing Charlie eat it. He stalks the thing each morning until the sun is scorching his black butt and he is forced inside to seek a/c. The last experience I had with a 'winnie' dog and a salamander was when Stretch ate one on the patio. I call our vet P. Larkin and he said give him a cap full of hydrogen peroxide until he threw up. You would be surprised how much fun that was, plus a lot of foaming at the mouth, spitting etc. But it worked. So I'm ready for Charlie when he eats this critter. And knowing Charlie, he will eat it!

"Sheeeeen"

I heard on the radio today that Halley Barbour is thinking of running for president. I have no idea if this is true of not. However, it is interesting. When Haley first ran for governor I didn't vote for him. I didn't vote for him because of that good ole boy accent that he can use at will. His voice just killed me!!!!! Then there was Katrina and Haley did a good job of handling that crisis and he looked downright sharp compared to Blanco from Louisiana. So I kinda got to like old Halley a bit more. Then he fought the cigarette tax to the bitter end and I liked him a LOT more. Now we have the oil spill mess looming and I've been watching Haley and his handling of it. A few suggestion; stop listening to Gene Taylor when he describes the oil spill as looking like chocolate milk (learn some intelligent sounding descriptive words) and stop saying the word SHEEN! When he says 'sheeeen' with that good ole boy drawl I just can't see him as president. Maybe a voice coach to work on the accent? In answer to the question. . . .would I vote for Haley Barbour for President? Hell, yeah! I'd vote for a turnip to replace Obama.

Tweeting

I have learned to Tweet. Yeah, I actually figured it all out on my own; how to download it, how to use it and how to seek out tweets from others that I am interested in. I'm sort of proud of that because I'm sixty two and did not grow up with computers, cell phones, instant messager, e-mails, texting or twitter. However, I read a recent article that senior citizens were taking to all of the above like ducks to water. I like that. Shows we are not brain dead anyway. The main problem that I have with all of it is the subject matter. There is a BIG difference in what is important to the various age groups which is sometimes annoying at best. But all In all I'm proud that I learned to tweet. As you get older you tend to take thee things a personal challenge.