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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.

Mothers Day

I had a great Mothers Day. It started on Friday night with dinner at the Beau Rivage in Biloxi and a bit of gambling. Saturday was a long slow day spent at home with my daughter. I got some nice gifts, a Fossil purse in these great spring colors, a bracelet which as tiny symbols of all the things I like inside the heart shaped charm, and a vase of live flowers. Sunday for lunch my daughter took me to eat Mexican. The restaurant gave each woman there a live rose. I thought that was a nice gesture. A mother couldn't have asked for a better day. AH, make that a better weekend.

Grease

Everyone is waiting to hear if the containment of the oil spill works this morning. We are all hoping that it does. I am hoping that it does work for the obvious reason; to stop crude pouring into the Gulf, but for other reasons too. If we expect BP to take care of us we are as foolish as the people in New Orleans who waited for the Feds to take care of them following Katrina. BP is already ignoring the citizens who live here who have volunteered to do clean up work. Over ten thousand have volunteered and yet BP refused to even accept the list of names. In the past week workers in orange vest and hard hats (??) have seen seen picking up debris on the beach before the oil arrives (if it does). When reporters tried to talk to these men they responded that BP told them not to talk. The reporter stuck with them and found that they were from Texas, Illinois, and other areas and hired by BP. The oil company has already said it is contracting out a company to clean oily birds. Why not hire the people here who need and want to help to do this job? At recent town meeting BP offered 'training secessions' for volunteers. These turned out to be simple safety lessons on what to wear (gloves) etc. when picking up trash on the beach. Now let me see. Many of the people who volunteered are lifetime residents of the area. Do they really need this information from BP? That training was a simple way of shutting up the volunteers and it was insulting and patronizing. So if the Coast thinks BP has their best interest at heart they need to check out the Alaskan spill and see how that worked out and how swiftly BP paid claims. (They were still dribbling money to the area in 2009.) If you believed BP you can believe the governor who says the Feds will do right by us if the oil reaches us. While you're at you might as well grab some crude and grease up, bend over and grab your ankles, cause here it comes!

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GHOST ON THE TRACKS!

I Sometimes Hate Facebook

Ah, Facebook. How I hate you!! I didn't get into Facebook for a long time because I had nothing that I thought was worthy of writing for a few disinterested people to read. I still think that. And yeah, I realize that this blog is probably boring as Aunt Bertha at a family reunion, but here the thing . . you don't HAVE to read it to try to find something interesting. IF you don't go to a blog you don't read it cause it's not stuck in your face (thus the name Facebook???). On Facebook you have to sort through the bullshit to find the post you want to check out. However, it amazes me how many people think that everyone is interested in every detail of their day. If they fart it is on Facebook! Facebook has everything from how smart their kids are, to how their religious beliefs are functioning, to how much they LONG to be on Facebook 24/7. There is little depth tom any of the posts. Perhaps it's a sign of my old age that I just can't get past being somewhat bored with how many hearts you have collected or what stray animal you found or how many sunflowers you fertilized on Farmville. Of all the games that are available that one is the most boring. Why inflict it on the rest of us? You don't have to post every single time you find an egg do you?? I don't give a shit! I DO enjoy reading about something that friends and family had done, or heard or seen. IF used that way Facebook is a great way to stay in touch. And that is why I still go to Facebook. I recently found a high school classmate that I had not heard from in 40 years. She and I have reviewed past history, caught up on our families and rebuilt a friendship. But we did it with messages to each other and did not inflict it on all the readers. That is what it's all about. But most of Facebook has the depth of one inch of muddy water and a lot of rotten Farmville duck eggs rolling around in a Sunflower patch. Try Twitter. It's shorter, faster and to the point.

A Good Character is Fun To Write

I started writing a short story to take a break from writing on The Legend of Story Cazaunoux. I wrote the first short story about a character named Kane, a 17 year old street kid in New Orleans. (New Orleans is a major source of settings and plots.) It may not be worth a shit, but it was fun to write and came very easily. I like characters like Kane. A protagonists has to be liked by the reader and they have to be 'human' unless you want a really boring character. So I made Kane a pickpocket and a very good one. I decided to let him be a guy who could also pick just about any lock, carry a knife and be willing to use it if he needs to, and be a street magician. But he also needed some internal conflict. Well, being a street kid made that easy. Why was he on the street? Who does he like? Who does he fear most? Does he trust people? How does he like on the street? I think a good story needs physical conflict and internal conflict so Kane is a good character to have plenty of both. After I finished the first story (Kane 1) I had an idea for a second (Kane 2) and in that one I introduced a couple of new characters. So Kane now had a network of acquaintance's, friends, antagonists (bad cops?) and others. All was good. And then I saw this picture.

It a photo taken of the back wall of St. Louis Cathedral. And instantly I had the ENDING for a third story. Having the ending means I had the last 200 or so words WRITTEN in my head. So I had to write a story to led up to the ending. It was pretty easy. I love to write stories or books that take a bit of history and make my character fit into the mix. It is easy writing and fun. So I wrote the third story (Kane 3) and it's my favorite so far. Just one problem; this is turning into a book length process. So I may make Kane a book. Even if it is never published it's a good story and I can share with anyone who wants to read it. (It you want to read the stories let me know I'll send you a copy.) I am going to start on Kane 4 this am. He had turned into a really good character and like all of them he has taken off on his own path and I'm just along to record his journey.