The quiet before the storm
It’s now almost 5 PM and the city is shutting down. I went to get the boys from the W around 11 and the National Guard was blocking most of the streets downtown. I took them to Elizabeth’s for the breakfast of champions (shrimp and grits, biscuits and mimosas) and K bought a Dr. Bob “Be Nice or Leave” sign and then we went by the Country Club where as I told T, I was surrounded by a sea of cocks as the bartender in his speedos served us FUCK OFF GUSTAV punch and gay porn played on a large screen TV behind him, then we toured downtown and uptown and came back home to change their airline ticket. They were able to get a 4PM flight out tomorrow – the airport is shutting down at 6PM.
I went through a panic as my neighbors said they are leaving and a friend walking on the bayou said the storm was now a Category 4 and I brought the panic inside the house with me. But after deliberating more, we decided instead to go ahead with dinner plans (supposed to be at a friend’s) except have it here with everyone’s freezer meat and seafood and good wine (I lost cases of 2000 Bordeauxs in Katrina) and then tomorrow, when the storm has entered the Gulf, reassess.
Right now, it’s looking as if we might be leaving after we take the boys to the airport, but I’m hoping we wake up to a different point of view. Damn Gustav – it’s already set this whole city into a world of anxiety and made each and everyone of us revisit old wounds.
I’m trying to zen out – I dropped the boys back off at the Country Club for a swim and came back to get my lists of things to take and prep for dinner – all I can think of is my friends dealing with the enormity of a dying child, funeral preparations all in the wake of this Mother Fucker headed our way and I think, what?