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The Chameleon And Me
When renovating this house on Rocheblave I had tried a few things to make it tight, that is impervious to the many critters that can occupy a home: the mice, the giant flying cockroaches, ants, silverfish, ladybugs, flies, etc., but they get in no matter what, not all at once and not in overwhelming numbers but all those critters do get in and live here with me. And then some--like the gecko, which does battle with the giant flying cockroach. They are welcome to all the giant flying cockroaches they can eat, non smoking sections available.
My favorite invader though is the chameleon lizard. I can see one now getting his morning sun up on the radius transom window above the front door. I don't know if it's one of the same one's that lived here before I left for the east coast in August '03 because those two were kind of small and never seemed to get bigger over time and the one over there is fat. He a biggun. I kind of envy him being able to sit up on that transom watching the world go by, even though truth be told not a lot happens here on Rocheblave. Gunfire and sirens in the near distance doesn't really count, even though I do feel inclined to mention it. Shhh, he's sleeping now. I like the sound he makes when he belly flops from a chair onto the wood floor.
I can see a downtown building from where I sit and if I stand up and look out a westerly window I can see a piece of the top of the Superdome. They have constructed another chain link security fence around the whole Dome because of "heightened national security alerts." LSU and Oklahoma are playing there tomorrow in the Sugar Bowl for the national college football championship. Even though USC…oh, who cares?
I can just glance around me and see all kinds of things that need doing if I do indeed intend to leave New Orleans in the spring.
Much of the really hard stuff will require better phone skill on my part so don't be surprised if I practice on you. If you get a call from someone saying--"hey, it's m…," click, that will be me.
Dormancy
I seem to be abusing my interim status to justify slobbery. It would not take me twenty minutes to straighten this place up but I am resistant to the idea of it. No, really, I can just step over that pile of stuff for now.
Nice time of year. There is so much evergreen flora in the area that you don't really notice it being winter. And although you can't ever around here say there are absolutely no mosquitoes, the mosquitoes are so dormant that you can leave your windows open without screens and that's nice. Air the place out a bit. I had screwed the windows shut in my absence and did not leave my house sitter a screw gun. She smokes so the house was a little smoky.
At the MacDonald's drive-thru yesterday morning the cashier asked me did I have a nice new years and I said it was pretty fun. Did you have a nice one I asked and she said she had, praising the Lord. I said I thought that sounded like a nice way to spend the evening and she said, yes indeed.
In the afternoon, after telling my ex, M, the house sitter, that she need not replace condiments used during her stay here because I literally never cook, I went out and bought cornbread mix and black eyed peas and cooked it up and ate it. While trying to be interested in college football on the television.
When it became clear that not all the young boys from the hood coming in and out of M's house were bad guys, the next door neighbor girls, two sisters, being raised conservatively, started coming over and developed a friendship with M. One of them writes a little and M will give her advice about that. The younger one helps M with chores, is sweet as can be, polite and straightforward, but you do not want to mess with her. The two sisters (and the younger brother) have different fathers. This past week the father of the younger sister was killed in crossfire by the proprietor of a Laundromat on Cleveland St. Her father was the only customer during an armed robbery by two teenagers. There are unanswered questions but the law allows that the two teenagers can be charged with murder while the proprietor may not face any charges at all. One of the teenagers was grazed and took himself to Charity, which received all 275 murdered locals this year, and hundreds and hundreds more wounded, and therefore has a staff pretty familiar with the characteristics of bullet damage to flesh. The kid didn't have the right answers, and as it turned out also had a little weed and coke on his person so…
I try to convince myself that discipline is freedom, which is why I try to write more these days, even when I don't want to or especially when I don't want to. However, I have not made any concrete plans about what to do with all my new found freedom. Though I must start reading more, that would be a good start. And I should pay better attention. Even if it kills me.