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You Cannot Fail
This is a lot different than those first several months without electricity, sitting here inside Rocheblave with the central air blasting, and I don't know if I can stand it, but I think I can.
Today was my last day of work. I worked in Metarie and in Lakeview, got my last check, and said goodbye to Bossman, with whom I have worked a total of10 years.
In Metairie I finished the painting except for punch out, on a remodel/flood job for a new builder and he pays us 50 cents to a dollar more per square foot than our regular builder and came onto the job occasionally and said stuff like, it doesn't have to be this good, which is gratifying I guess, but I didn't do anything special for him.
In Lakeview, well I don't know what to say about Lakeview, you have to see it for yourself.
Lakeview, being a white middle class to upper middle class neighborhood, for me, ghetto dweller, is a bit shaking to my core, the visualization of how quickly an affluent neighborhood can, in wide swaths, take on the appearance of ghetto. But you know, I love the ghetto, so I guess it's not all bad.
I don't want my nephew and his wife and three young children, rebuilding in Lakeview, to frown too hard at the last paragraph because I think you are doing the right and courageous thing. Sissies have never made it in New Orleans. As you face your future doubts realize you will never be without what you truly need. What? No!, you cannot borrow a dollar.
I had to go get an extension cord on Dumaine this morning so I could spray some shoe molding at the Metairie job before the carpenters (bossman did not trim that job) put it down, and approaching the former kill zone at St. Philip and Dorgenois, I saw one of the chicken/rooster pairs rummaging around a debris pile. I am easily satisfied by free range ghetto poultry.
Three Friday's in a row my garbage bags have been picked up on Rocheblave, and I'm sick of it, this regular garbage pickup has got to stop.
I love New Orleans, but still, I'm leaving.
For those of you staying, embrace your mayor. That other guy with his promises was all wrong. Promises are a comfort to fools.
And if you get frustrated at the pace of recovery, get out and do something, any fucking thing. In New Orleans you cannot fail.
