I sent this recap of the last few days to Jim Louis, who’s away at summer camp and he’s feeling a little bored. He has his photography now, which is great. But writing this down made me think about how crazy our days can be here in New Orleans right now. I thought I’d give you the public recap of an average 48 hours in my life in New Olreans right now.

Thursday I went to a funeral at the Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel church for my neighbor’s mother, Gloria Mable Smith. A lot of people are losing their parents post Katrina and it’s hard when they have never been able to come home and particularly on top of all our struggles right now. The sermon was powerful, the booming delivery that the black ministers are gifted with is inspiring. The lady on the organ too, Amazing Grace, truly amazing. I found it hard to sing and cry at the same time. At some point, I turn around and there are at least ten cops in uniform in the back pews of the church. They are friends of the family and we needed them just to get the 30+ car caravan all the way from the church in central city to Mt. Olivet out in the Elysian Fields/Gentilly area. It was a sight, to behold all those cars getting on the highway and changing lanes with the police backing us up! And crying at the same time. Gloria Smith was an employee for the Superdome since it opened and the sight of us all in line as we passed by there was really something locals can appreciate. We do great funerals! I remind myself it’s good for my soul to be there, as I crawl around a broken down delivery truck advertising sweet potatos, left hanging over the curb, rusting since the storm.

After the funeral I spent about five minutes trying unzip my dress myself, I didn’t want to have to go across the street and ask the neighbors for help. I had to go install some window locks at a tenants’ place on Dumaine and that was pretty routine until I get a call that I have to go to a Lambert based meeting at the PNOLA office in an hour, gotta go. So I show. When I arrived, there was this pretty big dude sitting on the steps and he’s got a fucking nail through his palm . . . Frank, a super nice neighbor, with one eye, was taking him to the hospital. The victim looked scared, told me he was quittin’ construction, but the nail was intact, he wasn’t bleeding. . . yet. So I just said get in the truck, your two minutes away. You gonna be alright. Then I was thinking about his perspective. Here’s this one-eyed guy drivin’ him to a makeshift hospital in what was once a shopping mall. And it occured to me as they drove off that a man like Frank had probably not ever known that Macy’s in New Orleans Center had a pretty decent shoe buyer and he might not know where the mall was . . . later he did say he wasted critical minutes cruising directly to the New Orleans Arena first. But the guy made it.

Friday night, I was headin to Frenchman to make myself hear some music because I am the only person in the city who has not heard Hot Club and I haven’t been getting out enough, I am in bed by 9pm every night. As I was cruising along, there was this big truck moving a Katrina Cottage down Broad ! ! That was kind of heartwarming that someone is getting a new house.

On the way home I saw black smoke, the fire situation still being a real problem, we need rain badly. Turns out it was this house on Ursulines which sits right at the Esplanade exit in Treme and it was in the process of being sold to someone who everyone in the preservation business knows to be a great renovator. So, now, who knows what will happen.

This morning, Saturday, I stepped outside and smelled smoke again. It’s a sad way to start my day but it wakes me up, get my game on, no room for bullshit. Today, I agreed to take the reins on a construction project financed by the French government who have reached out to help Treme recover. We were out reviewing candidates in Mrs. B’s sweet black mercedes, cruising blight in the slum. It’s a win/loss, see-saw kinda life. Bored looks so inviting.

Related posts:

1. Mr. Okra
2. Volunteers Needed for Tulane’s Treme Survey
3. Treme Turn-Around
4. New documentary: great stories, little tsoris
5. I rode with Death