I was in San Antonio last week helping a old friend from the past find his new home. He is being transferred by his company due to some downsizing and such. We basically did nothing but look at new houses, eat and sleep. I was able to see some of the city. While San Antonio is not really my kind of town, I do have to admit to some serious jealousy. Things in San Antonio work. Like traffic lights. And there seems to be a lack of murders in a city twice as big as New Orleans. I am happy for him but I am very jealous that he will be moving to a new city with a new home with all of the “quality of life” things, such as a abundance of grocery stores and such to choose from. While San Antonio seems to have a Applebee’s on every corner, I think after all this time I’d take the occasional Applebee’s for a little more stability around here.

I am a observer. I generally sit, listen, watch, wait and soak in everything around me. I found it very interesting that the flight(s) into Texas were very very packed. I also was a little discouraged that the flight coming back to NOLA was half empty. This after the airline had cancelled two other flights into NOLA that were scheduled for later. These were really business flights so what most of us already knew is true, there are no business peeps coming here.

I was at a local restaurant that I have some business dealings with for lunch. About 1:45 a young lady walked in to the establishment to apply for a job. Obviously lots of this going on around the country, nothing realy different except this being New Orleans, the young lady of course did things a little different. Like I said earlier, I observe. I saw her come in, ask the hostess for a application and she made her way to the bar area to fill out her application. This is a high end steak house deep in the heart of the French Quarter. She rolled in with flip flops, capri pants (I had to as a female friend lol) and a wife beater t-shirt. Doubtful she would have gotten a job anyway dressed like that, but the topper was what she brought with her. A big ole bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos and a Mountain Dew. She proceeded to snack on the Doritos, taking big guplps of the Dew along the way. When the manager came out to look over her application and to actually interview her, she continued to munch away on the Doritos and swig that Mountain Dew like someone was gonna take it away from her. I wanted to walk over and help myself to a chip, but watching her tear through that bag, I was afraid I would come away with nothing left after the wrist. She didn’t get the job.

August 21st, 2007. That is the oldest e-mail I have on my work computer server. That is over a year and a half ago.I did the research and bring it up because earlier this week citizens of New Orleans learned that the city government “leaders” had all of their emails and correspondence deleted from the year 2008. Specifically Mayor Ray Nagin. That is correct, every email that Mayor Nagin sent out or received in 2008 “magically disappeared” after Channel 4, WWL-TV filed a public records request. Not only every email from the year 2008, but the Mayor’s schedule also has been deleted.

The City of New Orleans claims that the server did not have the capacity to “store” all of these emails and schedules and such. Therefore, they just deleted everything. This is just total fraud. The city states that there is no way to get all of the deleted information. Which of course is public record and you me or any Joe Blow is suppose to have the right to get access to these within three days of a written request.

I gotta tell you, something is really fishy here. I talked with my IT guy this morning, he says you can get a extra terabyte something for a hundred bucks that will store over 1 million emails. Plus he says the first thing to go when a server has issues are large files such as pictures, videos and audio.

What does Mayor Nagin have to hide? Why would all of HIS e-mails and HIS schedule disappear when he touts himself as “The Technology Mayor”. I thought we were moving into the 21st century with Ray Nagin at the helm.

What will come next in the Curious Case of Ray Nagin’s e-mails? It might not be worthy of a Oscar nomination but I’m sure the answers we get in the future will be comical.

The NOPD, after hurricane Katrina, changed uniforms from the old sky blue look that the NOPD had worn for as long as I could remember to a what some would call black uniform. The reason for the change as explained to citizens, was that some of the blue uniforms had been lost or stolen during the chaos after Katrina.

The majority of NOPD officers were not happy. The black uniforms seemed to attract the heat during the summer and while not all officers are out of shape, I doubt that it’s the most svelte department in the land. I like the blue uniforms, they are classic New Orleans and well we worry about things like that around here.

Well the blue shirts return Friday morning just in time for Mardi Gras. I for one am glad but I do have a little concern. Have the lost or stolen blue shirt uniforms all been gathered up and stored? Did we find all the lost or stolen blue shirts?  With the amount of angst going on in the city right now with citizens feeling that crime is out of control, I think most people would feel a little better about the NOPD stopping the murders of innocent people instead of what color shirt they wear on a daily basis.

On a personal note, I am back as well and hopefully in a better frame of mind than a year and a half ago.