Saturday was atypically busy for me. Went to the Archives to find an article on Hatevil Nutter, an ancestor of whom I may blog about later, who deserves a mention if only for the name. My new hat got a good shakedown, as I decided to walk to the Progressive Center to meet Allen, a good two mile trip in 95 degree weather. The hat works.

I helped Allen with the store, then we fixed up three of the rooms. The suite we are trying to reserve for our own use now has a good conference size table for meetings. The Center is pulling in $8000 a month in rent now, and we seem to be solidly established. The owners are happy for now and things are looking up for the future. A film society is setting up to rent one quarter of the building to establish an independent movie theater, which they can also open up to us for media presentations. If they have an adequate stage, holding concerts might be another possibility, though we have been doing fine so far in the back parking lot. Funding Adrien's cafe is another priority, and Allen has struck upon the idea of printing our own money. I'm picturing a one dollar bill with Geoff Callaghan on it.

Allen wanted to watch the FSU game at Cabo's, so we spent the rest of the evening there. We were supposed to meet Rich, but he never showed up. Got home around midnight, but still felt restless so I finished the night at the Warehouse. Had a good talk with Laura, the bartender who insists my house is haunted. If only, the cold spots would certainly be handy at this time of year.

Decided against going to DC. It's not a good time to take off from work and I need to save up if I want to go to New England next year. I found the rest of my grandfather's family in Boston in 1930, so I plan to go up and do some proper on-the-spot research. I also have relatives to visit whom I have not seen since 1976.

Cowboy!

With hurricanes on our mind, Geoff and I were talking about New Orleans earlier this week, and our conversation turned to our own brush with Dennis a few months ago. One of our local landmarks, Posey's, was flooded out. The owner, Wayland's aunt, was sure they could rebuild by the end of July, but the inspectors had them shut down. They are currently jumping through hoops to determine if they can afford to rebuild. The land is worth more than the building, and we shudder to think what would happen if they had to sell. Furthermore, they were the only paying gig for Geoff's band, Blue Moon. Currently, there is no Blue Moon, since they have nothing to practice for.

Here is some of the damage from Dennis, which left five feet of water in the building. The smaller dog on the right is Wayland's dog, Cowboy.



This picture went out internationally and was seen by friends of ours vacationing in Vietnam. They were very surprised to see Cowboy from a newspaper in Saigon. Cowboy is very popular dog, though, so it would not surprise me in the least for a Vietnamese native to open up the paper and shout "Cowboy! Good boy!"

Rich and Grace get back sometime this weekend. They have been on vacation in Costa Rica and Guatemala. Hopefully Grace was able to relax, as it is her job to keep Rich from joining any revolutions.

John Burris was in the Superdome throughout the whole ordeal, and was one of the last to be bussed out. He was not aware of any of the violence, and says they always had adequate food and water. He and another Lucky Dog vendor managed to score their own storage room and stayed put, so they were pretty much isolated from the rest of the throng. He is in Houston with Adam this weekend, partying off his debit card. He goes on to see his sister in Sacramento next week.

A number of people remarked to Adam that he picked a good year not to move to New Orleans. However, Adam points out that he would now be on two months administrative leave. Damn the luck. I should point out that Adam is notoriously cheap. Coming from a family of thrifty German farmers myself, who quite possibly went through the Great Depression without noticing anything was wrong, Adam would definitely have them all beat.

Toying with the idea of going up to DC for the protest on the 24th. I don't 100% agree with the notion of withdrawing the troops immediately, but hell, I'll protest anything, and I need to get away from Tallahassee for awhile. Being cheap and lazy, we'll see if I actually make it off the porch.

Finally, a tip of the hat to Sky News Ireland:

More morning e-mail

"Hello, all -

Apparently, no one responded to my dead animal call yesterday. 
I'm aware of the odor, believe me.  I've already called maintenance
again, and will call the lady who handles it at her office when
she is due to be in."

Morning E-Mail

"Hello, all -

There seems to be a deceased animal in the storeroom somewhere.  Please
avoid the area if possible.  Maintenance has been called."

Just got word from Adam that Burris is fine and in an Army camp in Oklahoma. I had visions of Adam getting stuck with running whatever is left of the Lucky Dog operation out of his apartment

Another lovely quote from Mother Bush on the New Orleans refugees:

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this (she chuckled slightly)--this is working very well for them."

Someone please explain to me why America keeps voting for this family.

Changes at FSU

Was on campus today and noticed that the old pool that used to be next to the Student Union is gone. When Adam visited we popped into the Union and I had run into one of the maintenance workers who I knew from my days as a building manager. He mentioned that it was going to be torn out to make room for a new classroom building. I had forgotten about it until I saw the piles of dirt today.

Other changes include the Bill's Bookstore across from Westcott. The Mecca was torn down some time ago so Bill's could build a larger store. The old Bill's has been converted into a Circle K. Rob is constantly worried about where people are expected to park.

Had lunch today at the Sweet Shop, which is one campus landmark that has proven to be persistent. Ownership has changed a number of times since I've been here, yet it still manages to hang on. Hopefully at this point it's presence will remain sacrosanct.

In our own neighbourhood, there is somewhat distressing news. A hotel is being built on the corner across from the Lab. This is certain to bring a bunch of riff-raff around, not to mention the hotel people themselves. May as well have carnies move in.