Gustav Update #4

As I am writing this, Gustav has just made landfall near Cocodrie, LA. It is a category 3 storm. Hurricane strength winds are starting to pummel New Orleans. This storm is different from Katrina. Katrina's eye went east of the city by about 40-50 miles, so the city was spared the worst winds in the Northeast quadrant. Gustav puts that quadrant right over the city.

The levees on the west side of the Industrial Canal (the one that obliterated the Lower Ninth ward) have overtopped, and perhaps breached. Water is flowing into the city in this location like a river. Be prepared to see a flurry of conspiracy theories about this. Those of you who followed by web site after Katrina might remember that I questioned how the feds chose to spend their money in fixing the levees on the Industrial Canal after Katrina. Here's what I had to say in Update #74 on May 6, 2006:

Maybe it's just me, but since the Lower Ninth was prettty much decimated already, wouldn't it have made more sense to put in some temporary protection over there and shore up the part that protects what wasn't so badly damaged?

Here's the deal: they built this massive flood wall on the east side of the Industrial canal, which protects a largely unpopulated lower ninth ward. While they did some shoring up, the west side of the canal did not receive the same kind of attention as the east side. This is pure physics, people. The east flood wall is stronger and higher and the water needs somewhere to go. It seems obvious to me that the west wall is going to give with any kind of storm surge. Since the storm is literally pushing water against this wall, overtopping or a breach is almost inevitable. Seems like the powers that be are using mother nature for urban renewal.

I understand Shell Beach, where Coop had his boat before Katrina, is experiencing a 10 foot storm surge right now. Coop pulled his boat up to his house before the storm. CNN is also reporting that the Mississippi River is running in reverse, at least on the surface, at New Orleans. We also know the power is out throughout the city.

Our Trip

We left New Orleans about 3 PM yesterday (Sunday, 8/31/08). Our caravan this time included Janis and myself, Cary and Andrea, Adam, Jarret, and Coop's bartender (and good friend) Fay Sanchez in our van, and Juli Green, her boyfriend Mikey Dressler, and Allan Fickling following us with four cats in Juli's car. Of all the wonderful, generous choices we had for places to go and people with whom to stay, we narrowed it down to two: The Chili House in Meridian, MS (owned by some Coop's out of town regulars), or Dothan, AL where the mother-in-law of Fernanda Weakly, who used to work for me at MacSpeech. Availability of gas was also a consideration. Although I topped off the tank on Saturday, we had done a lot of running around helping others prepare, so we were down to about 3/4 of a tank, with no more gas available in New Orleans. The plan was to head northeast on I-59 into Mississippi rather than straight east on I-10, which runs along the coast. This would be safer as the outer bands started coming in, and would also provide more choices for gas.

We thought we had it in the bag. There was hardly anyone on I-10. We went 70 miles per hour all the way through the city, across the twin spans, past Slidell, and onto I-59. At the I-10/I-59 split traffic was forced northward onto I-59, so we couldn't have gone east on I-10 if we wanted to. For the first 6 or 7 miles we were able to continue traveling 70 mph. Then we hit the evacuation traffic. Contraflow started just south of the Louisiana/Mississippi state line. With traffic at pretty much a standstill on the northbound lanes, we cheated and crossed over to the southbound lanes (which were now traveling northbound). We weren't the only ones. We were going 70 mph again for a about 6 miles, then back to a dead standstill. The next 24 miles we averaged 5-6 miles per hour. The exits were blocked. No one could exit if they wanted to. It didn't matter, however, as all the gas stations along this part of I-59 had run out of gas hours before.

Just south of Poplarville the traffic in the southbound lanes (including us) were shifted back to the northbound lanes. The shift over process took a little over an hour over a two mile distance. Traffic started moving a little faster, but was still slow because everyone else who was running out of gas was exiting at Poplarville, which was also the first exit in Mississippi at which cars were allowed to exit. Thank God (and Steve Jobs) for iPhones! we already knew there was no gas in Poplarville. We had information that there was gas in Lumberton, so we exited at exit 35. At this point we had less than 40 miles to go until empty, and Juli's car was down to less than a quarter of a tank. The gas station at the exit was closed, so we pulled into a parking lot to stretch, allow those who smoke to do so, and regroup. While we were there, someone driving a Mississippi Department of Transportation truck pulled in and asked if we needed any help. We asked about gas stations and he told us about several within a short distance. We were able to fill up the cars, get some refreshments, and take a badly needed bathroom break. We had been on the road over 6 hours to go a distance that normally would have taken a little over an hour. Along the way, however, we encountered our first casualty: Mikey's cat Nigel died while we were in the evacuation standstill. Nigel was 19 years old. Mikey and July buried him underneath a flag pole in Lumberton.

While we were in Lumberton a police officer told us a tornado had touched down in the French Quarter. As you can imagine, this scared us. We were able to get through to Coop at Coop's Place, who told us a tornado in fact had NOT touched down. It turned out that funnel clouds were sighted and there was a tornado warning, but no touch down. Back on the road.

The plan was to drive to Laurel, MS and then decide whether we were going to keep going northeast or cut to the east to head to Dothan. While on the road we heard from Coop's regulars Kevin and Bob, who were at a standstill over 20 miles south of Meridian. As we continued north (we were now traveling at about 60 mph), we listened to WWL radio out of New Orleans and learned the backup near Meridian was getting worse. One person called in to report the backup was now just north of Laurel, which is 60 miles southwest of Meridian. No one had the stomach for sitting in bumper to bumper traffic again, so we decided to cut east just south of Hattiesburg, MS on US 98. At this point, we were 300 miles from Dothan, AL — about the same distance as if we had left directly from New Orleans. We had no choice. The only place to get gas was north, not east.

The rest of the trip was smooth sailing. We took US 98 to north of Mobile, AL, where we stopped to get a bite to eat at a Waffle House. The stress was running pretty high at this point, so I sat down with a couple of people and talked them down a bit. It was only a minor issue, but I didn't want it escalating as we still had 3 hours to go. At this point it was after midnight, and around 1AM when we finally got on the road again. We took I-65 northeast to US 84, where we gassed up, and then headed pretty much due east to Dothan. There was hardly any traffic on these roads from the time we left I-59 near Hattiesburg - something for which I was very thankful. When we did pass a car, it almost always had Louisiana plates. While listening to WWL radio we found out it took someone 5 hours to get from Hattiesburg to Meridian. The problem was apparently people who got tired of gridlock on I-55 and took US 98, US 84, and I-20 east to I-59. It turns out that although we had to go a further distance, we arrived in Dothan about the same time we would have arrived in Meridian. We pulled in at around 4AM - 13 hours after we left. This trip would normally have taken about 6 hours (and New Orleans to Meridian is only about 2.5 hours!).

People

I don't have too much information on people yet, but here is what I do know:

• Fay Sanchez, Allan Fickling, Juli Green, and Mikey Dressler are with us, of course, as are our kids and Andrea.


• Kevin and Bob made it past Meridian, although I don't know where they ended up.


• Kattai and Kathleen left on Friday. I can't remember where (Fay knows), but they are safe.


• Jaclyn McCabe is staying at a friend's house in Memphis.
  
• Steve Edwards and his family made it to Blytheville, AK. They left about 5 AM and pulled into Blytheville around 8:30 PM. Steve said it took over 4 hours to get from his home to the I-10/I-55 split.


• Coop, Laura Roe, Barry Franklin, and Jason Palmer chose to ride out the storm at Coop's Place.


• Mike and Nichole Moses left early and made it to Gatlinburg, TN.

What's Next

Well, it is certainly too early to make any decisions about what we are going to do. The storm has to completely pass from the New Orleans area and the local authorities need to assess the damage. We will hunker down here until at least Thursday, unless they say we can come back sooner. Katrina taught us how to be nomads, if necessary, so we will try not to be too much of a burden on any one of our friends for too long. Hopefully it won't come to that.

But for the immediate future, well, it is Labor Day and what better thing to do than BBQ? Both Allan and Mikey work at The Joint, which has some of the best BBQ ribs anywhere. They brought a bunch of ribs and some other goodies. Janis and I also brought fixins' for Chicken and Sausage Gumbo. We can't offer much, but we do make sure our hosts eat well.

Get Faster Updates
Do you know about Twitter? This is a neat little thing that allows its users to "micro-blog" what they are doing. There is a limit of 140 characters and there are a variety of programs for the iPhone that allow you to add pictures, GPS location, etc. Last night, I posted to Twitter as we were traveling (don't worry, I didn't text and drive - we were either stopped or someone typed for me). You can sign up for a free account at http://twitter.com/home. Once you have done that you can follow my posts at http://twitter.com/thechuck. You can also follow my Twitter posts on my Facebook page.

I'll try to update what I find out about people tonight, as well as anything else I find out that you may not be able to hear about on the news networks or weather channel.

Gustav Update #3

We took our vote, and the consensus is to leave. It was not unanimous. Given the latest projections, I am not in the least worried about water damage at our house, but there are three things that do bother me enough that I think evacuating is a good idea:

Tornados. Storm surge, wind velocity, and precipitation can all be predicted as the storm draws nearer, but Tornados are especially prevelant on the east side of a hurricane or tropical storm. Fay — which never reached hurricane strength — spawned over 100 tornados.

Damage to the car from flying debris. Even if there is not a tornado near us, flying debris could damage our just-acquired mini-van to the point it is not drivable. Since that vehicle is the only one my entire family depends on, I don't want to take that chance.

Lack of basic services after the storm. While we prepared for staying, the water and provisions won't last more than 4 days, and that is if we are very prudent. From what local officials have been saying, it could be over a week before electricity is restored, and longer than that before the grocery stores are open.

So we are leaving. We hope to be on the road between 2 and 3 PM. Currently, our plan is to take I-10 east out of the city, then I-59 north to Laurel, MS. At that point, we will decide whether to continue north to Meridian (where we have some friends that offered to put us up), or east on US 84 to Dothan, AL.

Rest assured, we aren't taking any chances with our safety. I'll post again as soon as I can.

Gustav Updates #1 & #2

With Gustav taking aim at us in the form of a Category 5 hurricane, it is time once again to send out my periodic hurricane updates. I will send first via email, and then post here as time permits. If you don't already receive my hurricane updates and would like to, please send me an email at thechuck@mac.com.

Gustav Update #1 (August 29, 2008; 6:45 PM)

Yesterday I send the following message to my Hurricane mailing list:

Well, I was going to do a lengthier 3rd Anniversary of Katrina update, but with Gustav giving us plenty of warning, Janis and I have been keeping busy getting our ducks in a row, so to speak.

Nonetheless, I did have time to do a small update, which you can view at www.macchuck.com.

For those of you who haven't called or sent a text message yet, we haven't decided whether or not we will be evacuating for Gustav and probably won't decide until sometime on Sunday. If I had to make a decision right now, based on what I am seeing so far, we would stay here as the winds will probably not be much more than tropical storm strength (again, based on what we know now).

Believe me, we will take no chances, but please remember, our house had absolutely no damage from Katrina, so we actually feel we might be safer here than with the nutbuckets on the road for anything less than a direct hit.

I'll keep you updated as things change.

Gustav Update #2 (August 30, 2008; 2:30 PM)

Today, Janis and I have been busy moving things out of the yard into the garage and cleaning coolers and water buckets. The state police is ready to start contra flow on the Interstates as early as this evening (it was not supposed to start until tomorrow).

Gustav was just upgraded to a category 5 during FEMA's most recent news conference — and it hasn't even hit Cuba yet. The area of Cuba it is going to go over is flat and narrow, so significant weakening is not expected to happen. One ominous sign: the Sunday paper just arrived.

We are going to continue to prepare for both staying and leaving. Today we are getting our important papers together and packing clothes. We also cleaned all our coolers and got out the styrofoam coolers we have been saving for just this occasion. We went to the store and picked up some last minute provisions. Whether we stay or leave, we will have the fixens' for some awesome gumbo to feed people.

Tomorrow we will fill the bathtub with water, as well as two 5 gallon coolers and a bunch of pickle buckets, in case we need clean water. We have two full tanks of propane, should they turn the gas off.

We will be taking a vote as a family tomorrow at 11AM as to whether to stay or leave - a vote which will not be final by any means, should we decide at that point to stay. We can always leave a bit later. The important thing will be to see what the storm's track and intensity forecast is tomorrow (Sunday) AM. We do know that it is highly unlikely for it to hit Louisiana as a Category 4 storm, let alone a category 5.

Remember the Walmart that was looted after Katrina? There are now 200 New Orleans police cars parked in the parking lot adjacent to it. Remember the scene at the New Orleans Convention Center after Katrina? There are now 1500-2000 National Guard troops stationed there using it as a staging area. My only concern is why they brought in about 200 howitzers there as well. What the heck do they need those for?

For Katrina, New Orleans had approximately 1600 police officers, 200 of which left the city. Today, as I write this, there are about 1500 police officers in the city and another almost 2000 National Guard troops in town. New Orleans is in a much better position to handle this storm.

Also, what they call "assisted evacuations" are happening. The storm has 17 places identified throughout the city where people can go if they have no other way to get out of town. A city bus picks people up at those spots and takes them to Union Station, where they get on a bus or a train. So far they have moved over 5000 people out of town and are planning on moving as many as 35,000 out this way. They have 700 buses on contract, each of which holds 50 people.

The Mayor has asked that all tourists leave New Orleans now. The last flight out of New Orleans will be at 6PM tonight.

This just in: Janis' part-time boss (who is a retired petroleum engineer) has some inside information from the forecasting service used by the oil companies that there will not be any flooding by our house, but it will be very windy. They are still projecting the storm to curve and go west of the city as a Cat 2 or 3.

Should we decide to leave, we will probably go to Dothan, Alabama. The mother-in-law of the person who used to work for me at MacSpeech has asked us to come there. (She stayed with us for Mia's third birthday party.) It is about a 6 hour drive normally, so we think probably 12 hours under these circumstances.

Tonight we are going to have dinner at Coop's Place - to check up on people and make sure we have their phone numbers, as well as help eat some of the remaining food (we are already pretty cleaned out, except for what is frozen).

For those of you tracking the storm, here is my favorite site:

http://www.stormpulse.com/

Exciting times. I'll write more as I can.

On Favre

I am not an avid sports fan. For the most part, I am a "fair weather" fan who loves to see certain teams go all the way. The only way I'll watch a World Series is if the Cubs are in it. Hockey doesn't interest me at all, and I'll be watching anything but the Olympics. I admit I'll be keeping an eye on the New Orleans Hornets this year, but otherwise, I haven't followed basketball since Michael Jordan played for the bulls.

But then there is professional football.

I will follow the Packers and Saints win or lose. There is something about the game that piques my interest and motivates me to keep watching. But I must admit the latest chapter in the Favre-Packer relationship has me puzzled.

Favre Partly to Blame

To be fair, Brett brought this on himself. I can understand how he felt when the Giants stunned the Packers and their fans by knocking Green Bay out of their Super Bowl bid last year. He told the media that he was retiring because anything short of a Super Bowl victory this year would be disappointing for him and with so many good teams, such a victory could not be assured simply by his return.

I get it. He was tired - exhausted even - from playing one of his best seasons ever. He was shocked by the loss. Even so, he should have kept his mouth shut and waited for things to settle down before making any rash decisions. Like Michael Jordan, to stop playing the game would be like trying to stop breathing. Anyone who followed Favre's career at all knows this about him, even if he did not know it about himself until earlier this year.

If you don't think Favre is motivated to play, consider this: the Packers offered him a $20 million marketing deal to stay retired, which he turned down. That's a lot of future-generation-little-Favres' college educations to pass up.

Packers Also to Blame

As much as all of this could have been avoided had Favre just waited until this past spring to see how he felt about playing again before saying anything, I feel the Packers have made a huge mistake by letting him go. For the past 16 years the Packers have been defined by Brett Favre's leadership. To not have #4 leading the team - especially after such a great season last year - is very perplexing.

But it is all about business, after all. Aaron Rodgers is getting old sitting on the bench. The Packers, mindful of this and with Favre waffling regarding his return, bet the farm on Rodgers. Their commitment is commendable. Their desire not to go back on their word to him shows their integrity as a business. But businesses are about money, and sometimes circumstances change that require them to make tough decisions.

For instance, considering Aaron Rodgers seems to be either extremely unlucky or injury prone, the Packers acquired two promising, extremely talented backup quarterbacks in Matt Flynn (from LSU) and Brian Bohm (Louisville). Bohm was named the 2005 Big East Offensive Player of the Year while Flynn lead LSU's Tigers to victory in the BCS Championship game last year. So, should Aaron Rodgers not work out, they have plenty of talent. Like I said, it is strictly business. The Packers will have no problem replacing Rodgers with either Flynn or Bohm should it become necessary to do so.

But was that really the best business decision?

Brett Favre is a brand. To not be in a Packers uniform tarnishes that brand. It is as simple as that. The Packers originally said they would not trade him to a conference rival because they were concerned with "tarnishing his legacy." Bull. They were concerned the coveted combination of Favre and Randy Moss might beat the pants off them. It is as simple as that.

I totally understand Favre's desire to play. Professional athletes hardly ever retire after a good season. In fact, most professional athletes either retire from an injury, or when their performance degrades to the point they can no longer compete at a level expected from them by themselves, their team, and their fans. Favre - coming off one of his best years ever - should have known at least that much about himself before retiring.

Where are the Owners?

The Green Bay Packers are unique in that they are owned by a community of shareholders, most of whom live in Green Bay. I don't know the extent to which stockholders have rights in a situation like this, but I do know that each stockholder has voting rights. I also know that an owner of a team can instruct its coaches to do certain things - whether they want to do them or not. Finally, I believe the owner(s) of a professional sports franchise has a responsibility to see the team is managed in a way that represents the best potential financial success. It seems to me the stockholders of the Green Bay Packers have failed both the fans and the team by not forcing the coaching staff and management to retain Favre.

Packers Took The Biggest Risk

The biggest shock will happen during this football season. Odds are the Packers will not make it to the Super Bowl under Aaron Rodgers. As Favre already pointed out, there are too many other good teams out there. I want you to pay close attention to the Packers this year and wait for the head coach or GM to utter something similar to the following phrase:

We knew going into this season it would be a rebuilding year for us.

Remember - you heard it here first, folks.

There is no need for a rebuilding year. Favre had a great offense at his command last year. The key players are back, and the offense has been shored up with their draft picks. This year's team - with Favre as Quarterback - would have been as talented as the 1996 Packers who went all the way. Perhaps even more so, as the current offense does not depend on guys like Desmond Howard to make the key plays.

While I think it unlikely that either the Favre-less Packers or Favre-enabled Jets will make it to the Super Bowl this year, I think it would have been much more likely that Green Bay could have made it with Favre at the helm. A Super Bowl victory does wonders for a team's bottom line and will carry them many years. Even without a Super Bowl victory, I think the Packer's won-loss record would have been much higher if they had retained Favre.

But what happens if the Jets do go all the way - or even just get in the playoffs and the Packers do not? All the bad decisions of the coaching staff, the management, and the stockholders (for putting up with the coaches and managers) will be exposed, and the damage to the franchise will be just as lingering as would a Super Bowl victory or playoff appearance would be beneficial.

At the end of the day, Brett Favre has to play until he can't any more. It's in his nature, and the Packers should have found a way for him to do that in Green Bay. The Jets were willing to give up Chad Pennington, who was a first round draft pick and is loved and respected in the Jet's locker room. With Matt Flynn and Brian Bohm on board, the Packers should have been willing to do the same with Rodgers to make room for the one guy who eclipsed even the legacy of Bart Starr in their history. As a die-hard Packer fan, I think they owed him that much - and I believe it was their best business decision as well.

Of course, maybe I am wrong. Maybe the Packers know something I don't (I certainly hope so). Maybe they will go all they way with Aaron Rodgers. If they do, I will be cheering them all the way.

Sliding Doors and Hugs

There's a nice little movie called Sliding Doors, which stars Gwyneth Paltrow and John Hannah (Brendon Fraiser's brother-in-law from the Mummy movies). The movie examines two paths a woman's life could take, all based on which side of some sliding doors on a subway train she ends up on, which in itself is due to whether or not she bumps into someone on the way to the train. During the course of the movie, we see both paths unfold, in parallel and see how that one small change sends her life in different directions.

Yesterday (July 19, 2008) was all about sliding doors for us.

We took Juli Green, a friend whose iPhone had developed a problem, to Baton Rouge so she could have it checked out at the Apple store. Adam was supposed to go with us, but he bowed out at the last minute to nurse a hangover acquired the night before.

Apple replaced Juli's iPhone in no time and we went off for pizza at Fleur De Lis Cocktail Lounge, which happens to have the best thin crust pizza in Louisiana. I was driving, so no booze. I had iced tea. On the way out of Baton Rouge we stopped by Kohl's department store. Just before heading back to New Orleans we picked up a couple of sodas and a root beer float at Wendy's for the hour or so trip back.

Interstate 10 between New Orleans and Baton Rouge has become more of a raceway, with people traveling 80-90 mph or more. While I am no stranger to speeding myself, I wasn't in the mood for it on the way back. None of us had anywhere we had to be at any particular time, so I got off the interstate at Highway 61, about 1/2 way between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

From the early 1940's until I-10 was built, Airline Highway was the main thoroughfare between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. A fun, but unsubstantiated rumor is that then governor Earl Long had it built so he could get to New Orleans faster to see Blaze Star, a stripper with whom he was having an affair. It is a 4 lane, divided highway for most of the way. Today, it is much less-travelled than I-10 and also gives one the opportunity to see such communities as Gramercy and LaPlace, which I-10 bypasses. It also affords a much closer look at the Bonnet Carre Spillway. Traveling Airline Highway also misses the construction on I-10 in New Orleans, which can become quite congested.

In other words, we were having a lovely day. Got an iPhone replaced, ate some great pizza, did some shopping, and were having a relaxing drive home. Just past the New Orleans airport is where things went south, so to speak.

Cell phones are wonderful things. At one time or another I am sure most of us wondered how we ever got along without them. In fact, if you just stand on a busy street corner in most cities and watch the cars go by, roughly 1 in 3 drivers will be talking on their cell phone. If you are one of those people, stop right now. Here's why:

Chuck & Janis' Jeep after the accident

We were minding our own business, nearly home, and I had come to a complete stop behind two cars, the first of which was waiting for oncoming traffic to clear so they could turn left. Janis was in the passenger seat, and Juli was in the back seat, installing applications onto her new iPhone. I had left enough space between our Jeep and the car in front of me to switch to the right lane to get around them. As I look in the rear view mirror, I see a pickup truck bearing down on us at full speed. Janis said I was about to speak, but all she heard was my intake of breath and then BAM!

We were rear-ended full force by a pickup truck going 50 mph. Juli said it was one of the loudest noises she has ever heard. We were hit just to the right of center and pushed us over the thin median strip (which was more of a curb that divided the opposing lanes), into oncoming traffic. The force of the impact pushed both of the front seats down to their reclined position, one of them hitting Juli in the face. In this reclined position, I held onto the steering wheel and managed to get us around the two vehicles ahead of us and out of oncoming traffic, back into our lane, narrowly missing a head-on collision with a large SUV (who also swerved). Still not sure how I avoided hitting anything myself. We finally came to a full stop 150 feet or so from the spot of the impact. It took me a full minute before I had enough presence of mind to turn off the engine and look around.

Janis and I seemed OK, but Juli was definitely in shock. She started to hyperventilate, so I told her to focus and started breathing with her. (Those Lamaze classes 27+ years ago finally paid off!) A little blood was coming out of her nose, which had already swollen up a bit. At this point, we were all pretty sure she broke it.

The driver of the pickup that hit us was reaching down for his cell phone and didn't see the stopped traffic ahead. His airbags deployed and he declined medical attention. Not sure of how badly Juli might be hurt, we called 911 and asked for an ambulance. She was taken to East Jefferson Hospital in Metairie, where they determined her nose was not broken, but her neck was strained. Janis and I were not hurt, although I appear to have a bruised and swollen knee and a few pulled muscles (mostly from holding onto the steering wheel in that reclined position). Janis says she feels guilty because she is not sore at all.

I called Cary, who had Adam come in and work for him so he and Juli's boyfriend Mikey could come out in Mikey's car to get Janis and me. We then went and waited for her to get out of the hospital. While at the hospital I removed my glasses and felt something sticky on the side of my head. I got a little worried, thinking it might be blood (mine or someone else's), but since there wasn't any blood anywhere else and I had no pain in my head, I quickly ruled that out. It turns out Juli's root beer float hit me in the side of the head during the impact. After Juli was released, we returned to Coop's (Juli and Mikey live in an apartment above the bar). We are borrowing Mikey's car right now until we can contact our insurance company and start getting things figured out.

While at Coop's, one of the regulars there chided us for being at a bar right after the accident (it wasn't right after - it was about 4 hours after it happened). He said it weakens our case. I am not sure how much of a case we have, since no one was seriously injured, but I do know this: there are two types of people in the world after an experience like that - those who go to church and those who go to a bar.

The regulars at Coop's - our extended "bar family," - all gave us hugs when we arrived. These were not your average hugs, either. They were your extended glad-you're-alive-I'm-going-to-squeeze-the-stuffing-out-of-you type of hugs, and we were all very happy to receive them, as things could have turned out far worse.

The Jeep is, of course, totaled. The repair costs would obviously be more than the value of the vehicle at this point. The other driver was a delivery person for Papa John's, which is a good thing, because they are required to carry insurance. People have already advised us to call Morris Bart, but I don't know. I am not a litigious person, and we need to see what the insurance company is going to do.

So Sliding Door #1 was when Adam decided not to come along. Given his height, he would have been in the passenger seat and Janis would have been in the back with Juli, and both could have been hurt much worse.

Sliding Door #2 was Janis's request that we stop at Kohl's department store, which delayed us enough to put us in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Sliding Door #3 was when Janis decided to do her computing work in the front seat instead of the back. Had she been in the back, she may have had her computer open at the time of impact and both she and it could have been hurt.

Sliding Door #4 was my choice to pull off the interstate and take Airline Highway instead.

It is human nature to blame oneself. "I should have stayed on the Interstate," or "We shouldn't have stopped at Kohl's." But the truth is that these are just a random series of choices that could have gone one way or the other and who knows - perhaps making the choices we did saved us from a worse fate on the Interstate.

The only blame here goes to the guy reaching for his cell phone. He should have known better. So please - if you don't have handsfree - don't talk on the phone or text or google while driving. I gotta believe that in many ways, being the person who caused the accident is probably worse than getting hit, and I would hate for any of you who read this to be in that position.

I'll post an update as we find things out.


By the way, if you'd like to see Sliding Doors, it will be on The Movie Channel (TMC) tonight (Sunday, July 20, 2008) at 9:30 PM and tomorrow (Monday, July 21, 2008) at 5:00 AM.

Hot Dogs and Vaseline

I came across this picture while surfing today:

Apparently this was all the person was buying - which in itself leads one to wonder what his 4th of Juiy BBQ is actually going to be like. But that isn't what struck me as most relevant. The picture was taken by someone else and posted to the Internet.

My first thought was "is this an invasion of privacy?" But a moment or two of thought leads clearly to the conclusion it was not. The hot dogs an Vaseline were clearly visible to anyone in the store, including the other customers and the check out person. The fact that we all get to be in that same check out line for this moment in time captured in a picture is irrelevant.

This got me to thinking about the traffic and crime cameras going up around New Orleans:

Traffic and crime cameras.

I was driving with a friend the other day, and he commented about how he didn't like the traffic cameras. He thought they were an invasion of privacy. I asked why he thought that way, and he said because he is getting tired of "big brother" watching your every move.

Red light stop, green light go, yellow light go very fast.

Let me digress for one moment: Janis and I have traveled all over the U.S. in the past year. In every city we see rampant abuse of the yellow caution light. These people take the above quote from 1984's Starman very literally, and I must admit, it is a pet peeve of mine.

I really am sick of everyone treating life like it is their own personal "me" decade. What happened to simple courtesy? Yes, we are all in a hurry - but those stop lights are there for a reason. When you run through an intersection when the light is red you endanger yourself and others (at worst) and at best, you delay the normal flow of traffic, delaying everyone else's life in the process. As Spock said: the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one.

OK - so like I said, I was driving with this friend of mine who feels traffic cameras are an invasion of privacy. I asked him "do you think it is OK to run a red light, or to speed up when it is already yellow if you absolutely know the light will turn red before you get through the intersection?" He said "no, of course not."

I then asked him that if a police car was present and saw the vehicle go through the intersection illegally, would he think it is a good thing or a bad thing for the policeman to pull over and give the driver a ticket. "That would be great," he said. "We need more police doing exactly that to cut down on this sort of thing."

You know where I am going with this, don't you? By the end of the conversation, I had made the case for traffic cameras. First of all, they only take pictures of offenders, not every car that goes through the intersection. Next, they really are like having a policeman at that intersection 24/7. This frees the police up to do more important things, like - oh, I don't know - catch bad guys with guns?

The same is true of the crime cameras. These cameras aren't peering into your home, examining what you do behind closed doors. They are out in the open, taking pictures of people doing things in public. They are seeing no more or less than what anyone else might see with one exception - they do not rely on human memory in order to report what they see. They are no different than the hot dogs and Vaseline. If you aren't doing anything wrong, you have nothing to fear. If, for some reason, you feel the need to do something wrong - do it behind closed doors, not in public.

The moral of the story, boys and girls, is this: in this day and age, the details of your life are available to strangers in so many different ways. The beauty of this is that it allows us all to bask in our individual uniqueness - and that is the part of this new age that should be embraced. We have the choice to learn about others in ways that were never before possible - the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Mac vs. Windows - a Real World Analogy

An employee of a client of mine asked me why he should get a Mac instead of a Windows computer. He wanted what, in my opinion, was the number one reason. After a moment of thought, I told him it was because Windows is much more susceptible to viruses and spyware. He said "How so?"

This is what I told him.

Imagine coming home after work and you open your closet to change clothes, and hanging there is an ad for J.C. Penny. You go into your bathroom and there are ads everywhere for toilet paper, toothpaste, deodorant, etc. You then walk into your bedroom and there, on your bed, are ads for Linens and Things. As you walk from your bedroom to your kitchen, you notice there are maybe 100 people in your house - all uninvited - placing these flyers everywhere.

So now you have to go around your house and clean up all the flyers, and doing so is made all the more difficult from all the people in your house who are making it hard for you to move from one room to another. After finally getting rid of all the flyers and ushering the people out of your house, you sit down to eat dinner.

The next morning, you wake up and you aren't feeling so good. In fact, you are feeling downright awful. So you go to the doctor. After running some tests he says you have not just one virus but hundreds of them, probably left by some of the people who were in your house the day before. At this point, your doctor tells you something quite astonishing:

"Oh, this is quite normal. In fact there are well over 10,000 viruses out there that they could have infected you with. Here are some prescriptions that should take care of them."

So you get the prescriptions filled, and then you call a security company to install equipment and post an armed guard outside your home to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Now, think for just a minute about what a much more crazy world this would be (yes, even crazier than the one created by the Bush administration). Yet, everyone in this crazy world thinks that is normal and acceptable - just the stuff you have to put up with in order to live your life.

Well, not everyone.

There are some people who build extra special houses. They are a little more expensive, but they are virtually impervious to home invasions that leave advertising all over the place and infect you.

Which home would you want to live in? That's the difference between Windows and Mac. I am admittedly a Mac bigot - but it just doesn't make sense to me to pay less for a Windows computer, just to have to install a bunch of extra software to keep it from getting "sick," or slowing down from all the spyware. If you are going to spend extra money anyway, why not just buy something that doesn't have those issues?

There are, of course, many other reasons why I think Macs are better than Windows (not the least of which is that I can now run all the Windows software on them as well, if I want - without endangering my Mac stuff, btw). But I won't go into them here. I really just wanted to write all this down while I was thinking of it.