Again I find myself thinking about that saying:

You can never go home again.


We are now true south Louisianians -- Blue Roofers.


Below are a couple of looks you can acheive with the infamous blue tarps. The first picture is of our tarp after Gustav. The last one is of what's left of the tarp as Ike grazed us. It's almost mesmerizing to see how it billows in the wind -- sort of like a ship's sails. (but, believe me, it's a whole other thing to be inside hearing it flapping around in the wind. really, really, really grates on the nerves.) I have several inbetween looks we fashioned, but -- I won't belabor the point (anymore than I already have).

Since the back and one side of our rooms are leaning, we had to cover the sides of the house in addition to the roof.










Today's a different day. I slept the entire night (could it have been the new 8 hour Tylenol I tried?), or maybe it was the absence of wind and tarp flappin'. Two more contractors coming today. Two bids in and it's looking like we can do what we want to in rebuilding the two rooms -- well, pretty much what we want to. Did I mention that our insurance adjuster is a country and western singer from Austin? ....More on that later.


The longer we stay here -- in the swamps, the more connected to this city and this land we become. And for the life of me I can't figure out why. Two of our children were born here but that didn't connect us. Yet hardships like getting degrees from LSU Katrina and now this storm seem to cause roots to grow. I don't know if I like that. I'd rather run from this place as I (hope) I would from an abusive lover. Why stick around for more abuse? That's the question I'll be asking myself today as we inventory our losses -- and deal with more contractors.