Go to N.O they said......

1/17/18  Brrrrrr......

Go to New Orleans, they said. It’ll be warm, they said!!

Twenty degrees and woke up to snow on the ground. Not like snow we know but enough to paralyze this whole town. Schools closed. Roads closed. Now sunny and bright but still cold and iced. Sarah and I decide not to drive anywhere. Not so much due to the weather and road conditions but locals inability to function in these conditions. Finally stir crazy reading discarded magazines and travel brochures we walked the block and a half to the Crown & Anchor English Pub. Entering thru the blue Tardis police box we are greeted warmly by the bar keep and informed there is no draft, no cocktails involving water, and no bathrooms. Pipes are frozen! Just like ours!! Well, we do have cold water but not hot. Kept the faucets dripping all night. We can live with that. And we have heat altho Herman has stayed in his jacket, which he usually hates and squirms out of, all night and today. 

Went to Mardi Gras World yesterday. The primary creators and fabricators of the Carnival floats, their cavernous warehouse is packed with styrofoam and papier-mâché larger than life characters of every imaginative creature. There’s 15 foot tall pirates, voluptuous dancing girls, King Kong and family, bats, birds, snakes, Bart Simpson and family, and semi-truck size floats decked out in plywood flowers being prepped to roll for upcoming parades. Taken for granted all my life that these floats just “got made” it never occurred to me the artistic and obsessive process involved. Blane Kern’s company also makes figurines and landscapes for Disney, Universal Studios, many of the casinos, advertising (the Chick-a-filet cows!), and anything else limited only by imagination or finances.