Thanks all,
Why oh why do I live in (near) N.O.?
Ummm, my dad retired here and the house is paid
for. This is one of the prime retirement spots for Dupont employees ... go figure.
Yeah, it's humid at times, but the bayous and gulf keep it cooler than the Republic of Texas.

Housing costs are well below the national average, repairs are cheap, insurance WAS cheap but yeah, gettin' higher. Why else? The folks are the nicest you'll find anywhere. Life is slow an' easy. Food's great. Sportsmen cream on themselves with stuff to hunt n'fish.
The winds weren't all that bad here, just bad enough to knock down enough branches to keep 300+ electric repair crews busy. That's to be expected, but what really screwed us is that Gustav lingered long enough with strong enough winds to destroy three very important giant transmission lines into the area and 13 or more transmission stations.* Some folks may need to wait for a month or more for their power to come back. Our block seems to be one of the last ones to get power in Laplace. We should get it back by Monday. The storm was neat. Open the front door and watch the neighbor's bar-B-Q pit fly past. Gustav ate some dry air just before it hit the coast so he wasn't much of a rain maker. No flooding here, but lots near coast due to storm surge.
No storm cellars here. Try to dig a basement and you get an indoor pool.
Well, I was surprised that ComCast restored the cable tonight. Seems like I still know how to type an' all, but I gotta make this short. I gotta put some more $3.65 gas in the generator.
Thanks again,
Stu
* I haven't kept up on the news for the last few days so I don't know exactly what/how many facilities were damaged/destroyed.
"He who warned, uh, the British that they weren't gonna be takin' away our arms, uh, by ringing those bells, and um, makin' sure as he's riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be sure and we were going to be free, and we were going to be armed."
- The history of Paul Revere's
midnight ride, by Sarah Palin.