Still Stormy Effects

I rode down a bike path that intersects my old neighborhood, the one I moved from about 2 1/2 years ago and that is adjacent to where I now live. Ha! It looks like a trailer park now. Almost 8 months after Hurricane Katrina, about 1/2 the homes there still an un-repaired. About 80% of New Orleans flooded enough to require replacement of sheet rock, floors walls etc, or completely demolished homes. Only about 50% of my suburban parish had the same after. Yet, the neighborhood in which I live had about 80% damage.
My former home had water enough to cover the floors, carpet and baseboard s in the house, I presume the kitchen cabinets, doors and anything else warped by flood water would have to be removed. It is a pity. Of course, I am in the lucky 20% that did not have flooding from rising water ( just one room was wet from roof damage and a few others had water spots on the ceiling).
Given that the area where my home is upper middle class to wealthy, to se so many trailers and so many property in disarray tells the story of why New Orleans itself is so thoroughly un repaired. There are still neighborhoods and even one entire parish that are s deserted, filed with homes that have cars on roofs or trees, houses sitting in the middle of streets, debris stacked to the sky etc. One wonders what would happen if another storm hits here next hurricane season. the season starts in two months. The trailers and debris would surely become flying missiles to damage what property has been repaired.
Every day I read stories about unethical contractors who steal residents down payments and leave them with unlivable, rather than repaired homes, Illegal immigrants who come here allegedly to work, but instead loot abandoned homes of whatever possessions that are sellable, people being on waiting lists for repairs that are as much a one year long, the Bush administration and Congressional indifference to New Orleans. It is unbelievable.
I sometimes think the events happening after the storm are more destructive than the hurricane itself was. But at least we here in New Orleans aren't suffering like Aric Mcleown, 26, of New Port, Minnesota. Poor Aric has subjected himself to a greater menace than even the world's great hurricane.
He is allowing people to vote on his web site to determine which TV shows he'll watch Monday through Friday from 7 to 9 pm. So far Aric has gotten about 100 votes per TV time slot on his web site. www.make me watchtv.com And some of the shows they picked for his sound brutal- "Gilmore Girls", "House", "Veronica Mars", "Supernanny", "America's Funniest Home Movies" and "Mash"...Ok, I have never heard of or seen any of those except one. And that one, "Mash", is an inane and vapid show to watch. A few minutes of Mash, mashed my brain so much that I never had a desire to watch any other episodes of it.
According to Aric, the worst shows he has been asked to watch are "Gilmore Girl", "Prison Break" and "7th Heaven". "My brain cells wee fighting back when I was watching '7th Heaven', " he said. "They were screaming at me to stop it now! At least it's clear they're still functioning. Not so fast, Aric! Keep watching American TV and you will soon become a mindless survivor or other reality show fan. And Aric says that he found one show that he likes, something called "24".
So why does Aric torture himself with the popular and mindless modern TV programming of the voters choice? He says that he wants to get a better view of society and that by doing the experiment he will be able to answer some basic questions about it. "Do people really enjoy those kinds of TV shows or are they just watching them because they are the only shows on to watch? Why do some shows succeed and why do others fail?
My God! Just 1 minute of most of the American TV shows is enough to make me scream for mercy and turn off the set. But to think of letting mindless TV addicts select shows that I must watch...No, I would rather be subjected to another killer hurricane. There are some disasters, "Gilmore Girls" being one, that are too tragic to watch.