Drinking hurricanes

[randy_byers]

The long weekend was nicely simplified by my decision not to attend CascadiaCon whatsoever and by old girlfriend Robyn deciding not to stick around Portland for an extra day on Sunday for me to come down and visit, but there was still a lot going on.



daveon and his wife were in town, and I had dinner with them and akirlu and libertango on Saturday. I wasn't quite conscious of what I was doing when I suggested that we eat at the New Orleans Creole Restaurant in Pioneer Square, but once the idea popped out of my head, it was obvious that we had to drink memorial hurricanes there. The restaurant had of course thought of this as well, and they were offering $8 hurricanes from which all proceeds would go to hurricane relief. The hurricanes had rum, something limey, maybe something cherry, and a splash of bourbon. Very nice, except it didn't sit well on top of the Tanqueray martini I'd had earlier at a birthday party for an old friend. The cajun jumbalaya was delicious, the company was great, and it was also a blast to run into another old friend, Hazel, working the bar. Hadn't seen her in a couple of years, and she promised that there was a sordid tale behind it.

On Sunday, after exciting morning adventures with police snipers, I spent three and half hours with Sharee's mom at Newcastle Beach Park in Bellevue, where she and her pals were racing a dragon boat in a benefit for cancer research. All of the sixteen the women in her boat -- mostly from the Nanaimo area of Vancouver Island -- were survivors of breast cancer, and there were at least six other teams of survivors, as well as teams of people who just liked racing dragon boats. Dragon boat racing is both a way for the women to keep fit and also a way to find friendship and community. They all seemed to be having a great time.

Yesterday, I drove to Portland for a BBQ at my niece's house in a neighborhood of Portland that used to be poor and black and is now gentrifying as young whites look for cheap houses to fix up. My whole immediate family was there, and we talked about Katrina a lot. My mom is a Red Cross volunteer and has been working ten hour days fielding calls from people who want to do something to help. My sister, who retired from teaching this year at age 52, is undergoing the Red Cross training and will be deployed in some way to help on the 19th. It's possible she'll be deployed in Portland, where they are taking 1000 refugees and housing them in an abandoned high school.

Today, I asked the barista at Cafe Allegro how her friend Molly was doing.

"She's coming up here after she spends a few days with her aunt in California," she said.

"She's moving here?" I asked

"Yeah, I hope so. The thing is, she hated it in Biloxi. She was always talking about moving back here, but she just never got it together. Now she has to move, so I'm trying to talk her into coming home."

So maybe in Molly's case it was to her advantage to lose everything. Strange old world we live in!

Comments

[missfairchild.livejournal.com]

Wow. I was just thinking about Hazel the other day and wondering whatever happened to her. Did she ever finish that trellis?

I've been fielding calls like that as well, albeit only when switchboard mixes me up with Logistics. Someone offered me 100 ex-British Army Ghurkas with special forces training the other day. I was sorely tempted to ask if they could stop off in North London to sort out our garden first.

Good luck to your sister. That's some family you have there.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Hazel did finish the trellis (and it's a great and groovy piece of work, currently supporting a honeysuckle), but she has not made the bench that we ordered in 2001 -- and therein lies an earlier sordid tale. That girl does manage to get herself into trouble!

Sending Ghurkas to the Mississippi Delta sounds right somehow. It's like something out of a book of fables. And maybe after they're done cleaning up your neighborhood, they could clean up mine as well?

[orangemike.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a setup for a sequel to Mississippi Masala!

Heck, send 'em on down. I figure the cognitive dissonance from all those big, competent, darkskinned fellers with British-flavored accents ought to be worth the price of admission all by its own self!

[del-c.livejournal.com]

Guys, you've got wandering "h" syndrome. Remember, the "h" goes on the second consonant: it's Buddha, Jenghiz, Gandhi, and Gurkha. (but dharma, just to be awkward)

[missfairchild.livejournal.com]

Pedhant.

[numbat.livejournal.com]

Careful, or he'll hold you in his ha-ha.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

I was sorely tempted to ask if they could stop off in North London to sort out our garden first.
Best laugh of the day! (And that includes last night's Daily Show, which was the first since Katrina and suitably apropos.)

FF, it's good to know that the RC is using someone I know (even 2d/3d degree) immediately. Some folks have been disappointed at being turned down for anything Katrina related because they're not already trained or don't have a critical skill (nurse, forklift driver). (And no, cleaning CPR dummies just doesn't seem like you're helping replace people who ARE already trained.) Go them!

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

My mother has been taking a lot of calls from people who aren't really prepared or able to help, they are just desperately wishing they could. One of the callers she got, for example, went through the whole process of how to get training etc and then asked, "And what about my children?" He wanted his children to help too, for the experience. How old were they? Twelve, ten, and eight. Uh ...

Another guy had a heart condition, another had a wife who was about to have major surgery, another didn't want to wait until the 12th to take the training, etc. Mom was mostly talking people out of it, as a matter of fact, but that was also largely because so many people were calling and wanting to do something right this minute. The phone has been ringing literally nonstop for the past week. I'm actually a little concerned about how hard she's been working. You'd think that at 71 you wouldn't have to work so damned hard!

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Oh, I believe that all sorts of people want to help who aren't necessarily qualified. I do know a couple of people who are healthy adults who happen to be available for a few weeks ATM. I'm hoping that it's an overflowing of goodness rather than an inability to process sudden waves of volunteers. Er, as it were.

[jerrykaufman.livejournal.com]

They've got to do something right this minute, because in another week or two, they will have forgotten all about it.