Peggy Ranson, pranson@timespicayune.com
Ya know a curious little “addendum” struck me tonight about the whole Katrina thing. A little history. I’m PLAGUED with pigeons. They build their nest over my windows and poop all over the front porch and the acid eats away at my front porch. I even have those plastic needles up and it doesn’t work. When I was driving home from Memphis I remember thinking “well, at last, the pigeons will be gone.” And what was the FIRST thing I saw when I drove into my driveway???? A few pair of happily cooing pigeons right where I left them and pooping away. I was screaming NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO when I got out of the car. I thot at least this one little problem would be gone and I was thunderstruck to see them still there.
This little incident left more than a few of us at the Paper wondering. WHERE DO THE WILD LIFE GO???? And believe me they know before us all how bad it’s going to be. Bear with me, cos City Park reported one tree being absolutely dense with squirrels. For some reason they only picked that one tree. Who are we to question.
About 10 days ago I finally got in touch with the guy who had, out of goodness of his heart, boarded up my windows for “the thing.” I was pretty desperate cos the guy I usually use and who had cut the plywood was incommunicado. Greg usually washes my house and cuts a few tree limbs for me. He was laughing hysterically that I was actually leaving. Hell, he said, I went thru Betsy. What’s the big deal? In the background his wife was yelling at him “you were FOURTEEN during Betsy, you moron. It was an ADVENTURE!!!! You’re a f--king old man now! Get over it!!!!” At any rate he rustled up a friend and they came over and boarded up my house and my friend Mary’s.
I had been back about a month when I tried to call him. It was the only call I made in the city where the operator came on line to say due to the storm the service would not be back to this area in the foreseeable future. Greg and his friend had refused to take the money for boarding up saying pay us when you get back (!)
Well, as I said I finally got him on his cell phone a few days ago. A really great guy and I was SO afraid of the worst. Yes, they lost everything. But here’s the real story (back to the animals). They had stayed till the last minute. Then his father in law called who lived in New Orleans East. He told Greg he reallllllly had a very bad feeling about this so Greg said come and stay with me. He said he went and got his father and brother in law and brought them back to his house. Later that night or early morning he went out to the front yard. He said, “Peggy, it was soooo strange. Not a sound. Not a bird, a dog, a car not nothing.” That’s when he knew. He absolutely knew that hell was on the way. He went back into the house and told everyone they were leaving right then and there. He was totally creeped out. “The thing” was already beginning to hit so they had no traffic to deal with. He said they barely made it out.
But it was the animals, the birds. the silence. Like the howling of dogs before an earthquake. Where do they GO????
Where in hell did my pesky pigeons spend the storm?
I really want to know....
This little incident left more than a few of us at the Paper wondering. WHERE DO THE WILD LIFE GO???? And believe me they know before us all how bad it’s going to be. Bear with me, cos City Park reported one tree being absolutely dense with squirrels. For some reason they only picked that one tree. Who are we to question.
About 10 days ago I finally got in touch with the guy who had, out of goodness of his heart, boarded up my windows for “the thing.” I was pretty desperate cos the guy I usually use and who had cut the plywood was incommunicado. Greg usually washes my house and cuts a few tree limbs for me. He was laughing hysterically that I was actually leaving. Hell, he said, I went thru Betsy. What’s the big deal? In the background his wife was yelling at him “you were FOURTEEN during Betsy, you moron. It was an ADVENTURE!!!! You’re a f--king old man now! Get over it!!!!” At any rate he rustled up a friend and they came over and boarded up my house and my friend Mary’s.
I had been back about a month when I tried to call him. It was the only call I made in the city where the operator came on line to say due to the storm the service would not be back to this area in the foreseeable future. Greg and his friend had refused to take the money for boarding up saying pay us when you get back (!)
Well, as I said I finally got him on his cell phone a few days ago. A really great guy and I was SO afraid of the worst. Yes, they lost everything. But here’s the real story (back to the animals). They had stayed till the last minute. Then his father in law called who lived in New Orleans East. He told Greg he reallllllly had a very bad feeling about this so Greg said come and stay with me. He said he went and got his father and brother in law and brought them back to his house. Later that night or early morning he went out to the front yard. He said, “Peggy, it was soooo strange. Not a sound. Not a bird, a dog, a car not nothing.” That’s when he knew. He absolutely knew that hell was on the way. He went back into the house and told everyone they were leaving right then and there. He was totally creeped out. “The thing” was already beginning to hit so they had no traffic to deal with. He said they barely made it out.
But it was the animals, the birds. the silence. Like the howling of dogs before an earthquake. Where do they GO????
Where in hell did my pesky pigeons spend the storm?
I really want to know....
posted by ;-p at 3:09 PM
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