I noticed this morning that I had enough gas for one and a half round trips to New Orleans. In the Old Normal that wouldn't have mattered--they have gas stations in New Orleans too.

But it's the New Normal, and I've noticed only a couple that are both on my ground-level (as oppposed to interestate) route. And these are located in what is not the nicest part of town. In addition, they're all on the wrong side of the street for going home. And I'm not about to stop on the way in. At that hour there are lots and lots of guys hanging around looking for day work. (My momma didn't take stupid pills when she was carrying me.)

So, it was get gas before I go into town tomorrow. I debated taking I-10 across the Lake then catching I-12 to get me to Sam's club gas, but it was stop and slow getting onto the Twin Spans, so I went with my usual old bridge route.

I guessed wrong. I was in peak going-home traffic and the Hwy 11 bridge has a small section closed to one lane all day. About every ten minutes or so the state troopers switch the traffic direction. Why? Because the drawbridge hasn't worked since Katrina. This month they are restoring the power lines that got "disrupted" during the storm. At any rate, I ended up stopped twice before I got off the bridge. And I said the heck with it--I'll pay the much higher gas price at the Shell station--which is about the only gas station open on that side of town.

I'm now set for tomorrow's trip to the city.

I've been plugging away at two boxes of material from the Associate Dean this week. I have one finished and am about two-thirds of the way through the second. Some of this stuff is scattered all over, so I am doing a bit of organizing and consolidation where necessary. The interesting thing is that I have been finding all sorts of info dating back to 1987 when Tulane made its first "grab" for Newcomb (and its endowment.) They are about to make another one, in which the schools will be formally combined. As a sop they will be calling the new institution Newcomb-Tulane.

The room where I work just got a really fancy new copier. We were talking and I mentioned to one woman that I'd just read the act of donation that started Newcomb College. I showed it to her and she immediately "tested" the new copier, running off several copies. The original was one-sided, and about 12 pages. The magical machine spit out double-sided copies, all collated and stapled.

On the home front, my little cat has sort of learned my "rituals" and is not running out (or trying to) each time I go near the door. She's found herself outside a couple of times in wet or cold weather. Now she watches to see if it looks like I am just going down the driveway or if I'm headed to the car. She's also figured out that it is STUPID to run out when I get home late in the afternoon. That way she ends up eating late, after CC has had a crack at the food.

Tomorrow's Friday already. The time sure goes a lot faster when you're doing something.