A couple of drivers decided to defy natural laws and attempt to occupy the same space at the same time. This is not possible in this universe. Their idiocy on the Twin Spans tied up interstate traffic something awful. And, many people decided to take the old bridge--the 78 year old one that survived Katrina undamaged. It, however, is one lane each way. It took me 45 minutes to get from my house to the south shore of the lake--a distance of just over 12 miles. But what else can you do? I arrived at work 30 minutes later than usual. Potential situations like this are why, when I am teaching, I leave the house really, really early. At least the rest of the drive was uneventful.

I spent most of the morning on one folder of material. The folder was about two inches thick and included several sections of newspapers. I ended up splitting the material into five folders. It was about a young Newcomb graduate who had become a cop. Her one-time boyfriend started getting weird, and she got a restraining order. That didn't stop him from breaking into her apartment and murdering her. (He then killed himself.) Very tragic.

A scholarship fund in her name was established, and the donation letters and other fund information now have a folder of their own. The publicity from the newspapers takes up a second folder. I made a third one for her funeral memorabilia and for personal writings that family and friends had donated. The many e-mails and other correspondence got a folder of their own. But this incident triggered a crusade against domestic violence. And I have a very thick folder with all the material gathered about the problem.

It almost seems a pity to have all that material stashed away in archives. When the archivist returns I'll ask her if there's anything currently going on about domestic violence. Probably not--Katrina recovery and the Newcomb controversy seem to be at the forefront right now.

The trip home this afternoon took about half the time of the drive in.

When I got to Slidell I heard a voice inside telling me to get a Wendy's salad. I try to ignore voices inside only when they have negative messages. But as I went through the drive-up window I saw a big sign saying "We hire 14 and 15 year olds." Of course there are hours restrictions, but the food service places are chronically short-handed post-K. The other day the newspaper noted that the minimum wage in this area is about $8 an hour, for all intents and purposes.

I have managed to not listen to very much news today. I guess the CIA nominee is going to get grilled on spying on citizens. Most of the news here is the run-off election on Saturday, although there was a six alarm fire in a warehouse on the river yesterday. One of the few FEMA plusses is the helicopters that can do water drops. Originally they were here because of the low water pressure. I seem to recall that yesterday they mentioned a fireboat also trying to cool the fire down.

I came up with a positively brilliant solution to the screen on the den window that has some tears in it (probably from cat claws on old screen.) I exchanged it with the screen in my office room. I seldom open the window because I have AC, and the screen here looked a whole lot better than what it was traded with. Maybe I won't have so many bugs coming inside now. Fixing screens is yet one more item on the to-do list. I should feel a bunch better after the injection next week--I'll try to really get at all those little things that have been bugging me (literally, in the case of the screens.)