As of about 2:45 this afternoon, I am on "break." The world resumes on Wednesday.

It was a good idea to leave a bit early today, because the shoulders of the road through Slidell were filling up rapidly. I saw barbecues all fired up and people settling in for the wait for the parade.

At work, I started delving into the umpteen boxes of the latest collection I'm working on. There were two FedEx parcel boxes stuffed with files. I spent most of the day trying to figure out what they were about. It also took me a while to get the boxes open. That is some kind of glue FedEx has! And the "pull here" tab was also challenging.

I'm starting to "get acquainted" with this person, and with the state politico(s) whose campaigns she has managed. Really interesting.

I googled her this evening and found that she has some of her papers at the New Orleans Public Library. Now I'm wondering why she split the collection. I'll ask the archivist next Wednesday.

There have been newspaper articles about her as recently as this past December (I didn't go to the end of the google listings--there may have been more) so I assume that she is alive. And most likely still running her public relations company. Another question for the archivist. The donation to Newcomb was made BK.

I showed the new librarian the stack of boxes in my corner and she was stunned by the size of the job. She is busily learning all the ins and outs of her new job.

The woman who is taking care of all the flooded material (getting it back where it belongs on the shelves) told me today that she was less than a block from where one of the tornados touched down the other evening.

And one of the student workers told me that she'd caught a parade the other evening on St. Charles, and a man had offered her and her companions refreshments at his house. She was suitably cautious, but then another parade-goer (with a small child) said he was okay. He puts up a big tent on his front lawn and has snacks for everybody who wants them.

(St. Charles, at the Tulane end, has MANSIONS!!)

There weren't any of the visiting cats outside this morning, nor did I see any when I got home. I didn't check the garage, whose door is slightly open.

Four consecutive days for me to put things off till.