Mardi Gras--and the only effect in my area is a significant lack of people on the streets. (That's cuz they're on the N.O. streets!)

Oh yeah--and no mail delivery. The New Orleans post office, through which almost all area mail travels, is in downtown New Orleans, where many of the streets are blocked off.

I'm sure the mail carriers are NOT looking forward to tomorrow, after two mail holidays in a row.

My trash got picked up today, but the man usually does this even if it's a holiday. He gets his truck all loaded to go to the land fill first thing Wednesday morning.

I watched some of the parade stuff this morning, then decided it was warm enough to weed some. I got a bunch of stuff uprooted from the side yard. And the organic debris went into the pool. Then I picked sticker seeds off me and my clothes, went inside, changed, tossed the seedy clothes into the washer, and headed out for an Arby lunch and reading at PJ's.

PJ's was staffed by the owners--they'd told the kids who usually work there they could have the day off to party. The store was not empty--it didn't have as many people as usual, but that was to be expected.

I'm now reading Carl Hiaasen's Nature Girl. He is so irreverent a writer--and creates some of the wildest plots around.

Tomorrow it's back to work. Over the last couple of days I've been working on de-yellowing a very old dress and am having a fair amount of success. About 40 years ago I de-yellowed a lace christening cap that I had worn some 30 years earlier (and which has since been worn by YD and YD's daughter), so I have a fair idea of what is needed. The archivist gave me the O.K. to try it. I think she'll be pleased when I'm done. I've got acid-free tissue paper for wrapping it up when I'm finished.

Back to Hiaasen.