I had a (relatively) late afternoon appointment in New Orleans today.

Usually, I take care of that after a day of work, but last night's forecast had the maybe-R word in it, so I waited to see just what the weather would be.

Turned out to be not unpleasant.

My route between home and the appointment goes along Hayne Boulevard, which was once prime lakefront property.

Needless to say, Katrina changed a bunch of that.

Although most of the house repairs and raisings have been completed, steps are being taken to lessen the chances of them being flooded again.

They are raising the levees about six feet. What a mess!!!

The higher levees will (probably) keep the water away, but at the price of even being able to see the lake.

And a humongous traffic mess while they do this.

Other than that, it was the usual uneventful day.

Last night, just before bedtime, I turned on the porch light, and startled the dickens out of a little possum who was cleaning up dry food crumbs.

He(?) was a cute little thing--obviously from this year's crop. I turned the light off quickly so that he could either go back to eating or run off.

Needless to say, the porch was spotless and 100% crumb free this morning.

Unless there's a totally unexpected spell of bad weather tomorrow, I plan to go in to work. I wonder what the status is of the street repairs around the university.

Guess I'll find out.