Faraway

This is a picture taken of a far, faraway place. It is called Summer. When you have days like today (which I briefly deemed intolerable), summertime seems oh so distant. Rain (imagine that) and gusts to fifty knots. Fences blown over; roof shingles littering the yards. The morning commute sucked, but warm tea and breaking weather led to a better afternoon. And a striking sunset (not this one mind you, this is from August) ended the day. Thank goodness for a workhorse bicycle. And a fine tailwind from the south on the way home.

And I know a reason why people are usually late in this town. You cannot get from one end of town to the other without stopping (or in today's instance being stopped). A friend pulled over in his car when I was biking to Fairhaven and we ended up talking for a bit. I was already late though.

It was good to see Mardi Gras was quite an event, marred by minimal violence. By my observations though, I've seen more fights in the parking lots of Grateful Dead concerts than I saw in at the Mardis Gras we've attended (and I've been to plenty of both). And we stayed on the 300 block of Bourbon Street. Not kids' stuff.

A sad Steely Dan song that we used to play just prior to our New Orleans hotel departure:

On the water down in New Orleans
My baby's the pearl of the quarter
She's a charmer like you never seen
Singing voulez vous
Where the sailor spend his hard-earned pay
Red beans and rice for a quarter
You can see her almost any day
singing voulez vous

And if you hear from my Louise
Won't you tell her I love her so
Please make it clear
When her day is done
She got a place to go

I walked alone down the miracle mile
I met my baby by the shine of the martyr
She stole my heart with her Cajun smile
Singing voulez vous
She loved the million dollar words I say
She loved the candy and the flowers that I bought her
She said she loved me and was on her way
Singing voulez vous

And if you hear from my Louise
Won't you tell her I love her so
Please make it clear
When her day is done
She got a place to go