Miscellaneous

I?m happy to report that sometime this afternoon, the Ward household finally got some electricity from Entergy. What a relief!

Nevertheless, a lengthy power failure isn?t all bad. For one thing, it prompted us to recover a New Orleans tradition: porch sitting. When I was growing up in a shotgun double on South Rocheblave Street in the 1960s, we didn?t have air conditioning. So everyone spent virtually every evening sitting out on the front porch, drinking beer and talking until ready to sleep. Today, with air conditioning pulling us inside, we don?t do that anymore. But during a power failure, we quickly learned that in the evenings, the front porch is a little cooler and a little breezier than the inside of the house. So we started eating dinner out there and, last night, even cooking dinner out there on a camp stove. Unfortunately, all our neighbors evacuated, so we couldn?t shoot the breeze while enjoying the breeze. But the traffic on Magazine Street is always interesting?especially when it consists mostly of Humvees.

And a power failure can be good for a marriage. With no electricity, you can?t watch TV or play with the computer. And after sunset, it?s too dark to read. So if you want to have some fun, there?s only one thing you can do. And if it?s summer time, that one thing is guaranteed to be hot and sweaty.