It was a lovely, crisp day in New Orleans today–blue sky, sunny, slight breeze.  I decided to take Freret home from work, but was stymied by a rare event: a bicycle traffic jam.  There were enough bikes on Freret slowing my easy traffic that I went ahead and took South Liberty.  It felt good to be on a different street, sailing along, noticing new houses and new stray cats and new downed trees.  I stopped to snap a picture of this car in the driveway of a house near Valmont.  It struck me because the car looks so old, so broken down, so rusted out, but it’s in the driveway of a house that’s clearly been redone since the levees broke.  This is a neighborhood that took on serious waters, and many of the houses are still abandoned or are in various stages of repair.  But this one was all done up and beautiful.  It reminded me, oddly, of a house in Portland, OR, where I briefly lived.  But you’d never see this sort of car parked in that town.  But this is what I love–and hate–about New Orleans–it’s a city of so many contrasts, where decay nestles right up to the new, which surely won’t remain new for long.  I rode the rest of the way home feeling both hot and cold, and looking forward to when this particular contrast just plain gives way to the heat.