Oh, the difference a few degrees and a few more percentage points of humidity make! I didn’t need to towel off following my couple miles bike commute to campus. After work there was practically a chill in the air! Well, not quite, but close enough. I headed down to the museum for music and to check out their exhibit of photographs from right after the levees broke following Katrina. Continue reading
Blighted House on Mehle and N. Rampart in Arabi
I had a lovely day getting some reading and writing done before hopping on the Surly for a trip to the doctor’s office. At the end of our appointment I asked her how she was doing as the 5th anniversary of Katrina and the levee breaches that flooded New Orleans. She told me a harrowing story of her escape from the city, so terrible it seemed like out of a movie. But it wasn’t. And hers is one story among thousands and thousands and thousands. Continue reading
Our Recovery in Progress Sign at Evans Playground at LaSalle and Valmont
It’s the first day of school–one of my very favorite days of the year. I got up early, polished my apple, and hopped on the Surly to meet this season’s new recruits. Three classes and a burrito later and I was back on the bike heading downtown for a stop at the gym, which today was just an excuse to lounge in the steam room. Continue reading
Sunset Over S. Joseph and Toledano
There’s no way for me to get a picture that could possibly show what the sky looked like when I left for a ride to Mid-City. As I rolled out my door, the sky was a dozen shades of pink and orange and blue. Some parts of the sky looked like pulled taffy, thick ribbons of color across the horizon. The view was eerily beautiful as it gave way to night. The ride home was a little different. Yep, it was dark out, and the street lights seem to work only intermittently. All the more reason to make sure we use headlights, especially since it’s going to be the law on Monday. Front and back lights, folks, for safety and because it’s the law. Safe riding!
Gates of Prayer Cemetery on Arabella and Garfield
I set out with big intentions today, but the cold that I’ve been denying for a couple days finally kept me to a day in the office and then home again. I needed some groceries before sequestering myself on the couch for a movie. I rode down Arabella headed to the fancy grocery store, and stopped to take a picture of this small cemetery at Arabella and Garfield. Continue reading
“Confederate Domination” Plaque on a Lamp Post at N. Rampart and Bienville
Today was a good day full of productivity and pep talks and copy machines. After a long day in the new office–it’s beautiful–I headed down to the Quarter for a quick burrito before riding to Mid-City for a bicycle meeting. It felt good to get to pedal some distance today. Man, I really missed my bicycle. I was stopped on the neutral ground waiting for a green light to cross N. Rampart on Bienville when I noticed the plaque on the lamp post. Now, I’ve ridden up and down this street a gazillion times, but lamp posts aren’t necessarily something I’m going to stop and notice. I need the light, not the post. I popped the Surly up on the curb to get a closer look. Continue reading
Tulane Marching Band Practice on the LBC Quad
I am home again, home again, jiggity jig after a positively lovely trip out west to see old friends. Home means back on the bike, and I couldn’t have been more pleased to velcro-up my shoes, clip in, and head to campus to unpack my new office. It took a few blocks to get up to speed, and I had to play around with the gears to get comfortable again, but man, it is seriously good to be back on my bike. And it is also seriously good to be back on campus with that smell of back-to-school in the air. Continue reading
Sunflowers at Eastman and Allendale
I am on another vacation, this one courtesy of my dear old friends E. and S. and their Southwest Airlines frequent flyer ticket. I am all the way in Oakland, California, where it is cold and foggy in the mornings, even thought it’s August, but this afternoon, because I am one seriously lucky girl, the fog burned off as we walked through Muir Woods, taking in the tallest living organisms on earth–the coastal redwoods (though there’s some fungus in Oregon challenging for the title–*shaking fist at Oregon’s fungus*). Continue reading
Bike Parking in Front of Dinwiddie Hall at Tulane
I’ve been watching this documentary about New York City, and it is blowing my mind. I am a lot of talk about the importance of bicycle infrastructure, but part of me thinks we’ve already got the roads we’ve got and it might just be too much trouble/money/work to really fundamentally change them. And then I learn about Robert Moses and the development of car culture. Continue reading
Memorial Shrine to Albert Joseph Jackson, Jr. at Magazine and Ninth
I am back in New Orleans from a most wonderful week in New York City. I had a ridiculously good time with E., wandering around and getting my National Parks Passport stamped. America’s Best Idea, indeed. NYC is so, so different from anywhere else, of course, but what I noticed was how different it is from where I am now. I live in a really small town. I find it almost impossible to get lost anymore, and it is rare to go out and about and not run into someone you know, or someone who knows you. Continue reading
What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today 