Jerry Z's Last Katrina Update

Dear Family and Friends,

This will be my last update. Our fifteen minutes are over and there are atrocities being committed by our government in our names on a daily basis which are far more important than our, admittedly, difficult lives here in New Orleans.

We're saving everything that blew off our roof and walls except for the glass, slate and mortar. It's amazing to examine some of the stuff and see how hand made it is. That's what I want to put back up; gnarled as it is for now--like me. The house has shifted. Doors which swung freely now stick and vice versa. There is not a right angle in the house, and that's one reason we have loved it even though we agree that we're over having a heritage home. We rehabbed the house 15 years ago and will be thrilled to see someone else do it again. It's fabulous to be able to entertain 200 people, but we use only three rooms most of the time. We want to rent.

One day after I arrived back in New Orleans I set at my garden with the same ferocity that I felt on 9/11. On both days I was soothed by controlling what I could. I've slashed, pulled and raked my garden and it will be planted with pansies, pentas and petunias on Tuesday. The 7 foot wall lies where it fell but we had the tree which toppled it removed and that was good, as God might say. After Tuesday I'll have the prettiest garden on Wisteria Lane. Cooks and gardeners are optimists, don't you think?

We continue to explore the city but to go out is to be hit hard by loss. Most of our neighbors still are not back, our restaurants are struggling to achieve mediocrity, and our refrigerator is still sitting in front of our house along with hundreds of others. Add to that two tennis elbows and cracked and bleeding hands and you've got yourself a mess.

Later this week we're having the neighbors over for dinner: 3 very young couples who've only moved in since Katrina. Their lives are just beginning and the hurricane is history for them; I mean, over. With no walls between us we're becoming a little commune.

Saturday night we went to a dinner party where the host greeted me by saying "How are you, suicidal?" Well, yes and no. We're on a roller coaster ride here and some days are better than others. I have felt defeated and I've responded with great energy, and I've felt defeated and I've responded with despair. We improvise to live. Not amusing. And yet we give dinner parties and listen in awe as the nation gives a concert on our behalf (NO and NY Philharmonic Orchestras in a nationwide fundraising broadcast). It was unprecedented and it cracks my heart wide open. Thank you to all who responded. I was thrilled that many donors were from New Orleans and living elsewhere.

We played volleyball in the park again Sunday afternoon: 12 players! We laughed at ourselves and each other until we were weak and then we played one-game-too-many as is our wont. It was the second time Henry had played ball in about 10 years so it was special to me. I hadn't played for two months and was pitiful but I still like to win and have a scraped knee to prove it. Scotch never tasted better than when we got home--we buy ice every other day. Refrigerators will be delivered sometime in late November. Quelle luxe.

I'm by no means losing it, but our excellent adventure ended about three weeks ago. The work is backbreaking, the air is awful, and no matter how hard I work I will never catch up. Aren't you glad this is my last update?

I realized today that I have no idea what I wrote in my first emails. Do any of you have them? I'd sure appreciate a copy if you do. All of September is gone--zombie land. Er, except for ARIADNE AUF NAXOS at the Met Opera: It was the first time I got outside of my bewilderment and sat in awe of beauty again (major Stendhal syndrome).

This being my last update, I want to remind you that writing things down can be pretty good therapy if anyone needs any, and I so enjoy hearing from you since my support systems are pretty shabby about now. Fortunately, months ago we planned to spend a few days in NYC this weekend and have tickets and reservations in hand. I cannot wait to get away from here and feel clean again, and to come back home refreshed and ready to have at it again. We will come back. My very best wishes to you all,

Jerry Z
The French Quarter

"Week eight after Katrina"

Lots of our friends who live out of state have been asking how things are at home and how much life is comparing to what passes as "normal" for us.

One of our neighborhood friends sent out an email to update his pals and we asked him for permission to post it to the blog. We loved reading it and identifying with much of it.

Enjoy!


Dear Family and Friends,

Last night we served dinner for 8, early. We're still cooking without a refrigerator and driving to the suburbs to shop each day. We've never eaten fresher, and that's saying a lot. Restaurants are opening at a tiny trickle, seats are scarce and menus limited, so we're dining in more often than usual and if I'm going to cook I want to make a lot which means guests, flowers, candles, etc.
The sense of familiarity with friends and the horde of "people we spoke to on a daily basis and never knew their names but do now," is intense. Cleaning my block of trash and trying to make my garden look normal, giving dinner parties and washing the cars is my way of coping, and staying fit (no club, no pool). There is no maidservice to be had, and I'm discovering all the places untouched for the last 15 years as I clean our house. hmm

My maid, incidentally, is sitting pretty. At home in N.O. with two apartments to rent. Her home was untouched, by local standards, and she called to invite us over and to say she'd be here to clean on Sat. when we'll work shoulder to shoulder again, 25 years together, blessed.
Henry and I live here because of our friends and restaurants (of course in that order), the ease of walking to the symphony, the opera, ballet, grocery, gym, movies, casino (as if), The River, and volleyball in the park where Henry and I met. We neighbors are hoping to revive our Sunday volleyball/badminton/picnic in our ravaged little park this Sunday at 5:00. All the rest comes later.

To live in New Orleans has always been to live on an island, and to know that you were probably doomed to death by hurricane sooner than later. This, obviously, wasn't "The Big One" which has been predicted for years: 15 feet of water in the French Quarter, and we got none.

Nevertheless, our city just shrank by 80% and the pain in the air is palpable, as are the flies and gnats (flypaper, what a great thing, brought sweet memories of my grandmother). There is no way to know what will emerge from this but I'm glad to be here to witness it, notwithstanding spending a little more time in NYC than usual. It was such a good home to us during our exile. Dazed and confused, we fit right in.

Refrigerators by the thousands still litter the sidewalks all over town, and make for interesting reading: "Make levees, not war," "To Geo. Bush, C.O.D." "Chaney inside--do not open," and on my own refrigerator written by someone at the brunch: "Vive la Nouvelle Orleans!" Indeed.
Writing these updates has helped me process what's happening to us and how we're responding, and I dearly appreciate your responses. Recently I saw in print "from seem to seem" and I chuckled, but that's exactly where we are (at, as they say down here, as in "Where y'at?"). It's always good to hear from you, and I can't believe I'm the only one mourning and celebrating around here. Where y'at?

Jerry Z......
The French Quarter

Multiplication: 0 -- Subtraction: 15

It finally happened! They came to pick up all the refrigerators on our block ... all 15 of them!

Friday, October 21, 2005 was a good day. There was a parade of trucks and cranes and workmen in red and yellow vests stopping traffic but who cared? They were getting rid of those stinking, fly attracting, useless appliances that were dotting the streets and making a short walk to the nearby grocery store a very unpleasant experience.

I hope this is the last time we ever have to do this.

But in retrospect, I'm thankful that we had freezers and refrigerators to throw away. There are a lot of people who would give anything to be able to complain about having to throw their stuff away.

They don't have any "stuff" anymore.

I'm counting my blessings every day.

Photo taken October 18, 2005

Ohmigod!!! They're multiplying like cockroaches! Now there are TWELVE!

I wonder how many more we'll get before they get picked up?

Stay tuned... I'll keep you posted.

Photo taken October 16, 2005

Across the street from our house there seems to be a popular refrigerator dump site.

At first there was one fridge...then there were three. Now, here are nine!

THAT DAMNED DUMPSTER IS BACK!

That damned dumpster is back across the street again!

We got it moved from "directly in front of the house" to "directly in front of the house but across the street" ... an improvement but "gone" would be so much better.

The construction company working the house across the street insists that they need it and that's fine ... but they don't work on it every day! And every day that it's there people drive by and throw GARBAGE in the damned thing!

Trash is okay ... but garbage draws flies and the flies find their way into our house.

This is the time of the year when the temperature starts going down and it's nice to be able to open the doors and windows and let the house get some fresh air circulating ... but if we do that now with the dumpster in front ... the flies come in.

I'm without my regular computer still, so I sit at the dining room table computing on the laptop. I sit here with a bottle of Skin So Soft to ward off the mosquitoes and a fly swatter to try to keep the flies away.

Damn!

This construction company has a reputation for being the slowest one in the area and I think I know why. They have a small employee roster and a lot of jobs. So they just shuffle the crews from one job to another and some days there's NOBODY at the job site. Why should they care? They get paid by the hour.

And if they have another job close by they use the dumpster to discard stuff from there, too.

I was told that they have a job renovating a hotel and today they dispatched a load of old hotel furniture in the dumpster. It made for a fun playground for a couple of my neighbors who had a good time rummaging around in that pile of "stuff".

They found a couple of "treasures" but I have a feeling those "treasures" are going to find their way back into the dumpster one day soon.

Who was it said, "One man's trash is another man's treasure?"

It all looked like "trash" to me!

Normality is setting in!

We're home and things are good. Suri is starting to get a schedule going again. Unfortunately not in the dog park...it's not ready yet...but at least she can play in the back yard with Vico and Carlo, who is growing by leaps and bounds...and he does lots of that.

Condo behind our back wall

Condo behind our back wall, originally uploaded by Appleita.

The condo behind us suffered the awful destruction of its surrounding brick

walls which were three bricks deep.

Dark, dirty green jello

The condo's pool was surrounded on three sides by the fallen bricks and the water looked like dirty dark green Jello.