Down on Canal Street Monday evening in the un-spring-like chill we recently experienced, things were hopping. Tourists were out walking, locals were out walking or doing what ever it was they do, and the shops were open along the street. As I walked from the La Quinta on Camp toward Canal Street I could not help but be fascinated by the bricked buildings and the patchwork of concrete along the sidewalk and road and imagine all the stories that could be told of events that had happened along those spots throughout the many, many years of the city’s history. There certainly is a special magic to this city from a historical perspective, something I didn’t expect.

And so the guys we talked with told some incredible stories of survival, of rebuilding, of adapting to the curves life tosses you. There was a story of a man whose mother was in her late 80s and he physically had to carry her out of her house before the Storm hit because she’d been there most of her life and didn’t want to leave. They went east toward Mississippi and the rains that came a week or so later after Katrina flooded them from that spot, too, and now they’re in Natchez, on the east side, and safe for now from flooding.

Then there was the discussion of “the Katrina Smell” as they call it in NOLA. A smell of rotted wood, mold, etc. that lingers because of the tens of thousands of homes that have yet to be touched that got water in them from rising water or leaks in the roof and the spores of that disaster still abound. They said they don’t fret so much about mold in New Orleans like we might in other parts of the country. “This New Orleans, we’ve got mold here 24/7.”

Then were photos that were taken of the inside of schools, places where the water levels got as high as 22 feet. And now the schools back open, looking brand new and life goes on.

I wish more was being done to capture the stories of rebuilding that are going on. They are priceless and special and would make a great documentary. I wish I was at a place in my life, too, where I could take a few months to go down there with a camera crew and record some of these incredible stories of survival and rebuilding, and share them with the world. They would inspire new hope in mankind. And while as an outsider up until Monday and Tuesday I would have questioned why anyone would rebuild where they know another storm shall hit again in the future, these fokes I talked with have a special love for their city, one you don’t see in Dallas or Fort Worth. Texans will boast about how glad they are to be from Texas and how everything here is done this way and not that when they’re in other parts of the country, but in New Orleans, these fokes love their city and they want to put their lives back together, whatever shape in which that might be.

Lots of new challenges coming up really soon. Work. School. Life. Aren’t they all special?

And the question we keep wondering in Dallas is, “Will we see snow this year?” I’m beginning to think not. Though it’s snowing tonight just about 150 miles to the north.

Busy, busy month ahead. Hang on tightly. Who will be out of the race for president this time next week? Anyone?

What more new and cool things will I know about this Mac of mine that I don’t know now? How will the green screen movies come out? Oh, there is so much to be excited about.

I’m continuing to focus my at home moments more and more on the kids. Really seeing some changes, and still hopeful to see more.

Farewell January 2008. Welcome, February. Leap year style.

Britney’s back in the hospital.  Dr. Phil now says he’s sorry.

Mercury has a spider.  Don’t try to get mercuryspider.com.  I tried this morning and while Yahoo at first said it was available, it’s not.

The whole Mercury Spider has scientists baffled.  Ah, we humans think we know so much and still there is so much we don’t even know we don’t know about yet.  Mercury has gravity, which scientists don’t understand because earth’s is caused by its molten core.  They figure Mercury’s cooled long ago.  Hm.

A new world wonder.

Rudy seems all but out of it. Tonight’s Florida vote will take care of that.  Then we’re down to McCain and Romney.  One of the girls’ godparents in Florida says it should be Romney because he’s well organized there.  I guess we’ll know in about seven hours.

So it seems we’re down to Hillary, Obama v. McCain and Romney.  The longer Obama and Hillary both remain viable the better for the GOP because they will continue to knock the fool out of each other.  And then there is McCain and Romney.  Not quite sure what to make of the choices.  Rick Davis, who I befriended in 1995 in Orlando for P3 is running McCain and knowing Davis as I’ve studied for more than a decade now, McCain isn’t out of it until he’s out.

A good many of my friends from those days are sitting this round out.  I have to say, it is much better to be an observer than to know the stress the “kids” who are working on these races are under.  I can imagine the duress they face each day–someone in Washington calling all their shots, knowing everything and nothing about the local environment of Iowa and New Hampshire–and pleased to prove it.

My good friend David used to say every day was like getting up and putting your arm in a buzz saw, and once they finished with the first, they asked for the second.  The next morning, the arm had grown back and you’d start the cutting all over again.

And so it goes in Iowa and NH… the buzz, buzz, buzz of the campaign….

I don’t know that I agree with all of what Mr. Kluger wrote, but he is initiating a new wave of discussion about something that’s very important to all parents….

I was standing a few feet from the governor as he sat in that chair in the governor’s mansion foyer. Fob had made his point and the interview soon was over with.

So here we go again, another atheist, this one from North Texas, who wants to banish all references to God from the face of the earth. Because he doesn’t believe in something, all the rest of us, too, should be banished from expressing our faith. Meet David Wallace Croft. Perhaps he and his costly attorneys could tell us all where the words church or even state are in the road map to democracy. We shall be waiting a long time….

Perhaps Mr. Croft should read about the Danbury Baptists and the letter President Thomas Jefferson sent them. Can you imagine being this guys poor kid? Mr. Croft may not believe in hell, but his child, through peer pressure sure must.

How many thousands of Americans travel to Asia and the Mid-East every day and return?  What if one of them actually thought he had been exposed to bird-flu once he’d been in another country and thought it was in HIS best interest to get back to America where the treatment would be better, all the while exposing innocent countless people to the disease?   This recent effort to stop this guy from returning home and instead going into immediate quarantine obviously didn’t work.

Maybe if the Congress actually wanted to hold some meaningful hearings, they’d bring this guy’s lawyer, his wife, and those who were trying to keep him out of the country before it and ask how something like this happened and what’s going to be done to avoid potential health breaches like this from happening again in the future?  Now that would actually be productive and protect the interest of all Americans and our neighbors abroad.