ad Deum, qui lætíficat iuventútem meam.
In between Masses (4), Funerals (1), Fair Set-Up (All Day Saturday), and Organizing a Petition for Sainthood (1), it’s shaping up to be a busy weekend. In fact it’s shaping up to be a busy month.
So that’s why I was out snapping pix of an orchid this morning. I think it’s a small dendrobium, but what do I know?
Next a good bike ride (20), to get some air.
A friend gave me this a few months ago, and it’s coming along nicely, don’t you think? St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian, pray for us!
I confess.
After our amazing and uplifting, and incredibly beautiful two hour marathon of Confessions, I came back here and got ready for bed by playing around with Photoshop.
The fact that the above photo, and it’s processing, are so overblown doesn’t surprise me, as I was trying to highlight the amazing and dramatic clouds.
…it was an amazing night, I tell you.
What does surprise me is that I was standing there taking a picture while the clouds were gathering so bizarrely.
Playing with these photos was inspired by a photo I posted the other day of this rainstorm over the river down my Fort Jackson, which I really like. These were just not meant to be.
Lesson learned: since you can’t write about much of anything after a Night of Confessions, you may as well relax and play with Photoshop for a few minutes before going to bed, no matter the outcome.
And that’s that on that.
But it was an amazing night, I tell you. God is absolutely amazing.
Amen.
Well, it’s back to our dramatic, exciting and revealing tale of life along the mighty Mississippi.
In case you had forgotten all about it, or are just tuning in, we’re travelling along the river, to the south of New Orleans.
When last we met, we had just passed up Jack Dempsey’s on Poland Avenue. Right across the street from Jack’s place, is ‘The Joint‘.
Never heard of it.
But it certainly looks like a fun time. Kind of.
It’s never a good idea to take pictures while you drive.
But, since there was no one behind me for miles I stopped and took a picture of the old bridge across the Industrial Canal. It helps to get the feel of the rickety nature of it all.
And this brings us to an important point. The main reason you never drive along River Road outside of New Orleans and downriver from it, is that there is no River Road to the South of New Orleans. So to see the River front you have to do some driving in and out of various neighborhoods.
It’s an interesting trip. But it’s not for everyone.
The grand view from across the Industrial Canal. Ahhh, magnifico!
Maybe not. But looking to river’s bend and the city, one wonders why those two ships on the right are sitting there. Lord only knows. They’ve become a permanent fixture. (I think I do know, but am not 100% sure.)
The Holy Cross School was located here until Katrina flooded it out. They have an unbelievably beautiful new campus in the city proper, in an area which was also flooded out. One wonders what will become of this old place.
Here are some of the new houses being built from the designs fostered by actor Brad Pitt.
A view from this part of the levee back towards the old school, also captures one of the homes which is built to look like a river boat.
Driving along, the road ends once again and you have to go up to the highway to make a few detours. Here is a part of Jackson Barracks, used by the La. National Gaurd.
One of the last places on the along this stretch of intermingled neighborhoods and industries is the Domino Sugar refinery. Where would we be without that?
Part plantation, part factory, it looks like someplace we should have visited on a field trip as children yet, for some reason, I don’t believe we did.
Well.
That wraps up Part II of this exciting tour. I know you’ll be holding your breath waiting in anxious anticipation for Part 3. But that will have to debut sometime in the coming week.
Until then enjoy life, pray greatly, and give thanks to God for His abundant goodness and mercy.
Last week on my ‘day off’, which is opposed to my ‘alleged day off’, which is what it’s called when we’re really busy, I took a drive downriver. Speaking of which, a lot of people get resentful when Priest’s talk about their day off, and say thing like “I wish *I* had a day off!” And then they take the weekend off, or go on vacations with their family. Perhaps if everyone lived at work they would understand this bizarre phenomenon a bit more clearly. And speaking of which… well, let’s not even talk about Priest’s vacations.
I started this scenic tour around the French Quarter since I’ve driven the River Road from Baton Rouge to New Orleans, and along the river in New Orleans so many times I could do it in my sleep. (I wouldn’t really do it in my sleep of course.) My plan was to drive along River Road to the south of New Orleans, until it ends.
I didn’t feel like parking in the Quarter, so I snapped a shot of the Treme Mansion just outside the Quarter. People used to call it that, now it’s the African American Museum.
So you drive out from the Quarter along the river, and pass some interesting sights. The post-Katrina renaissance has brought our a lot of local color. Of course it very well may have been like this before Katrina, and I would never have known about it since I haven’t driven this road since college days.
A big lesson I learned: get out of the car to take the photos. I know most photographers prefer to take photos in the morning or evening light since it’s more interesting. But a day off’s a day off and I can’t be worried about that since who knows when I may pass this way again!
Speaking of color, this shocking pink store is just – shockingly colorful.
You have to turn onto Poland Avenue to navigate this drive successfully (or at all for that matter.) Ane right there is Jack Dempsey’s. I’ve been meaning to dine there for about 30 years now. I pray that one day soon I will actually get around to actually having this fine culinary experience (there I go thinking about food again…)
Alright, well this has brought us up to the Industrial Canal, which has been made famous by such hurricanes as Betsy and Katrina. Right across the canal we encounter the remnants of Holy Cross High School, but we’ll have to get to that a bit later.
I have things to do and places to go! More on this exciting adventure a but later…
Instead of taking a vacation this summer I’m glued to Scott Kelby’s online photoshop training courses. I have a long way to go, but have to start somewhere. And as usual, it’s painful and humbling, and exhilarating and exciting all at the same time to be starting something new.
That’s a roundabout way of explaining the uninspiring and even sad slideshow I’m about to post. But the good teachers over there recommend using FLickr; and sorting all of that out, along with working through several tutorials, left little time to organize the rest of my life of this post.
The back story is, that I’ve always meant to drive from the French Quarter in New Orleans downriver to explore the territory there and to better understand how it all fits together. It’s an interesting and fascinating drive, I’ve done parts of it before, obviously, but it’s been awhile.
One thing I hadn’t expected, is that the farther away you get from the city, the more and more the ruins of Katrina are evident and in some places just left there.
About where the road ends there’s a ferry where you can cross the river. On the other side, the West bank, the road continues south for quite awhile until you reach Venice. Fort Jackson is right there, near road’s end.
But here is a simple slide show of some of the images I took and edited a bit. I’m enjoying photography, but am painfully aware that I’m on the wrong side of the learning curve to be posting slide shows.
Mais, C’est la vie, cher!