Bug of the Day

now appearing on LA windshields : the love bug.
"It's thinking of other things."

Festival International de Louisiane

Music festival in Lafayette-
everyone dances!

Doing demo

Saturday

Sat morning. End of a long hard week.Trying to get anything done in this boatyard is a nightmare.They charge outrageous rates for their labor and pay them shit so nobody is really interested in getting anything done.The people working there are some of the stupidest i've ever seen.A couple of them didn't understand how to use a prybar.I tell'em it's a lever,the worlds simplest tool,scientists have seen babboons using them.The first subcontractor who came to empty and clean my fuel tanks tried to rip me off for 6k in fuel.The guys doing the demo seem to think they're on a treasure hunt, anything worth more than 50c just disappears.So far I've run off about a dozen people off my boat in a torrent of vile hateful verbal abuse.The worst of it is that I have to be there myself working my ass off all day just to show them what I expect of them.It's no wonder the shrimping business is going down the tubes here,every year the shrimp get a little smarter and these dumb shitbrained crackers just can't keep up with them.They keep abandoning their boats and going to work on someone else's boat.Pretty soon they will all be on one boat smoking crack and arguing about how to snag that Great White Shrimp some fuckhead hallucinated. The work itself is interesting and I have one older guy, my age, who likes to work and has a lifetime of skills and experience on steel boats and welding.I can't tell you how I miss Fausto and Salvador, they spoiled me rotten.

for Alice

Cleo and Tony prepare dinner

Monday

Boat with fishing gear taken off


Lorenzo studies welding

Saturday

Had breakfast at Bubba's in Jeanerette, then lolled about till mid- afternoon. Took a drive to the nearest point on the Gulf. Like the east coast of Mexico: flat, brown water and coarse sand. Then went in search for food- Chowhound pointed out a steakhouse in Baldwin, very near Jeanerette- followed map to a side street that got wider and led us to - Cypress Bayou Casino. (Thanks, Chowhound-) Drove back through Jeanerette- Sonic America's Drive In? to New Iberia, another 25 miles or so- amid recrimination and casting of blame. Finally found oysters and ribs in historic downtown NI. We have the same problem in SF, where the restaurants come every block or so.

Jeanerette

yo so here we are in jeanerette la a sleepy town of 6k people who mostly do nothing at all but watch sugar cane grow we have this cute little shack tucked in among a forest of trashed out trailers in an all negro slum very sweet folks who keep asking us how ya all doing i suspect they have a pool going on how long we will last at night all hell breaks loose everyone drinking mad dog smoking blunts the size of cigars and blasting rap music out of speakers that sound like they got hit with birdshot at first we thought it was just this block but when we walked around one night we realized this whole end of town was rocking needless to say i feel like i died and went to heaven i have found my lost tribe i've got the boat yard going on the eileen farrell so all looks good on that front this whole boat thing is going to work out

Jeanerette

Last Thursday we landed in Jeanerette LA - one day ahead of our possessions and 3 days ahead of the gas hookup.  So we've had a chance to explore the cuisine of New Iberia and Lafayette: crawfish, po boys, souvlaki, and of course pho.  This is a sweet town several miles down the road from all the requisite Lowe's, Albertson's etc. in New Iberia.  Last weekend we attended a carnival, with rides, a cabbage ball tournament (softball, only bigger).  There was a CAKE WALK: everyone buys a 25-cent ticket to walk for, say, a strawberry icebox cake.  Then they walk around in a big circle, with numbers written on the floor.  Music plays (classic rock), music stops, everyone stands fast on the nearest number. Someone's child pulls a number out of a hat, and the winner takes the cake.