tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-303088402024-03-14T01:01:31.278-05:00Tin Can Trailer TrashMusings on living in a FEMA trailer and other Katrina related thoughtsmominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.comBlogger404125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30308840.post-40764763694652106202012-12-27T21:57:00.000-06:002012-12-27T21:57:20.729-06:00Southwest, losing customers one at a time.I was under the impression that Southwest and Airtran, both owned by Southwest were going to match status for their frequent flyer programs. I did receive a Southwest A-List membership which apparently expires at the end of this year.
Yesterday I was informed that was not the case and that passengers in order to continue that status passengers would need to qualify for the two programs mominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30308840.post-75969949051781426262012-01-10T11:07:00.004-06:002012-03-20T02:12:36.444-05:00Has Southwest Airlines Lost it's Way?I wonder if Southwest Airlines has lost it's way. I am a frequent traveler on Airtran and since Airtran was purchased by Southwest I've been watching for the changes Suthwest is implementing.I like Airtran, they have a range of programs designed to attract different groups of travelers. They have a business class and use upgrades to reward frequent fliers. They have a standby program for poor mominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30308840.post-59507934356927876102011-10-27T23:30:00.005-05:002011-10-28T00:11:06.275-05:00I don't get it.Everyone or at least a lot of people seem to think Tim Tebow, a professional football player for the Denver Broncos, is some kind of messiah.I don't get it.Before he was a professional football player he was a college football player and I didn't get it then.I was in Jacksonville Florida near the epicenter of Tebowism two years ago during the height of his collegiate beatification. I had the mominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30308840.post-42455408697307106842011-10-19T09:50:00.009-05:002011-10-19T12:08:14.825-05:00I'm Getting OldI recently had a birthday and She took me on a plantation excursion. We spent the night at Nottoway and at Houmas House. Each of those places has evolved into a tourist destination of sorts, with numerous attractions. Both host a lot of weddings and other events, both have fine dining restaurants. Nottoway has overnight accommodations for about 100 people including rooms in the house and mominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30308840.post-37034821471716882542011-10-19T09:12:00.003-05:002011-10-19T09:50:13.331-05:00Thank You TOMI was anxiously awaiting the new improved Superdome this year. I was unable to attend either of the pre-season games so my first look at the new seating was for the home season opener against Chicago.The first challenge is the new more extensive screening procedure. They are now patting people down much more thoroughly, unfortunately they have not increased the number of screeners, not the mominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30308840.post-60842917002018624702011-10-18T17:01:00.003-05:002011-10-18T17:31:31.777-05:00Customer Service MSY-ery StyleToday I left town again. Because of my flight time and her schedule She dropped me off at the Airport earlier than necessary.I decided to have breakfast. That turned out to be a mistake. I was on the B Concourse so there is only one establishment there that serves actual breakfast food. Another place does serve a bacon and egg po-boy.I got in line and decided to order the $8.50 breakfast specialmominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30308840.post-21731437088642507152011-10-17T09:54:00.004-05:002011-10-17T10:18:51.056-05:00Enhancing Security through Preferential TreatmentTSA is at it again. They are enhancing Security by reducing privacy and providing preferential treatment to some people.WASHINGTON – The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) today announced that it began testing a limited, voluntary passenger pre-screening initiative with a small known traveler population at four U.S. airports. The TSA PreCheck initiative implements a key mominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30308840.post-8011331635667107782011-09-26T22:59:00.004-05:002011-10-03T00:56:43.771-05:00Does anyone beleive this SHIT?The latest dysfunctional Government fight over FEMA was resolved because;FEMA spokeswoman Rachel Racusen, said the agency had $114 million left in its disaster relief fund, enough to last until Thursday or Friday, the final business day of the current budget year. She said the exact timing would depend on the number of emergency victims who apply for aid, and whether any new disasters mominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30308840.post-21576199006465417392011-09-22T01:08:00.003-05:002011-09-22T01:19:24.257-05:00Rising Tide 6 - Slacker PostI have been involved with the annual Rising Tide Conference from the Beginning. This year I was a slacker, significantly reducing my involvement to barely anything. Probably as a direct result the conference experienced a surge of new organizers and a big increase in attendance. Even the MSM had some nice things to say. Like this excerpt by Dave Walker, The mominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30308840.post-19497206900539836142010-11-10T09:18:00.004-06:002010-11-13T17:47:07.330-06:00LSU in the Sugar BowlFollowing the BCS madness I'm expecting LSU to play in the Sugar Bowl. If as seems likely Auburn wins out they will be in the BCS Championship. It seems likely that LSU will be the highest ranked SEC teams and the Sugar Bowl will pick them. It seems likely that they will also pick whoever is left, from TCU or Boise State. Mark Schlabach of ESPN seems to agree, here are his picks. BCS National mominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30308840.post-86054268150118856042010-05-16T14:18:00.003-05:002010-05-16T14:44:37.781-05:00It couldn't happen to a nicer guy.She was reading an old CityBusiness this afternoon. She ran across this story in a side bar.On March 2 New Single Assessor Errol Williams got stuck in the elevators at city hall. There were two numbers posted in the elevator car, along with an explicit notice not to call the Fire Department. He called both emergency numbers posted in the car, they were the engineer's office and the security mominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30308840.post-82908040800024518052010-05-14T15:35:00.004-05:002010-05-14T15:53:12.831-05:00I'd rather be in a FEMA trailer in New Orleans than in a penthouse anywhere elseI found the title quote by Gralen Banks;"I'd rather be in a FEMA trailer in New Orleans than in a penthouse anywhere else,"in this NPR story I hadn't seen before (or forgot about) reading another NPR Story about Treme.Echoes of Lafcadio Hearn;"Times are not good here. The city is crumbling into ashes. It has been buried under taxes and frauds and maladministraions so that it has become a study mominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30308840.post-10627741116781830252010-04-19T20:41:00.004-05:002010-04-20T16:20:02.486-05:00The Trailer Two StepHere we go again. There are still 350 trailers in New Orleans. I am not surprised you can see them scattered in neighborhoods all over the city. A few months ago I was in an unusual (for me) part of town and was surprised to see one. A shortly after that The Times-Picayune ran a story on the few trailers left in Jefferson.I started this blog to chronicle my life in a FEMA trailer and as self mominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30308840.post-14072454940740423862010-03-15T15:36:00.003-05:002010-03-15T15:47:43.460-05:00What the matter with some people?We are trying to buy some Real Estate, in this market you would think that Real Estate people would be all over any credible purchaser, yet getting some people to call back is very difficult.We looked at one property and after several attempts the listing broker never called back. The Owner (a bank) is having trouble selling it, I wonder if the broker is part of the problem?On another property I mominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30308840.post-74636394386749132622010-03-03T21:04:00.001-06:002010-03-03T22:35:44.040-06:00Institutionalizing ReformNew Orleans needs to Institutionalize reforms to prevent a relapse. Simply electing good people to a bad system is not enough. It might actually appear that the system is working.Mexico has an Institutional Revolutionary Party originally formed to preserve and extend the ideals of the Mexican Revolution. It hasn't worked out that well. Eventually the party became fat, happy, arrogant and corrupt.mominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30308840.post-53188044918859029812010-02-21T08:57:00.000-06:002010-02-20T23:41:01.623-06:00I have a theoryI have a theory that for every possible disaster there is a frustrated mid level bureaucrat somewhere secretly hoping that his (or her) doomsday scenario will happen so they can pull that old memo out of the bottom drawer of the desk and say "See I told you this would happen".Since the number of frustrated mid level bureaucrats is effectively infinite and many may harbor more that one mominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30308840.post-83082314301013552642010-02-20T09:00:00.007-06:002010-02-20T23:31:05.104-06:00Newt, the historian misses a bet.I have read and enjoyed the Gingrich/Forstchen collaborations on the Civil War.I think they present a plausible alternative end game and an interesting take on the character of the major figures. At least that's my perspective from a lot of reading on the Civil War and from my family tradition, grounded in Rappahannock County Virginia.My Father graduated from Rappahannock High School in "Little" mominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30308840.post-86320059149927959752010-02-19T00:07:00.002-06:002010-02-19T00:13:38.750-06:00Moderation and Caution at the PollsDuring all of the Who Dat and Carnival celebrations there was an election. To hear many people you would think it was some kind of massive reform vote. But I think the truth is much different. Very few new comers were elected. The vote was largely a cautious vote for safety and competence. One fact which I haven't seen anywhere (but I've been out of town a lot) , no incumbent was defeated. In themominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30308840.post-83369806340442580502010-02-18T09:44:00.001-06:002010-02-18T09:53:11.991-06:00For the RecordAs of the end of the 2009-2010 season, 14 NFL teams have never won a Super Bowl.The teams that have been to the Super Bowl (in years shown) and lost each time: Buffalo Bills (0-4) consecutively 1991-1994Cincinnati Bengals (0-2) 1982, 1989Tennessee Titans (0-1) 2000San Diego Chargers (0-1) 1995Philadelphia Eagles (0-2) 1981, 2005Minnesota Vikings (0-4) 1970, 1974, 1975, 1977Carolina Panthers (0-1)mominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30308840.post-44365356575023569082010-02-17T09:37:00.000-06:002010-02-17T09:37:00.325-06:00A random act of competance!The TP reported on February 12 that the city had replaced some IT contractors and renegotiated some contracts.The new contracts represent a huge cost savings. Combined, the three deals will cost no more than $4.3 million this year, while Ciber and VisionIT averaged a combined $23 million a year since mid-2007. That's a savings of 81 percent.This is a significant accomplishment.The report was lostmominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30308840.post-84976184944363546592010-02-16T09:03:00.003-06:002010-02-18T23:34:58.622-06:00Superbowl - Da GameSiting in the Stadium waiting for the game to begin, surrounded by thousands of Saints fans was a strange feeling. I had been in this same stadium several times before and the vibe was very different. I had never been there with anything vested in the outcome. I had never been surrounded by my people before, outside the comfort of the Dome or long ago Tulane Stadium.As we waited for the game to mominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30308840.post-1407573501883751252010-02-15T13:37:00.004-06:002010-02-16T12:16:35.456-06:00Superbowl - Game DaySuper Bowl Game Day started out calm enough. We went down for our Continental Breakfast, still debating where to park and when to leave for the Stadium.One unexpected appearance was De Pope, Lionel "De Pope" Alphonso, NFL Hall of Fame number one Saints fan. We rode down the elevator to breakfast with him. He barely fit into the elevator with his mitre.Our breakfast was occupied with questions of mominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30308840.post-83743523596934618202010-02-14T13:11:00.003-06:002010-02-16T12:21:42.937-06:00Superbowl - Tickets and StuffSaturday was sort of a free day, I had only one thing to accomplish, pick up the tickets. I also wanted to check out the Stubhub venue and decide which of the two parking options we would take advantage of.We slept in and barely made it to our "Free Continental Breakfast". The breakfast turned out to be fairly decent. There was hot Oatmeal and Cream o' Wheat, dry cereal, fruit, pastries and toastmominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30308840.post-85338738366788694432010-02-11T09:59:00.003-06:002010-02-11T10:40:36.862-06:00Superbowl - Travel DayFriday morning, we were finally off. Our flight left around 11:00 AM so we had time to get ready, eat breakfast park the car and check out bags at a leisurely pace.We booked out flights using frequent flier credit on Airtran. That meant we had to fly through Atlanta. Not a big problem as frequent Airtran Fliers with Corporate and Elite status we know many of the people at the station in New mominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30308840.post-19302602907625032392010-02-10T10:57:00.001-06:002010-02-10T11:26:39.171-06:00Suberbowl - AnxietyAfter all of the pieces were in place I began to get anxious about whether it would come together or not. I have never bought such expensive tickets in my life I had never bought tickets from a third party, depending on someone to deliver the tickets the day before an event I was traveling hundreds of miles and spending hundreds of dollars to attend. I was staying in a hotel that I was familiar mominemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13517025007146886987noreply@blogger.com0