Watching The Tide Roll Away

Saturday morning, and The French Quarter is swarming with people.

There is a "Rock and Roll Marathon" going on, which is a foot race which is somehow tied to rock and roll music...

Last night, contrary to Howards prediction, it rained cats and dogs.

I was under the dock as thunder and lightning occurred, along with sheets of rain.

I only woke up momentarily during it as the Mississippi had risen and water was lapping at the rocks a mere 10 feet away from where I lay..

Someone had taken the heavy blanket (as thick as a carpet), probably during one of the past few cold days. I should have hidden it; but it is hard to air out a blanket and hide it at the same time.

I had to smile, because I had asked Howard in the evening if he was going to stay at the Algiers spot.

"Yeah, I don't think it's gonna rain. It's not windy and the temperature isn't dropping." -Howard

I went across and busked a bit on Decatur, running into Brad the guitarist who is the best one that I have jammed with in New Orleans, as far as our styles being compatible.

He is the guy who was jamming on Decatur when I met him and I took him to my spot on Bourbon Street and we made 96 bucks. The next time I saw him, he had a 20 and a 5 in his case and seemed pretty drunk and didn't want to play.

He doesn't know any music theory, not even which string on his guitar is which note. "Give me an A," I would say, trying to tune to him.

"Which one is that?" he would answer.

But he has a good ear and he will eventually discover every note and chord on his own if he keeps at it.

We got 7 bucks from one girl, who seemed pretty drunk and who had a guitar on her back herself. We weren't even playing at the time, and I remarked to Brad that he would have gotten THAT tip without me being there.

He seemed to agree, and wanted to split it immediately between us. I took this as a sign that he didn't think he needed another musician there in order to make money. He was the one who invited me to sit with him initially, though.

We split it and I went and got an expensive beer, breaking my 3 day juice fast, and then I got under the dock and went to sleep before the severe thunderstorms hit.

I was up in the morning at about noon. The skies were so gray that it could have been 7 in the morning.

Right Now...

I came to Starbucks to try to install the latest version of Ubuntu off of the Internet, with no luck.

I think these free Wi-Fi services have some filters which disallow certain actions. My guess is that the Ubuntu installation program tries to probe the network in order to do some configuration and is blocked from doing so. "Probing" probably feels like "hacking into" to the server.

Now, I must figure out a way to work around that. I might have to find the DVD somewhere with the latest distribution on it.

I could have sat and busked instead of spending all afternoon in here.

This is the 4th day of the juice fast, but I have screwed it up a bit by drinking beer; even though it was Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA ale; which must be healthier than the cheap stuff, right?
There is supposed to be more rain on the way.