Browncoats:greetings from the Gulf! by Niki2

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Browncoats:greetings from the Gulf!

POSTED BY: NIKI2
UPDATED: Tuesday, September 28, 2010 13:01
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Monday, September 27, 2010 3:26 PM

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Well,it was inevitable, but I didn't expect it this soon: I've met a Browncoat! The leader of our group today, no less. Her name is Jennifer and she'll be joining FFF real soon; she thinks you guys are amazing for sending me here,then thought a second and said, "No, it's no less that I'd expect from Browncoats; they're all awesome! She does the cons, has a Kaylee outfit, she's the real deal!

I took pix today and one of her, but for reasons too long to get into (I got lost on the way back to the hotel!), it's 8:00 here and, while I'm not tired, I'm grumpy about getting lost...I mean HOURS of lost once I missed one turnoff,so this'll probably be short. Also the fact that I'm on Choey's laptop, which is weird and my fingers don't like it, and I have to do it outside so I can smoke.

Nonetheless, here goes--oh, and I make no apologies for typos!

Flllight was awful--I've never flown domestic, I never will again! Twwo hours to board at SFO, three hours to Houston, three-hour layover, 40 minutes to N.O. Shees@ It was muggy-hot when I got here, reeeely muggy, and we had rain showers the rest of the day. Overcast, so not too hot, but very, very humid. Kat got here and I picked up Bonnie, all settled in. SALT-WATER swimming pool...and jacuzzi no less!

Today dawned crystal clear, and doesn't feel any more humid than a humid day in the Bay Area. Supposeed tostay that way the rest of the week.Huzzah! It never got hot for some of ua, but that's because we were in the water!

I needn't have worried about my decrepit bod, this isn't work, it's play! Divided into two groups, the wet and the dry. Dry folks too off to dig small, deep hole with something called a "dribble" (?), stick marsh grass with roots in, cover it up. But I went with wet, and we had a ball. Sit (or kneel, but I like to sit) in waist-to-chest-deep water (if sitting), reach down into the mud, scoop it out, stick different kind of marsh grass with roots in, cover, and move on. Each 3-5 feet apart. Today we planted 6,500 plants...only that little because the "dry" people were wooses...once out of grass, they sat in the shade of the canopy and picnicked--well, a couple came in with us, but the resst just lounged around. They'll either bring more land gasses tomorrow or hopefully there will be more willing to get their toes wet!

So that's what I did, from about 9:30 until 3:30, with a couple of breaks. So much for my fear about my tendon, cracked rib, bad wrist and back! The bad wrist didn't hurt at all, and I used it most of the time; the other shoulder WAS a bit sore, but it's gone now. Arthritis. Tendon only hurt a tiny bit, and that was from dragging big bag of reeds all the way out once we'd finished closer in. Back was happy as a clam. Whoopee!!

So my fears didn't even slightly come true...I can do this all DAY and not even be tired...well, not as tired as I feared I would be, anyway. This is going to be a piece of cake! You wouldn't catch ME doing dry work...that's exactly what I feared we'd be doing, and it WOULD make a mess out of me. But this is like going back to childhood and playing in the mud!!

Airboats were a gas, as expected. It's waaay out there, and it's gorgeous. Got lots of pix--I may even download when I'm through here and go upstairs, Jim and Choey wanna see too. Nothing but hillocks of grass and open water as far as the eye can see...quiet (except for us yakking away!), slight breeze, fish jumping (nobody's toes got nibbled), just beautiful.

I can't believe you guys did this for me, still. I tell everyone what you did and they all thisk you're amazing, but then of course you are.

Jennifer's a kick in the head, she was laughing all day. This is what she does (not for a living), and she loves it. Wasn't until the end of the day when we got off the airboats that she pointed to my t-shirt and said "I loved that", and I discovered she's a Browncoat. She thinks it's fantasticc, we yakked Firefly all the way back and she's tickled shitless I'm here both weeks. We will no doubt plant rows alongside one another and yak Firefly now that we know. And she wants to come here, so I'm going to give her the url tomorrow and she'll be here rigiht quick no doubt!

I planted about a bag and a half--dunno how many in a bag, but aside from stopping for a sandwich and two breaks, one to call Jim, one to call Choey, I just kept at it. Five of us were out there to the very end...several other environmental volunteers and a couple who head up actual groups. Apparently we should think highly of NOAA...they funded this and fund all KINDS of projects down here and elsewhere. Got lots to tell you about politics, but that will wait--hopefully I won't get lost tomorrow (!) and I'll have more time4. I even got a short VIDEO from the airboat, so you can see where I am working.

Some of you will be pleased to know that some down here absolutely believe 9/11 was an inside job to start the Iraq war. Also, people talk almost all about Katrina and "it did this" and "it ruined that"; the Gulf hardly gets spoken about. Remember we are almost 40 miles inland (turns out IBRRC is just down the road in Hammond), so around here everything is about the Lake. The oil got into the Lake just a bit, but their local mayor--who is apparently god's gift to the parish! (St. Tammany's), is REALLY pro-active about the environment, so he got on it right quick and they kept most of the oil out. Thank goodness.

Salazar was here Saturday--they added an extra day because there were so many volunteers--and the press is coming Wednesday apparently. Salazar got in and PLANTED in the marsh, until his guys called him off, fearing he'd get sick (or something..>I dunno). Ken, the guy who runs the shuttle from where we park to the airboats, said he wants Bonnie and I around when the press comes, since we're out of state I guess. If it's in a local paper or something I'll scan a copy...somehow I doubt it'll be on the news, this isn't big news.

What we planted today, Ken said, will have totally filled in by next Winter...they know 'cuz they did it last year. That's so fantastic...in the water, I'm guessing we planted maybe a football field wide and two football fields long. I'll tell you all about why it's important and what this did down the line...I've got lots to share from folks down here, politics-wise, Katrina-wise and Gulf-wise, but I wanted to check in at least tonight.

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

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Monday, September 27, 2010 3:32 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

Shiny! And you got there just in time for some cooler weather and lower humidity! ( I know, you're thinking "THIS is lower humidity?!" Yes. Yes it is. Trust me. )

You haven't really missed anything here. More of the usual. Rappy's convinced that the Shirley Sherrod thing, the ACORN thing, and other stories that Breitbart and Faux made up out of whole cloth, really REALLY happened. That's about it.

The modern definition of "socialist" is anyone who's winning an argument against a tea-bagger.

AURaptor's Greatest Hits:

Friday, September 24, 2010
I hate Obama's America. You're damn right about that.

Friday, May 28, 2010 - 18:26 To President Obama:
Mr. President, you're a god damn, mother fucking liar.
Fuck you, you cock sucking community activist piece of shit.
... go fuck yourself, Mr. President.

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Monday, September 27, 2010 3:56 PM

CHRISISALL

You ROCK Niki!!!

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Tuesday, September 28, 2010 7:49 AM

FREMDFIRMA

So instead of running amuck, it's more running around in the muck, eh ?

Some of the very best jobs, the most fun ones anyhow, are the ones at the end of which you wind up clobbered in yuck - heaven knows how many times my most fun jobs left me covered in gasoline, oil and transmission fluid, heh.

I dunno if they're in the same area, but if you see an ultralight out there what looks like a big honking dragonfly, that's my old Dominator, they're using it to spot concentrations of stuff for cleanup crews right now.

Have fun!

-Frem

I do not serve the Blind God.

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Tuesday, September 28, 2010 10:42 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

You're in luck, weather wise.

Was listening to WWL out of Nawlin's this morning, and the weather is suppose to be spectacular. Summer stuck around a few days after it ended, but thankfully as October looms, we're getting more seasonal weather here in the S.E.

Quote:
Some of you will be pleased to know that some down here absolutely believe 9/11 was an inside job to start the Iraq war.

Not really sure what that has to do with anything, only that it's a sad commentary of how some folks can be duped into buying anything.

Clearly, Katrina had far more wide spread impact on the land, as well as the coast, but only time will tell if nature really did handle the oil spill as well as is being said, or the other shoe will drop, down the road.

"The modern definition of 'racist' is someone who is winning an argument with a liberal."

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Tuesday, September 28, 2010 12:15 PM

WHOZIT

$100 sez she's in a male strip club getting a lap dance from a sweaty male stripper named Iggy. I want to see pics of you cleaning oil off a pelican......or Iggy.

Those arn't boobs, they're lies! - Stewie Griffin

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Tuesday, September 28, 2010 12:38 PM

KANEMAN

Bull shit.......What is Jennifer goindg to be your new sock-puppet?

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Tuesday, September 28, 2010 1:01 PM

CHRISISALL

Quote:
Originally posted by whozit:
I want to see pics of you cleaning oil off a pelican......or Iggy.

U deezgust me.

The laughing Chrisisall

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