Hurricane Katrina comes calling...Please spare a thought for the victims.

Hurricane Katrina wrought devastation in New Orleans, Louisiana and now hundreds, possibly thousands of lives are lost because of this calamity. One feels for the sufferings of those residents of N’warlenes (al it’s referred to locally) and all those people stuck in this city and couldn’t get out. It is simply a travesty and the chaos unfolds as days pass by.

Personally, I have many fond memories of New Orleans and Mardi Gras. The brain holds vivid memories of three trips to this decadent and debauchery celebration of mindless binge drinking and shiny beads in this touristy city during Mardi Gras. Bourbon Street and Pat O’Brien’s humongous Hurricanes are etched, still fresh in memory.

Also fresh is memory of getting felt up by a , 70 year old lady, or was it an 80 year old, one year, during the parade on Canal Street. Yikes.

Another instance, during Mardi Gras, encouraged by all that chanting around me, and embolden by the positive response of the fairer sex, to these chantings, I yelled out ‘Show me your teeth’ at some inebriated pretty maiden strolling besides me. She flipped me the bird. Both of em, now that I think about it. Following which I slunk back, to the status of the wide eyed gawker, in that vast sea of amalgamated mangled human bodies.

Going beyond Bourbon Street, one comes upon the French Quarter and run into the colorful, gay, transvestite part of town where we once inadvertently got pushed by the surging crowds. My buddy’s wife and my good friend as well, got stranded with me, while her husband and another friend got swept away into a different direction.

The sights at the bars in this section were something else. Trans-gender divas, dressed to kill, with beads of all kinds of hues and shapes around their necks and other parts of their anatomy, were dangling from terraces above. In one noisy gay bar, a buff, good looking man was dancing in the window, with just a handkerchief, a very tiny one at that, held in front of his crown jewels and Monty python. I was praying for the handkerchief to stay put and my friend was praying for it to fall off.

These trips to N’Orleans were made possible because of the largesse and hospitability of an old college buddy, who graciously let us shack up with him for those couple of days. Street performers are outstanding in this city. Be it the sax players, the garbage can drummers or the tap/break dancers, you will be riveted by their performance. Zimply Mahvellous, much better than many big time performers that you might have heard or seen.

CNN reports the gas prices, supposedly will be up to $4 a gallon soon. If this was to happen, filling up gas in our SUV, sedan, lawn mower, grill lighters and yours truly (courtesy bean burritos, Taco Bell), will set us back almost $100 every week. In fact most gas stations in the Rochester Hills area are selling gas at approx. $3.20 per gallon.

Dang man. That’s tough. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Our AAA advisor recommends driving the car below 60 mph and not switching the air conditioner on, to save gas. So as I cruise the interstate, chugging along merrily at 40 mph, sweating profusely from all pores, I was beaming happily to see so many friendly drivers waving at me when they passed me by. But they looked kinda irate. On closer inspection, I realized they were just giving me the finger. Dang.

Another thought that crossed my mind was as long as the gas stations still allow ‘Pay Inside’ after filling, option in Michigan, I will attempt filling up the sedan and the SUV, while dressed in some terrorist kinda outfit, complete with the turban, dark shades, beard et all. Fill it, shut it and zoom away from the station without paying. That will alert the feds, I'm sure. I’m sure the Homeland Security color code will be immediately be elevated to ‘hyperactive magenta with tinge of lavender’ with media headlines blaring ‘Terrorists target gas stations next’. Well, I jest, as most gas stations do not have the 'Pay after Filling' option anymore.

Do you think holding up placards ‘Will Blog for Gas (for my car)’ along the freeway help?

Winters are going to be much worse with the heating price on the rise. Well, looks like we will have to wear extra layers of clothing, I guess, because the heating prices are gonna hit the sky. In offices, at water coolers, all across the country, there is already talk about the sky high home heating prices, come winter.

Any alternatives to home heating, I wonder?

We have been married too long, and have become far too old, for the Bollywood ishtyle ‘Ab iske siwa mere paas aur koi chara nahi’, body-heat-transference-via-sex scenario to play out in real life. Anyway peeling off all those extra layers of clothes first, will get anyone out of the mood pretty fast. Maybe we’ll resort to burning stuff and crowding around the fireplace as an option.

While one feels, and feels deeply for the victims of the hurricane, a sight that has been just outrageous were the looters in N’Orleans. It was so disconcerting to watch the residents plunder shops for inane articles like DVD, watches, TV’s and guns. One could sympathize had they been ferrying out food or warm clothes, but guns?. How does anybody explain that? Its bizarre-o-world, I tell ya.

Our company has 60 employees ins N’Orleans and there has been no response from many of these employees. Many of them will come back to homes that have been destroyed or just obliterated. The CEO of our company has started a relief campaign to help these employees out, and people are responding.

Check out informative write-up’s on Katrina by GreatBong, Sunil, One More Reason and the fabulous Katrina update by ZigZackly here. Check out this hilarious piece by CuriousGawker about the shortage of National Guards in N’Orleans here.