Best Of

Hi from temporarily mild NOLA. Yesterday & today the weather was delightful—no jacket necessary. It is forecast to pour this weekend, with temps in the low 60s/high 50s. (Glad I brought my windproof umbrella). I had a long travel day Thursday (2 hr layover in KC), but got to the hotel in time to register for the FAI conference, unpack (for both of us), walk to dinner (Luke’s), and hit one song circle before turning in—or attempting to turn in, as my room key card stopped working. Had to contact Guest Svces (on hold for 10 min). Took another 20 minutes for the janitor to come and body-slam the door open—when we got inside we found that the extra-secure deadbolt had deployed automatically. Only way to avoid the problem is to not use the security deadbolt knob. (In a hotel full of folksingers, I think we’re safe overnight without that second lock deployed).

Bob flew down this morning, leaving the house at 5 am in -35F wind chill. He wisely called for a taxi. After the general membership meeting, I went up to the room to wait for him and we walked into the Quarter for brunch at Tujaugue’s. Walked back, caught a panel and then a nap…or so I thought. Bob informed me that his keycard stopped working and i would need to go to the front desk to have mine re-keyed too. Sounds fine, right?

Not so much. See, the elevators are computer-controlled: punch in a floor# and the readout tells you which car to take. Half the time we get “System is busy<“ so we need to use the service elevators. Now, multiply that by 2500 people, most of them carrying instruments. We’re on the 33d floor—and there are two sets of elevators (fl 9-29 and 30 & above).Takes >10 minutes to get anywhere in the hotel. Finally got the keys re-programmed and into the room…and the same problem that always does whenever we vacation cropped up: Bob couldn’t log into his hospital portal to read EKGs (I keep trying to explain to him the concept of “vacation”). He normally spurns the unsecured guest network and buys the premium secure service—but this time his 2014 Windows laptop wouldn’t let him connect to the network; in fact, the unsecured network didn’t even show up in his :”Available networks” list. Oddly, I was able to get on just fine on my iPad Pro, As always, we wasted 2 hours we could have spent resting talking to tech support in the Philippines or India. And there was no solution—once home he’s going to have to go in person to meet with the hospital’s IT person. (I turned off all the firewalls in Windows Security, to no avail, so tech support says it must be a hidden firewall installed by the hospital because it’s a “work computer” even though he owns it). Maybe this time he’ll see the light and buy a Mac?

Went to Commander’s Palace for dinner. I’m discovering what being a foodie is like on a GLP-1 drug. I still get night cravings for inappropriate foods (though not true “food noise”) and eat stuff that nutritionists frown on, but in much smaller quantities. I also get early satiety, which means either wasting food or lots of leftovers (the room’s fridge is full-to-groaning). After we got back, I did another song circle, watched TV (on my iPad, as the hotel has no premium channels) and am about to turn in so we can sleep late tomorrow morning. There’s a Cafe Beignet in the hotel (bigger beignets than Cafe du Monde) and they sell king cakes too. Gonna bring home a couple (one for the clinic at Union Health). The city (especially the Garden District) is all lit up in Mardi Gras colors for the parades, which start tomorrow.

Forecast here for Monday will be temps in the 30s with wind chill in the low teens. Guess I’ll be pulling my down coat out of the suitcase here, instead of when we get to Midway.