It’s a beautiful day outside but it’s too hot for October. I guess New Orleans will get some cooler fall weather any day now. It feels like August out there right now. It’s a good thing it is football season and I don’t plan on being outside that much anyway. I am watching Florida vs. LSU game right now.  After this I may drive over the Gentilly Fest and check out Whodini. If I get there early enough to talk to their manager I might be able to get up on stage and help them perform Funky Beat or maybe One Love. 

Last week I had the experience of serving on a jury trial at New Orleans Criminal Court. Real court is nothing like television. The most interesting part was meeting the other jurors. Trials have a lot of breaks and you can’t discuss the case when you are in the break room so you have to talk about other things.  There were twelve people in the room from a relatively small city and they were all very different. The only thing they truly had in common was everyone was ready to go home. It seems like lately the city and its people are being presented in a monolithic way. I know the fun and revelry sells the city to outsiders but sometimes it’s good just to sit around with a sanitation worker and a grandmother and talk about what’s going on.  

I’ve been very pessimistic about most things lately. I have been keeping a lot of it to myself because I never wanted to be the guy that’s always bitching and moaning about everything. With that being said, I checked out the NOLA For Life program and I support it. There’s no such thing as a program so good it will eliminate murders in this city. I believe that’s something that needs to be done in the homes of those kids. I do think a good program with the mayor’s involvement can change the environment where some of the people involved may not be so quick to shoot someone.  We still need to put the time and resources into the ideas to make them work but I’m optimistic. I hope I stay that way. 

If the Atlanta Falcons and Houston Texas play in the Superdome while the New Orleans Saints have a losing season because their leadership was in trouble for doing something against the rules that will sum up the last 30 years of living here. We’ll call it the Cities Left Us Behind Bowl. 

The Saints have had some really bad seasons and some crazy ones as well.  My top three crazy seasons are the Earl Campbell season, the season where someone slept with Willie Roaf’s wife, and the last Ditka season where the offense had about 5 plays in the playbook. None of those seasons have prepared me for the bounty season where the coach is suspended. The Saints are 0-4 and have lost all four games in a different way. I’m frustrated, aggravated, and I don’t care for the commissioner. I am still not sure what Sean Payton did to be suspended and treated like a criminal. It really doesn’t matter because if the Saints lose tomorrow the season is over and that dream of playing host to the Superbowl and being in it is dead. 

There’s only one thing left to do. I’m breaking out the lucky Superbowl shirt. I was going to burn it after the Seattle playoff game but I changed my mind. I’m wearing the 2006 NFC South divisional hat and the Crown Royal and putting all my energy into beating the Chargers. I’ll be at home so at least I won’t get arrested. This is the last stand of the 2012 season. Let’s go Saints!