Planning My First Metairie Visit

Evidence strongly suggests that it will probably be a long time before the NOLA economy can support us. Joel and I have both focused much more on diagnostic testing than on therapy, and even if we were hardcore therapists, it's hard for a psychologist to get a paid therapy gig, given that MSWs, LPCs and such are in abundance. (Granted, state and national professional organizations have encouraged us to DONATE our services to help the flood-affected multitudes, but that's a lot easier to do when you can afford your mortgage payment.)

I'd really hoped that the Jeff Parish Sheriff's Office would hire Joel to work with their staff, since he'd handled many of them in the past. Unfortunately, the officer now in charge of overseeing psychological issues among the deputies, reportedly does not believe that psychological services are useful. (I wonder how that officer explains the NOPD officers who committed suicide during Katrina.) So Houston, with its giant medical infrastructure, is far more viable, both immediately and over the long haul.

It's gotten to the point that I just want something permanent--almost anything permanent. I so wish we could buy a house NOW, rather than waiting for our own house to sell. It seems like such a long process, and the thought of keeping the Metairie house in presentable shape for visiting agents and potential buyers is incredibly aversive to me. To do so with four dogs, birds, and a housework-impaired pre-teen in residence truly sounds impossible. If we can manage to sell the house without concurrently living in it outselves, that will be a miracle.

A friend of mine has recommended a semi-retired couple who lost to Katrina their home and several rentals they owned. We think they might live in our place for free and help supervise getting sand pumped under the house, patching and touching up where our recent leveling caused cracks in walls and ceilings, etc. We haven't finalized the negotiations, nor have we confirmed with an agent to represent us in Metairie. But at least we've started the process.

I plan to visit Metairie this coming weekend. We haven't decided whether or not Katie will accompany me. I think that seeing the destruction firsthand would help make the non-viability of Metairie clearer to Katie, so she could stop hanging onto fantasies of everything going back to the old normal--but, given the way our daily interactions typically run, we might kill each other during the trip! I (or we) will have everything available at the house, except for the unusable--and yet unopened--refrigerator, so I anticipate sleeping there for a couple nights. Without dogs and with few neighbors, it should be very quiet. Do they still have a dusk-to-dawn curfew?