Ray in New Orleans

even when you do stuff it feels like you get nothing accomplished.

You know what I mean?

Have a Happy Holiday and we will get back to work after the New Year.

And I'm sitting over here in my unnamed East Coast state doing exactly nothing except writing a few checks, talking about what's going on (or not) and reading Ray in New Orleans (who I picked up on from my friend Karl Elvis).

Also, the husband and I watch documentaries and cry.

From *my* POV, you look like f'ing Superman.

I'm sorry for the loss of Mrs. Cora Foster's house and heirlooms. Thank you for everything you've done and are doing.

hugs, E

Is the Oskar Schindler's blog?

What about all the good things you DID get done this year? (Karen, this goes for you, too.)

You did a lot. You can't do it all.

Folks like you make me try harder to do more. Thanks for that.

Lisa (The girl whose house you spent several afternoons helping gut in the stifling heat of New Orleans summer.)

I know you feel bad about Miz Cora's but you're being too hard on yourself again. Your heart and your hands were in the right place at the right time. She knows that and I know the work you all did on her house means alot to her. Shit happens. It just didn't work out the way you wanted.
Care Forgot can still happen and it doesn't have to be a one-man endeavor.
As Lisa said, think of all the good stuff you've done. Lotsa good stuff.

And Merry Christmas to you,__ .

Everybody else took the words outta my mouth.

Have a happy holiday. Be well, 'cause if you're not, that's one less good person in the world, and that's the LAST thing the world needs.

Man, you have gone above and beyond so many times...

As a wise doctor once said, "You can't save everyone". You tried, and my guess is that we wouldn't have found didley in the house, music wise.

Hang tough.

You and Karen have done more than the rest of th worthless, blathering NOLA bloggers put together with the entire staff of elected city government. As our own Dr. points you, you can't save everyone and still save yourself. What part of yourelf, which of your children or other critical part of your life would you throw out of the lifeboat to recapture the chance to save her house? You are an American hero, even if you feel like you're just an extra in the Longest Day. There was a longest day because so many people charged up the beach. You can't be and shouldn't try to be Audie Murphy. You need to be the guy who remembers he has a wife and kids to make it home to, and just do what you can and what you must. Whatever was precious in Cora's house is gone, but so are any number of other treasures out of the innumerable houses that have fallen. Some are purely personal and some belong at the Library of Congress, but in the end all that matters is that they were lost. No one is going to forget who Buddy Bolden was because Miss Cora's fell. I worry more that, 100 years from now, perhaps no one will remember what you and the krewe and so many others have done to save what they can. That is a story as important to the American experience as anything that was lost in Miss Cora's house. You can't save everyone, and you can't save everything. What is not lost is increased immensely because you've tried,and I hope that 100 years hence someone sits in a carrel in the Smithsonian and reads this post and its conversation, and remembers what was done by the largely anonymous volunteers who saved so much, and made that that something recognizably New Orleans did not perish from the earth.