New Orleans - getting there

First plane trip after three international flights... I was definitely a bit worried about how this would go. Additionally, we decided to travel with a car seat on the plane after realising that it is a half hour taxi from the airport into the French Quarter where we were staying.
We got there fine, and went to find the Farmers Market where we had planned on buying fresh fruit for snacks. The Farmers Market turned out to be less fruit and veggies and more local shops, like a spice shop, a local photographer and several prepared food stalls, which left us a touch worried about accessing fruit. It was also very crowded, and we were a touch exhausted after the early start (5am) and the travel, and a change in time zones.
Dinner: The Gumbo Shop, which is set up for tourists, but the wonderful thing is, the local food is so fresh and simple... So while our boys had grilled chicken and pasta, we had gumbo,  and a sample dish containing jambalaya, crawfish etouffee, and red beans and rice.

Leaf Day

Today was leaf day in our community - that is, the maintenance company got the troops together and collected all the leaves that are lying around.
Requirements - 10-15 men, 8 leaf blowers, 1 ride on mower, 2 sort of wind machines, 1 large covered truck with huge vacuum cleaner on the back.

At back of playground at around 10am

It is like a muster - the men with the blowers 'muster' the leaves to collection point, usually gutter or middle of road where truck can drive and vacuum can be applied. Man on ride on mower was using mower like a small digger, scooping piles of leaves on the front of the mower, and then driving to the collection point and dumping them. Two men with blower things - were doing something as well, but I'm not sure what.
And they went like that, all day, from one side of the community to the other...These guys, they really work. When you see them, they always have something to do, there is very little standing around and yakking, except at lunch time (I presume). They start at about 8am, and disappear at about 3-4pm.

Out the front of our place at 2pm.

Covered truck with vacuum on the back. One to operate the vacuum, two with blowers to collect the leaves that are left behind, one with rake to direct stray leaves under vacuum. About 8-10 guys were in front of the truck. It took them about 5 mins to come and go out the front of our place.

Our front yard on Friday. It will be 98% leaf free now.

There is a Higher Throne

There is a Higher Throne - Keith and Kristyn Getty, 2002

There is a higher throne than all this world has known,
where faithful ones from ev'ry tongue will one day come.
Before the Son we'll stand, made faultless through the Lamb;
believing hearts find promised grace: salvation comes.

Chorus:
Hear heaven's voices sing; their thund'rous anthem ring
through em'rald courts and sapphire skies; their praises rise.
All glory, wisdom, pow'r, strength, thanks and honour are
to God, our king, who reigns on high, forever more.

And there we'll find our home, our life before the throne;
we'll honour him in perfect song where we belong.
He'll wipe each tear-stained eye, as thirst and hunger die;
the Lamb becomes our Shepherd King: we'll reign with him.

The Questions of Pain, answered through Revelation 4:1-11
Where was God when we were so terribly wounded? (4:1-3)
God never leaves His throne - he is always ruling, never absent, never feeble. He is where he was when his Son died. Not getting off throne for Son's death, not getting off throne for our suffring - threrefore there is a reason for the suffering.

If God speaks to us in our pain, what is he saying? (4:4-6)
This is not the way it always was. This is not the way it is meant to be. Our hope is that it is all going to end - at the gathering of the redeemed.
"God whispers in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain, it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world" CS Lewis, "The Problem of Pain"

What can we do even while we and others suffer? (4:7-11)
We need to be reminded of, or tell it - that Our God Reigns. in our suffering, just out of suffering, just going into suffering, Our God Reigns.

Navy Football

We had a night out at the football, with a babysitter... so no questions about play, or declarations of boredom/hunger/toilet. Sun in our faces until it hit the horizon near the end of the second quarter, then it got cold really fast, but we went with coats and a blanket, and it was really enjoyable, even with four rows of a scout troop from New Jersey behind us. We are starting to be able to keep track of the ball, and the play.

Photo is of the US flag and the big screen, because at stadiums all around the country, that is what you get. I don't remember the Australian flag being so prominent on the landscape. I will remember this as a typical American scene. It was even better in the sunset, but the iphone camera can't deal with that sort of light, so use your imagination!

One of the Navy team front men - not sure what you'd call his position, but I'd call it enforcer, personally... I commented he looked big, and confirmed it by looking up his stats - 6'5", 280 lbs. the other side had similar size, and possibly bigger, as Navy players need to be under the acceptable serving weight before they graduate (prob less than 280lbs).

Navy 55, UMC 14. Last home game of the season!

Fallen leaves!

Glorious day of wind where drifts of leaves ended up being blown off trees and hurried into corners (gutters, our front lawn, the leeward side of cars, etc).

Winter

Winter is definitely here... the boots are in the stores, Thanksgiving/Christmas is being flogged, Winter collections(clothes) are arriving, Fall sales are on. It took a week to go from Peak Foliage, to Not-so-peak Foliage, and a week after that, 70% of all leaves are down, or on the trees brown and crinkly. Although the sun is warm when you are in it, there is a chill to the wind, and once the sun goes down, we are getting into the 40s F(4-10 C) at night.

Khakis

http://www.shopstyle.com/browse?fts=khaki+wrinkle+free+pants

One thing we both noticed, is that the office seems very casual in dress - as in, most men wear Khaki pants instead of suit pants. Even the young blokes. The other option appears to be chinos (for the difference, see here: http://thegentlemanadvisor.com/2015/01/11/the-gentlemans-khaki-vs-chino/).
When commenting on this, and assuming out loud that it must be different in Washington DC, hubby was assured that it was quite normal to wear kahkis. Often, with a 'sports jacket', which seems to be a slightly more loud version of a suit jacket. Sort of makes that quote from Fight Club more understandable - "You are not your kahkis..." (edited for family viewing). If lots of men wear kahkis to work, which they do seem to, perhaps it is suggesting they are not their job?
But in Australia, where mostly the guys in my office wore suit pants ('dark slacks is another description I've heard here...), it didn't hit the same cultural reflex.