New Orleans

For a while there it almost seemed as if New Orleans was going to survive with less damage than expected. Now every new report I hear is worse than the last one, and things in Mississippi and Alabama are even worse. I get a hollow feeling inside when I think about the people who've lost their homes and possessions, and I wonder how they'll ever recover. Some of them, I'm sure, never will. Yet there's nothing I can do except give money to some relief effort. It's a sad, hopeless feeling, and I wish it would go away. I don't think it will, however, not for a while, even though we're leaving for Bouchercon tomorrow and should be feeling pretty good.