Keep boiling your gas

Yesterday a funny thing happened. Someone asked me a question about the Uptown boil order and how long we could expect it to last. I began my answer with, "Well usually what happens with these is....." And that's when I realized that boil orders have become just one of those things we do now.

There's not even a definitive count of post-K boil orders in Orleans Parish. News accounts yesterday could only agree that it was somewhere between five and eight.  I can remember the first one pretty well. The others kind of blend together, though.

This morning, in the boil zone, there is little evidence of anything out of the ordinary.  I brushed and showered as usual. During past boil events, Menckles had stockpiled  coolers full of drinking water. This morning she just grabbed a coke from the fridge. The coffee shops are open. They have ice.

We're all used to the procedure. We've already used all the good jokes. This is just a thing that happens. This is a "usually."


And so is, by the way, this.

After a blowout occurred on a natural gas well in the Gulf of Mexico Tuesday morning, the rig caught fire when gas leaking from that well ignited, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement confirmed early Wednesday morning. No one was on board at the time of the ignition and no one was injured, according to BSEE.