A podcast about books, art & life — not necessarily in that order
The official VM sister-in-law-to-be left a message on Amy’s cell-phone! She and the parents are safe at their parents’ home in Des Allemands, LA! They have the generator hooked up, there’s no air conditioning, the landline is still down, and the cell is sporadic, but at least they’re home!
[note: I may be up-and-down with this stuff in the next few days, weeks, or months, so don’t hold it against me if one post about this subject sounds much different than the next, okay?]
Here’s the blog of a guy who’s been holed up in a high-rise in New Orleans, trying to keep some sorta operations running. He’s former Army, and sounds it. The entries read like a zombie movie.
I’m having a hard time splitting my thoughts between the events in Louisiana & Mississippi and the day-to-day stuff I need to get done, so I’m going to write a little more about the latter. I hope you don’t take it to mean that I’m glossing over what’s going on down there. If anything, I’m feeling this constant drain as I try to grasp the concept of a city that’s dying at high speed, while I’m racked with worry about the health and security of my future in-laws.
All of which is a preface to saying that I had a nice professional moment this morning. When I got the office, I received an e-mail from a guy at the European Commission in Brussels, asking if it’s okay to cite my Top Pharma/Biopharma Companies report in his new paper on Biotech and Applied Genomics R&D in Europe.
He sent an early copy of the study/proposal, which was mainly about how the EU has lagged in Biotech R&D. It had some neat suggestions for what they need to do to regain a competitive position vis-a-vis the U.S. and Asia (mainly the U.S.), but I was just gratified that all the work I did earlier this summer proved valuable enough for a government agency to base some of its findings.
In that same vein, a friend of mine called last night to see how I’m doing and what I’m up to in September. “Well, I said, I’ve gotta write the second part of my Biomarkers article, interview some people about Pharma/Biopharma facility design, get a lot of materials ready for our annual conference, and edit a bunch of contributed articles for the mag. At night I’ll be working my way through a re-read of Don Quixote, before my trip to Madrid in November.”
She thought I was complaining.
No real update to give, actually. Amy’s family was supposed to get back to their homes yesterday, but there’s no landline or cell service down there at present. They brought a generator back with them, so that’ll fix the power issue, but we haven’t heard yet if they got in safely.
For those of you who believe in the power of prayer/visualization/deep thought/etc., we’d appreciate it if you keep her family in your thoughts.