Here’s an only in New Orleans kind of story for you.

You may have heard that there was an ice storm in and around the city this week. Most of the bridges and highways were shut down, along with a majority of the businesses, including many restaurants.

On the first day of the shut down, I was reduced to getting my morning coffee at McDonald’s, the only place I could find open. For lunch and/or dinner, I found a local bar and grill on Algiers Point, right next to the ferry, serving passable burgers and po’boys, and run of the mill soups and gumbo. Each time I went in, I took my IPad with me, hoping to connect with the outside world, since I didn’t yet have Internet or TV set up (the cable guy did manage to show up the first day of the storm, but alas, he had a faulty modem and everyone back at the support office was MIA and the office shut down).

But I digress. Later in the week, I dropped in for a quick po’boy lunch, after taking the ferry in from Canal Street, because the cable guy was coming back. Once again, I asked about the Wifi. And here’s the response my waitress launched into:

“There’s this guy with a duck in a bucket (okay, at this point, some of you may be wondering, like I was, just what this has to do with the Wifi, right?), and he comes by and sits outside for hours and hours. He sits, taking up a table,  using up the Wifi, and then we can’t turn it over. So the owner had the password changed, but nobody knows it. Now he has to call the IT guy”.

“Why don’t you just change the password again” I asked. “It should be changed every once in a while, anyway.” She just shrugged, as she walked away.

Oh well – at least I didn’t have to resort to McDonald’s for lunch.

I am happy to report that I have been able to get out to some of the finer dining and hospitality establishments while here. Come back soon, now that I’m back online, and I’ll tell you about them.