Quarantine: Week Three (Monday, March 30 – Sunday, April 5)

Monday, March 30 I began volunteering with the Serve our Seniors meal delivery program, a partnership between the City of New Orleans (via the volunteer organization HandsOn New Orleans) and World Central Kitchen, with the kitchen facilities of the New Orleans Culinary & Hospitality Institute (NOCHI) as its home base. The number of households (comprised of homebound, at-risk seniors who can’t or shouldn’t leave home for food) enrolled in the program had jumped to 600 from 200 in the week since the program’s rollout. I snapped a few photos around the Seventh Ward, where I did my deliveries that day. My car battery died while parked in front of an apartment complex with my hazards on and my friend (who happens to drive a gold hearse) gave me a jump. I spotted gas at 99 cents per gallon at the intersection of Broad and Orleans, and wrote my second ‘quarantune’ (“Quarantine Dream”).

quarantine week 3 - 2 seventh ward symbolism

quarantine week 3 - 3 robertson st bernard

quarantine week 3 - 4 st bernard building

quarantine week 3 - 5 hearse brings snowball to life

Tuesday, March 31 The home-sewn face masks my aunt in Minnesota sent me arrived. I attempted to get gas for 99 cents but there was a crazy queue of cars. Deaths in Louisiana surpassed 200, jumping to 239 from the reported 185 the day before.

Wednesday, April 1 I took another dog walk up the bayou then down Orleans Ave, snapping shots of some of the shuttered, historic restaurants along the way. I spotted gas for 98 cents a gallon. We learned that local legend Ellis Marsalis had died of the virus.

quarantine week 3 - 10 angela davis jeff davis street

quarantine week 3 - 13 ceci n'est pas une pipe bayou st john

quarantine week 3 - 15 gabrielle restaurant closed

quarantine week 3 - 16 busy bee's food store orleans ave

quarantine week 3 - 17 willie mae's restaurant closed

quarantine week 3 - 18 dooky chase restaurant closed

quarantine week 3 - 60 rip ellis tuba fats square

Thursday, April 2 I had my second shift with Serve Our Seniors, this time making deliveries (and taking photos) in Central City. The households registered for delivery had doubled to 1200. I joined my first Zoom meeting of quarantine, to watch my brother’s band Disco Risqué perform for a friend’s company’s #TogetherAtHome concert series/initiative. Deaths in Louisiana surpassed 300, jumping to 310 from the reported 273 the day before.

quarantine week 3 - 20 felicity clara toilet paper mural

quarantine week 3 - 21 felicity clara toilet paper mural

quarantine week 3 - 22 three star barbershop central city

quarantine week 3 - 23 al's garage central city

quarantine week 3 - 24 hubba hubba muckrock mural MLK blvd

quarantine week 3 - 26 hubba hubba french horn mural central city

quarantine week 3 - 25 superdome from central city

quarantine week 3 - 27 washington ave big chief bo dollis mural

quarantine week 3 - 28 central city giraffe snowball shack

quarantine week 3 - 29 magnolia super market central city

quarantine week 3 - 30 magnolia super market central city

quarantine week 3 - 32 #togetherathome fionta concert disco risque

quarantine week 3 - 33 disco risque #togetherathome

Friday, April 3 I tried unsuccessfully to donate blood at Children’s Hospital, then used the opportunity to amble around and get photos of the Audubon area. I succeeded in gassing up for an outrageous 87 cents a gallon (at the Ideal station on Orleans and Moss), then had a taco night with my quarantine crew.

quarantine week 3 - 34 keep safe everyone henry clay ave

quarantine week 3 - 35 laurel st greenery

quarantine week 3 - 36 cute laurel st house

quarantine week 3 - 37 preacher art dino van

quarantine week 3 - 38 bisso marine salvage yard

quarantine week 3 - 39 bisso salvage mississippi barge

quarantine week 3 - 41 dog in audubon park backyard

quarantine week 3 - 42 audubon park backyard

quarantine week 3 - 43 the fly closure sign

quarantine week 3 - 44 st charles ave baptist church compassionate coronavirus protocols

quarantine week 3 - 45 cool car on st charles

quarantine week 3 - 46 shuttered st phil st house

Saturday, April 4 I walked along the Greenway to Whole Foods to pick up a package from an Amazon Prime locker: my first experience with lines outside grocery stores due to newly enacted policies on limited entry. Went ‘round the bayou again and noticed more clusters and gatherings of people than seemed advisable. Made my first crossover Arrested Development/Ozark meme because I jumped on the quarantine Ozark bandwagon and have a fan fiction theory that Marty Byrde is Michael Bluth’s imagined alter ego (I mean… same initials and everything…). Deaths in Louisiana surpassed 400, jumping to 409 from the reported 370 the day before.

quarantine week 3 - 49 snack truck on greenway

quarantine week 3 - 50 bmike pogba mural

quarantine week 3 - 52 pollinators in area bayou sign

quarantine week 3 - 53 be kind sidewalk chalk bayou

quarantine week 3 - 54 corona on the bayou

quarantine week 3 - 57 fucking yikes bayou sticker + gatherings

quarantine week 3 - 56 fucking yikes bayou sticker

quarantine week 3 - 58 hibernators in area

quarantine week 3 - 59 sobering center closed

quarantine week 3 - 61 arrested development ozark crossover meme

Sunday, April 5 I went along Basin, cut slightly through the CBD to circumvent the still-closed intersection of Canal and Rampart (yeah… the partially-collapsed Hard Rock still looms ominously over that juncture), then continued down Canal to the Quarter with my ‘real camera’ for the first time.