Baja St. Martin

I don’t think anyone is really getting rich yet, but they are starting to catch crawfish. Fishermen say the crawfish are small and young. One man said he got a five-gallon pail out of less than a hundred traps. The south wind last week pushed the water in and up, both of which slowed the current and catch. A fisherman friend said his first two sacks cost him $400, what with traps, bait, gas and a motor repair. I don’t know what the price is for the fishermen. No one that I know of is catching any crawfish on the inside of the levee, in Belle River in the swamps. And I’ve heard no rumors of crawfish being caught in Bayou Pigeon, which usually comes before this area.

I will be heading to the cold country of Michigan in just a few hours to spend a few days with an older sister who is having surgery for breast cancer. Hopefully, things will go well but there’s no doubt she will have to endure months of radiation and chemotherapy. It will be nice to visit with both my sisters although I certainly wish the circumstances were different.

It’s raining here now but it seems the bad weather coming from the west is missing us for the most part. Windy but not all that much rain. It is a bit cooler which makes it less foolish-feeling than to arrive at the New Orleans airport in 80-degree temperatures with a heavy wool coat.

LEAP and iLEAP testing begins next week for all schools. I never was involved in this particular test — it was CAT tests and IOWA when I was teaching — but I well remember how good it was to have them over. There wasn’t so much preparation for the old tests — just a few days and it was over. Now the schools begin practicing almost when school starts.

No more news on the Belle River bridge. A few people said they saw the Channel 2 TV broadcast from the bridge that I missed. Apparently it was just about the problems for the crawfishermen. There are no signs up yet saying when the bridge would be closed and the C.E.C. man told me they’d let people know well ahead. If the date is really April 13, as I’ve heard, warning signs should be going up pretty soon.

I talked to the police juror who called the TV people and he acknowledged that he knew nothing could be done differently other than build a brand new separate bridge which he also knew was not going to happen. Crawfish bait sellers and buyers can just park their refrigerated trucks on this side of the river and the fishermen can leave their rigs at the landing if they want. Things will work out.

I’ll be thinking of you as I shiver in the snow. If I have the chance I’ll make a snowman in my sister’s front yard and call it Baja!