Since there are a couple readers out there

I guess I should continue on... Life on the coast is different than anywhere I've lived before. It's a crazy mix of people, with crazy norms in life, and people are different here than many places I've lived. It's not just the Cajun influence, it's something else I'm pretty sure. I jokingly talked to my friend Dan the other day about it. He noted "down here the girls get pregnant at 17, have a couple of kids and get married, then at 24 or so, they get divorced and want to start their real marriage..."
After Katrina, the desperation of so many is obvious. Last week, I was in the office when my friend grabbed me and said she needed me to do her a favor. I could tell there was terror in her eyes and voice so I grabbed my keys and drove her to the house she needed to go to. It turns out that she had asked me to take her to a crime scene of a prestigious family from the Bay who were involved in a husband & wife, murder suicide. I'll never forget the faces of the family members huddled around, sobbing, saying "I knew it was hard, but I didn't know it had gotten this bad..." It was her husbands cousin, who was involved, and she was terribly upset. I was in shock at the scene, the apartment door covered with a sheet, so the news crew hovering nearby could be held at bay.

What could make someone become this desperate, to loose hope, to let the rage and frustration of life come out in such a way? I know the answer, we all hold it in when we are frustrated, but when you've been through something like this, the wind and the waves of Katrina wash away some of life's inhibitions. We all have, as Jean so keenly puts it "our own personal Katrina" in our lives. Whether it is family problems, drugs or alcoholism, anger issues, or so many other things, we all live in our own little Katrina. We don't all deal with it the same way. Two weekends ago, we drove over to Gulf Shores for a quick get-a-way at Martinique on The Gulf, our favorite place to go. Even though GS had been hit by Ivan not long ago, the place was looking much better, and lives were back to normal it seemed. But it's different here. Things are better, but not normal. I heard the statistic, that over 80% of Waveland residents are still in FEMA trailers. I can believe it. We've seen 4 on our street removed since we moved here in June, but still there are many within eyesight of our house. It's been 18 months since Katrina hit the coast. We have a constant calendar of that timeframe because Kate was born 10 days afterwards. However long she lives, her age will simply be a landmark for how long ago Katrina hit this area. I've heard more news people talk about weather forecasts for the next "hurricane season" and frankly I don't care. It's not in their hands.

In other news I've had a big awakening with my Company and our goals. Our new employee has been doing a great job, and she's making my life much easier, and the company more profitable. Two much needed things for us to be able to get to what I like to call "the next level." I've often heard that it takes 4 or 5 years for a business to become profitable, and that most businesses fail in the first 18 months of their operation. I certainly am aware of many, many mistakes I've made with my company. Some of them in hiring people, some mistakes, in charging too much, and missing an opportunity to get in with a company, some not keeping up with customers enough, and losing that contact which allowed them to go to another vendor. I came to a decision today to rename my company, and re-brand it with a stronger marketing presence and name. We are going to be "Fox Web Company." For those of you who might think of a guy named Carl from Memphis, don't. ') A fox is a cunning and crafty animal, who is smarter than his competition. This is the new Big River Systems. The problem with Big River Systems, was that we weren't really spending the marketing money, letting people know that BRS meant "Web" and "Web site development." No longer the case. I'm hoping to get our new site and branding launched by the end of the month. We'll see if we can get it done. I'm also hoping to have a FWC blog, that talks about business stuff, weekly, to let our clients and potential clients know what we are up to. A footnote to the fox name, is that Cammie's family in Jackson is Fox. We also knew that being in a new location, with virtually no market awareness of who we were, this would be a great time to change names, and market the "fox." I haven't finished the final look of the logo, and branding, but the look above is what we are working with. Any comments you might have would be welcome.