Guess Who's Back In Pascagoula?

No, not Barack Obama. It's me, Shokai, back in Pascagoula, Mississippi for the first time in several years.

I spent much of the summer of 2005 here working on a large project, a project that was cut short quite suddenly by Hurricane Katrina. While many other environmental consultants rushed down to this area in the aftermath of the storm, I found myself under-employed as a result of the impact.

Not that it was any picnic for me being here. I found it dull, hot and inhospitable, and the firm I was working for ultimately wound up firing me. But work is work, and now I'm back down here, hat in hand, begging the client that had hired me in the past for some more work. Groveling, or as we call it, "marketing."

It's still hot, it's still boring, and everything looks exactly the same as it did back in 2005. The place was re-built following Katrina, but re-built exactly as it was before - no improvements, no changes. I feel like Steven Wright must have when he said, "I woke up one day and everything in the apartment had been stolen and replaced with an exact replica."

Wright goes on: "I said to my roommate 'Can you believe this? Everything in the apartment has been stolen and replaced with an exact replica.' He said, 'Do I know you?'"

Now, there's a koan for you.