TUESDAY

Visiting with Rick

We drove over to visit Rick to talk accounting and taxes and catch up on current events in the oil industry. Rick was looking great and talked up a storm. In fact, we visited for about 2 hours and ended up missing our lunch with Mike (sadly). He said that POSTLETHWAITE & NETTERVILLE had an office in New Orleans whose only job was to process claims resulting from the BP oil spill in 2010, so that controversy is continuing. As I am sure, the losses and isues surrounding how the oil spill was resolved. His son Michael is just about finished his M.S. in Taxation and starting with a rival Accounting Firm in New Orleans this Fall. And his son sure loves New Orleans! The oil industry is doing great in Lafayette, as well as south Louisiana and Houston. However, the booming economy is turning Lafayette traffic into a nightmare (which we personally experienced; the traffic in Lafayette was much more congested than last year).

Visiting Kimball Drive

After visiting with Rick, we headed out for lunch. Sadly, we missed our annual lunch with Mike due to me not keeping my cell phone with me at all times (it is a health hazard!). So we ate a relatively quick lunch at COYOTE BLUES®.

Then we decided to tour our old neighborhood and the house that we (mainly) grew up in. We felt shocked about how much our old neighborhood had changed. Only the Claxtons' old house looked the same. The current owners of our house put a steeple on the roof top. The trees that Dad planted in the mid 1970s were now huge, practically a forest. The owners had cut down most of the ancient Pecan trees in the front yard, which I felt really annoyed about. Our house looks very different, much paler/lighter. Almost the whole neighborhood is developed. Skip Kimball's horse field across the street from our house is filled with houses. We even saw a house behind the Blairs' house sitting beside the Vermilion River. Unbelievable! The Fitzpatricks' house was torn down and is now completely redone with a McMansion. The house next to it is currently selling for $1,250,000.00, which I feel is extravagant. Apparently, real estate prices have skyrocketed with the current oil boom.

Next we drove further down Highway 733 to visit the new subdivision across the creek from our old house. Again, we were astounded at how all of this farm or undeveloped land had been converted into housing subdivisions. Then we drove to the next subdivision, where Freddy and Cris live, but sadly we could not recall their address. So that completed our trip down Memory Lane for that day.

Visiting with Syble

After being thoroughly shell shocked at how our old neighborhood had changed beyond recognition, we decided to stop by and visit Syble. Syble looked as beautiful as ever and was delighted to see us (the feeling was mutual). She caught us up on her granddaughter and family. Her Granddaughter is quite the boss lady and loves bright saturated colors. She and Sophia will get along great I am sure. Syble also has a grandson in the 10th grade We talked about how everybody else was doing, including old STONE ENERGY people. We were sorry to hear that Dad's old buddy Santo had retired. Just another sign that time is passing by faster and faster.

STONE has grown so much that they had to buy a 2nd building on Rue Iberville to house their accounting department because building is much more expensive than buying a 2nd building. I think real estate is almost as expensive in Lafayette as it is in Sedona.

Then Syble introduced us to Cynthia, who worked with Dad. She still remembers him, which felt good. Syble then introduced us to Alan Broussard, whose daughter Amy lives just up the canyon from us (small world, eh?). Alan took us back into the Engineering Department and showed us a photograph of Dad hanging on the wall (looks like from the late 1970s or early 1980s). He actually worked for STONE PETROLEUM in the 1970s as a Drilling Engineer but could not recall if he met Dad at that time.

Alan introduced us to some of his co-workers. We visited for a little while, and I felt that STONE'S engineering department was in good hands with these guys. After saying goodbye to them, we returned to visit with Syble for a little while longer. Then we said our goodbyes to Syble, and such was our eventful Tuesday for this June trip.