I still have a corrupt  index.... my event log says that I
should "delete and recreate the catalog". Can anyone tell me exactly
how to do this? I've tried resetting  the index, then doing a full
update. This has not helped.

All I know is that 'recreating' a catalog effectively means deleting and
recreating the whole workspace. Although there are utilities that allow
you to delete the catalog directly (catutil) there are links between the
SPS workspace  and the catalog that you cannot re-establish.

So I would take a copy of your workspace using SPSIMEX, delete it,
recreate it and then import the copy with SPSIMEX.

But remember that before doing this you need to fully understand what
SPSIMEX exports. It will not export customizations to web parts,
dashboard settings(i.e. what web part sits on what dashboard) and
discussions. If you had a choice, too do this scenario, I would export
the workspaces and then import onto a second box, keeping the first box
around until you know the second is up correctly.