It's up to me now, turn on the bright lights

10 points to the first person who identifies that song quote.

Wow, 2 posts in one week ... I know it's a pleasant surprise for everyone!!!

Today I am working in the BSL Public Library, doing all sorts of admin work (I opened my big mouth and offered ... oops). It could be worse: I am in the the AC (it's in the 80's this week, and raining off and on), I am wearing real, clean, non-previously-worn-clothing, I have not pulled a single nail all day, and best of all: NO GNATS!!! Today, I set up databases of a) houses Disaster Coprs has worked on, and b) contact info for all of our volunteers. The rest of my assignments include researching material donors, sending thank-you letters, and emailing all previous volunteers to beg for money. Yes, solicitations here I come!

But, then again, I bashed nothing with a sledge hammer all day long :(

Speaking of sledge hammers:

For the past few days, we've been working on gutting the bottom half of a rather large house in Waveland. The house belongs to a family who owns a newly re-opened barbeque restaurant in town (which meant free BBQ lunch for 3 days -- SWEET). Working on their house put some things into an interesting and important perspective for me, and I thought I'd share.

Seeing the house immediately revealed that this family was in a tax bracket waaayyy above those of most other people for whom we'd worked. It was two stories, and had at least 5 bedrooms. There were 3 bathrooms on the first floor alone. There was a deck in the front yard as well as one in the back. This irked me: if they could afford contractors, and it seemed that they easily could, then why were we spending our time helping them for free?

In several minutes, that question was answered. The home owner came by about 10 minutes after we did, to explain the work he wanted us to do. First, he was suffering from a crippling case of arthritis, to the point where could not walk easily, and had no use of any of his fingers. In conversation, he explained that he, his wife, and his 5 sons (one of whom had taken a leave of absence from college for this) had spent all of their time fixing up the restaurant so that it could re-open. He mentioned the ongoing coversations with his insurance and mortgage providers, as the house had only been purchased 4 years ago and was not paid off. And finally, he said this: "You know, my wife and I have just been so depressed over losing all of this that we could barely bring ourselves to come in here and start cleaning. What got us in here was that y'all were coming to gut it out."

So, in 10 minutes, I realized that the size of the house by no means determines the size of the need. Yes, the work we did in there could have been done by someone else. But it seems like our group and his connection to it (he knew one of our volunteers) may have helped him in a way that a paid contractor could not have.

It also made me think about the real mental effects of the storm. When you're pulling nails out of studs and pulling windows out of frames, it's easy to think of things mechanically: first remove the fixtures, then the trims, then the drywall, insulation, and nails, and then scrape up the floor; sweep and repeat in the next room. But his comment put a different spin on each job. Each house is a story and it is a person. And we can only guess, in most cases, about how that person is doing beyond the state of their walls and ceilings. Now, we aren't trained to take care of those problems. Hopefully, somebody is.

OK, and now a fun story to lighten the mood before I sign off:

In this same Waveland house, we found some interesting items in the drywall. These things were INSIDE the walls, meaning only the people who built the place could have put them there. So, I have to wonder what the builders were doing on their lunch breaks when I tell you that I found the following 2 items:

1. A packet of lubricant
2. $5 cash

... one can only wonder.

Alrighty kids, it's about to rain again and our cook is gone for the weekend, so I need to go rustle up some dry food.

Have a fabulous weekend!!

Cori :)