I wrote this Monday night, but didn't get it to the blog:
---
No pictures today... tomorrow maybe you'll see me without my beard... it seems the work tomorrow needs a respirator... and that needs a good fit to the face... so bye bye beard.
The NOLA buses are pretty rare, but that's how I'm getting across town... have to leave at 6:45 to be sure I catch the connection to get to ACORN by 8 AM. Oh well, at least they are working.
Today I ate lunch at the Frostop, and got canned ravioli for dinner... with "Bunny Bread"... that's what I said! It's worse than Wonder Bread... or maybe just the same, I haven't tried Wonder Bread for several decades. But Walgreens had it, so I ate it.
No more... must go chop beard.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Monday, January 22, 2007
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Charlie
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Sunday, a day off (in several ways)
The morning began with a warm wind... and the threat of thundershowers. Betty, John and I went down to the French Quarter for breakfast... back to the Cafe Du Monde for coffee and beignets.
John had loaned out some tools to a church member for the Saturday work party, and needed them back before he left for Texas. So we made a rendezvous at the church, and transferred the goods. The church member noticed that she had no turn signals, and wanted some help on this. After John left, I worked on the problem, finding that the brake light fuse and the turn signal fuse were both burned out. The church sexton went off and bought her some fuses, while I went off to church.
Church was ok... it was teacher recognition Sunday, but only one teacher showed up, so she got lots of recognition. The minister explained that this was the first Sunday in many weeks where there were no religious education classes scheduled, so the half dozen teachers were taking advantage of the break!
Last Sunday, after the service we had a group go to brunch, and we also did a sing along at the piano. This week there was no such activity, as everyone scattered for their football parties. The service was over about 11:30, and the game started at 2 PM. The minister expressed thanks that church was no longer at 2:30 PM (before this new location was rehabilitated, they shared another church building, and had an afternoon timeslot), as she was sure nobody would have attended.
So at 2 PM I was still working on yesterday's blog entry, but I finished by 4, and decided to go see what was up with the Saints. The warm rain had ended, and the main street's sidewalks had huge wet patches, so I took another route through the neighborhood. As I walked through the back streets it was clear that every occupied house was watching the game. Cheers or moans would come from all directions as if the town was haunted by demons. My goal was to visit the Frostop-- we had gone back yesterday for lunch, and the catfish po'boy was worth having again, but it was closed today, so I went to a Mexican place down the street. A small crowd had assembled to watch the game, and when I walked in the Saints were down by 2. Almost immediately things turned for the worse, and I left before the end, figuring I'd jinxed them somehow.
That's all... I chatted online for a bit, and began reading "Thematic Preaching", trying to find inspiration for sermons in what I'd seen today... in snow and fumbles. But then I gave up, and took a nap.
John had loaned out some tools to a church member for the Saturday work party, and needed them back before he left for Texas. So we made a rendezvous at the church, and transferred the goods. The church member noticed that she had no turn signals, and wanted some help on this. After John left, I worked on the problem, finding that the brake light fuse and the turn signal fuse were both burned out. The church sexton went off and bought her some fuses, while I went off to church.
Church was ok... it was teacher recognition Sunday, but only one teacher showed up, so she got lots of recognition. The minister explained that this was the first Sunday in many weeks where there were no religious education classes scheduled, so the half dozen teachers were taking advantage of the break!
Last Sunday, after the service we had a group go to brunch, and we also did a sing along at the piano. This week there was no such activity, as everyone scattered for their football parties. The service was over about 11:30, and the game started at 2 PM. The minister expressed thanks that church was no longer at 2:30 PM (before this new location was rehabilitated, they shared another church building, and had an afternoon timeslot), as she was sure nobody would have attended.
So at 2 PM I was still working on yesterday's blog entry, but I finished by 4, and decided to go see what was up with the Saints. The warm rain had ended, and the main street's sidewalks had huge wet patches, so I took another route through the neighborhood. As I walked through the back streets it was clear that every occupied house was watching the game. Cheers or moans would come from all directions as if the town was haunted by demons. My goal was to visit the Frostop-- we had gone back yesterday for lunch, and the catfish po'boy was worth having again, but it was closed today, so I went to a Mexican place down the street. A small crowd had assembled to watch the game, and when I walked in the Saints were down by 2. Almost immediately things turned for the worse, and I left before the end, figuring I'd jinxed them somehow.
That's all... I chatted online for a bit, and began reading "Thematic Preaching", trying to find inspiration for sermons in what I'd seen today... in snow and fumbles. But then I gave up, and took a nap.
Texas to the Rescue!
Saturday I spent with a new group of folks, this time from Texas. It reminds me of the joke about the farmer from Texas and the farmer from Maine... but John and Betty (yes, they are both married, but not to each other!) are two wonderful folks from the Houston area. They come east for a couple of days each month to do what they can in rehabbing houses. Here they are with Reese (left), the homeowner on his porch:
It seems that in the Broadmoor section of town, raising up houses above the flood level is what folks are doing... here's the house across the street, being worked on by a group from Honduras:
Each month, in addition to the Houston folks, a group comes down from Baton Rouge. About a dozen came down this weekend, and they worked on a half dozen projects. On Friday Betty and John had put a 'blue roof' on another house across town. Another group was cleaning out a back yard.
Here is a picture of our project's crew:
The youngster, Cody, was too short to spackle, so he got the job of filling mud trays, and was declared "Official Mud Man Cody", working as hard as the rest of us. We went through 2 1/2 buckets of wallboard compound in one day... and that's with half of us sanding. One nifty thing I learned about was corner tape with metal bonded to it-- it makes very pretty corners, even when the wallboard didn't quite make it to the edge (and this is common with volunteer labor!)
Reese's house is actually a two-family 'shotgun' house. Each half has four rooms: Great Room, Bathroom, Kitchen, Bedroom. His daughters will live in one side, and he'll live in the other.
It was a very jovial work party, both John and Cody's grandfather enjoyed singing bits of old songs as they spackled. Reese's three dogs, who could chase each other circularly around the two halves, kept it fun, too.
Afterward, folks from all the groups went to one house for beers. I got to meet folks from other workgroups, including Irene (http://katowoman.blogspot.com) who writes a wonderful blog, and takes better pictures than I can.
The host is a very creative woman, and the small-ish house was filled with interesting touches. She designed a custom-built spiral staircase for the back of the house. It goes to a tiny second floor apartment (just in case it floods again). Take a look at the wrought iron!
John wanted oysters for dinner... so we went off to the Garden District to Felix Oyster House, for good oysters and very easygoing service.
Now that's two groups of people I'm going to miss! John and Betty headed home to Texas on Sunday morning.
It seems that in the Broadmoor section of town, raising up houses above the flood level is what folks are doing... here's the house across the street, being worked on by a group from Honduras:
Each month, in addition to the Houston folks, a group comes down from Baton Rouge. About a dozen came down this weekend, and they worked on a half dozen projects. On Friday Betty and John had put a 'blue roof' on another house across town. Another group was cleaning out a back yard.
Here is a picture of our project's crew:
The youngster, Cody, was too short to spackle, so he got the job of filling mud trays, and was declared "Official Mud Man Cody", working as hard as the rest of us. We went through 2 1/2 buckets of wallboard compound in one day... and that's with half of us sanding. One nifty thing I learned about was corner tape with metal bonded to it-- it makes very pretty corners, even when the wallboard didn't quite make it to the edge (and this is common with volunteer labor!)
Reese's house is actually a two-family 'shotgun' house. Each half has four rooms: Great Room, Bathroom, Kitchen, Bedroom. His daughters will live in one side, and he'll live in the other.
It was a very jovial work party, both John and Cody's grandfather enjoyed singing bits of old songs as they spackled. Reese's three dogs, who could chase each other circularly around the two halves, kept it fun, too.
Afterward, folks from all the groups went to one house for beers. I got to meet folks from other workgroups, including Irene (http://katowoman.blogspot.com) who writes a wonderful blog, and takes better pictures than I can.
The host is a very creative woman, and the small-ish house was filled with interesting touches. She designed a custom-built spiral staircase for the back of the house. It goes to a tiny second floor apartment (just in case it floods again). Take a look at the wrought iron!
John wanted oysters for dinner... so we went off to the Garden District to Felix Oyster House, for good oysters and very easygoing service.
Now that's two groups of people I'm going to miss! John and Betty headed home to Texas on Sunday morning.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Day 6, Fire and accomplishment.
We were back at the same site as the previous day, putting mold-resistant drywall in a house. This was the last day of work for the Maine folks, here's a picture of them with a small piece of drywall behind them:
They left Saturday morning for Maine... after fixing a flat tire.
But back to Friday... investigating a bit more, I found that the house, in the Gentilly section of town, had been pretty deep underwater. Time to play 'find the water level' again...
At one point we were returning some tools, and were just coming back to her house, and just as we arrived I saw black smoke... house fire smoke. Yep, a block a way a house that hadn't even been gutted had burst into flames, and was beginning to have the glass break. Of course I was not able to do anything about it except watch. Three engines and a ladder came, and were there for a couple of hours.
We went back inside and hung more venetian blinds until the homeowner came back with her 10 year old son. They were moving in, even though the place wasn't finished. There had been a shooting in front of the house they were living in across town... a man shot 14 times at 4 AM. So they were moving in to the new place early.
Dinner was at the St Charles Tavern, a local bar/diner that we decided was about our speed... simple local food.
They left Saturday morning for Maine... after fixing a flat tire.
But back to Friday... investigating a bit more, I found that the house, in the Gentilly section of town, had been pretty deep underwater. Time to play 'find the water level' again...
At one point we were returning some tools, and were just coming back to her house, and just as we arrived I saw black smoke... house fire smoke. Yep, a block a way a house that hadn't even been gutted had burst into flames, and was beginning to have the glass break. Of course I was not able to do anything about it except watch. Three engines and a ladder came, and were there for a couple of hours.
We went back inside and hung more venetian blinds until the homeowner came back with her 10 year old son. They were moving in, even though the place wasn't finished. There had been a shooting in front of the house they were living in across town... a man shot 14 times at 4 AM. So they were moving in to the new place early.
Dinner was at the St Charles Tavern, a local bar/diner that we decided was about our speed... simple local food.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Another Day In The Crescent City
Ok, Day 5.
Today we worked at a different site. This is a house that is almost ready for the resident to move back... actually, she bought this house after hers was torn down, but it's hers now! Nick and Beth were working on drywall, and putting blinds up, and I was taping drywall, and getting a bit better at it.
The project's neighborhood has mostly brick houses, and is coming back more quickly than the first one... maybe 25% of the places show signs of being worked on or occupied. One sign of this came in the form of two moving vans which stopped outside the house.
Out jumped two fellows selling bedroom sets door to door... like some sort of Fuller Brush Man thing. They rang the bell and started their spiel, but we said we weren't interested... still, a couple from down the block came out. We watched as the stairs came out, and the rear van was converted to a sort of showroom. Capitalism at its best!
For the first time I had two different projects to compare. I spent a long time thinking about who should be helped when the whole town is hurting... the first project was for a disabled war veteran, and a Native American. This one is for a woman, I've never met her. Does any of that matter? Shouldn't it just matter that the homes are owned by people? This has been puzzling me, and I don't have a good answer.
I now know the projects I'll be doing after tomorrow... the weekend I'll be doing things for church members, and next week I may be working with Project Acorn, in the lower 9th ward... or for another local group... we shall see.
My back was slowing me down a bit... I didn't do exercises this morning, and that may have contributed to the situation.
As we were going out to the site, we passed a dump truck with stuffed animals on it. I guess the driver didn't have the heart to throw these lost toys into the landfill, so they get a home on the rails. Tonight the truck was parked across from the church, so I got a good shot of it. It makes for a small bit of jolliness in an otherwise grim landscape. I can't imagine being a kid in the city these days.
At dinner the waitress heard that we were down to work, and she came over and said thank you. A sweet and genuine end to another day of work.
Today we worked at a different site. This is a house that is almost ready for the resident to move back... actually, she bought this house after hers was torn down, but it's hers now! Nick and Beth were working on drywall, and putting blinds up, and I was taping drywall, and getting a bit better at it.
The project's neighborhood has mostly brick houses, and is coming back more quickly than the first one... maybe 25% of the places show signs of being worked on or occupied. One sign of this came in the form of two moving vans which stopped outside the house.
Out jumped two fellows selling bedroom sets door to door... like some sort of Fuller Brush Man thing. They rang the bell and started their spiel, but we said we weren't interested... still, a couple from down the block came out. We watched as the stairs came out, and the rear van was converted to a sort of showroom. Capitalism at its best!
For the first time I had two different projects to compare. I spent a long time thinking about who should be helped when the whole town is hurting... the first project was for a disabled war veteran, and a Native American. This one is for a woman, I've never met her. Does any of that matter? Shouldn't it just matter that the homes are owned by people? This has been puzzling me, and I don't have a good answer.
I now know the projects I'll be doing after tomorrow... the weekend I'll be doing things for church members, and next week I may be working with Project Acorn, in the lower 9th ward... or for another local group... we shall see.
My back was slowing me down a bit... I didn't do exercises this morning, and that may have contributed to the situation.
As we were going out to the site, we passed a dump truck with stuffed animals on it. I guess the driver didn't have the heart to throw these lost toys into the landfill, so they get a home on the rails. Tonight the truck was parked across from the church, so I got a good shot of it. It makes for a small bit of jolliness in an otherwise grim landscape. I can't imagine being a kid in the city these days.
At dinner the waitress heard that we were down to work, and she came over and said thank you. A sweet and genuine end to another day of work.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Day 4 in NOLA
Today we stayed closer to home.
It was clear that our work at the first site was done yesterday, so today we hoped to go over to another work site. In the morning we tried to contact the work coordinator, but couldn't. We'd been given a couple of simple jobs that needed doing at the church, so we did them.
Here are Nick and Beth, the folks from Maine, hanging a door.
Around 1 PM we took a break, having replaced a plywood wall with an exit door in one part of the church complex. We headed off to a drive-in hamburger joint called FROSTOP. Someday maybe they will re-mount the giant mug of root beer!
On the way back we wondered how deep the water had been. We didn't have to wonder long:
Remember, the surge was 2-3 feet deeper.
We then looked for the right interior door for another exit from the gymnasium/theater room in the church. Finally, Nick got a call from the coordinator and decided to pick up the key for tomorrow. I stayed behind, finding and hanging the interior door. The place has about 50 different doors-- from leaded glass doors to plain hollow-core doors, and if there was a system to how they were stored, I couldn't figure it out. But by measuring the location of hinges relative to the top of the door, I found one that fit.
When the other two returned, we decided to take a bus to the French Quarter... we took what would have been the St Charles trolley, but that isn't repaired yet, so it's a city bus.
Nick wanted to go to the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum, but it seemed to be not-open (Believe it or not, they said they were open!) So we went across Jackson Square (see first photo) to the Cafe Du Monde
Nick is on a no-sugar, no-flour diet, so he only had 2 1/2 of these beignets. I had the same number, and we then walked down Bourbon St., finding a nice place to eat, Sammy's. Where he had a steak, salad and cheesecake. (I had catfish and then bread pudding.) We had a good time walking back to the bus on Bourbon street... it was pretty dead, but the music was plenty loud.
Well, it was a nice break, and the weather, which started out near freezing in the morning, warmed up to almost 50 degrees. The heat down here is all heat-pump, and that doesn't work well when it gets really cold.
That's it for now.
It was clear that our work at the first site was done yesterday, so today we hoped to go over to another work site. In the morning we tried to contact the work coordinator, but couldn't. We'd been given a couple of simple jobs that needed doing at the church, so we did them.
Here are Nick and Beth, the folks from Maine, hanging a door.
Around 1 PM we took a break, having replaced a plywood wall with an exit door in one part of the church complex. We headed off to a drive-in hamburger joint called FROSTOP. Someday maybe they will re-mount the giant mug of root beer!
On the way back we wondered how deep the water had been. We didn't have to wonder long:
Remember, the surge was 2-3 feet deeper.
We then looked for the right interior door for another exit from the gymnasium/theater room in the church. Finally, Nick got a call from the coordinator and decided to pick up the key for tomorrow. I stayed behind, finding and hanging the interior door. The place has about 50 different doors-- from leaded glass doors to plain hollow-core doors, and if there was a system to how they were stored, I couldn't figure it out. But by measuring the location of hinges relative to the top of the door, I found one that fit.
When the other two returned, we decided to take a bus to the French Quarter... we took what would have been the St Charles trolley, but that isn't repaired yet, so it's a city bus.
Nick wanted to go to the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum, but it seemed to be not-open (Believe it or not, they said they were open!) So we went across Jackson Square (see first photo) to the Cafe Du Monde
Nick is on a no-sugar, no-flour diet, so he only had 2 1/2 of these beignets. I had the same number, and we then walked down Bourbon St., finding a nice place to eat, Sammy's. Where he had a steak, salad and cheesecake. (I had catfish and then bread pudding.) We had a good time walking back to the bus on Bourbon street... it was pretty dead, but the music was plenty loud.
Well, it was a nice break, and the weather, which started out near freezing in the morning, warmed up to almost 50 degrees. The heat down here is all heat-pump, and that doesn't work well when it gets really cold.
That's it for now.
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