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People say writing is hard. They generally claim there is nothing to write about. I agree writing is hard. But not for the standard reason. Rather writing is hard because there is too much to write about. How do you choose?
Take today for example. I began thinking about what to write about on my morning run. And I had a few really good ideas. Then several times on breaks I thought, oh what a cool idea. I even had fellow teammates suggest topics. It was really bugging me. I stalled, I procrastinated. I found reasons to not write (doing dishes, washing the floor, checking the kitchen as if it were the deli at one of my family’s grocery stores).
Finally I decided. I would write about two different things. Indeed, here was my opening paragraph:
“Today’s blog entry is really going to be two separate essays. One on the work we did, and one on the people we met. Since patience is a virtue, I think I will save the people essay (the better of the two for last).”However, plans change and so at the end of the first essay I decided that enough is enough. If I make it too long no one will have time to read it. (And besides I need my beauty sleep!) But, in making that decision, I implicitly made a second decision as well: to continue these essays after we leave.
So whether you are reading these back at St.Bonanventure or here at HandsonUSA, don’t quit checking the blog once we leave. I quick mental list of topics from today alone gives me about six different things I could write about.
So I will save some of the better stories for later. Don’t worry, I couldn’t forget them if I tried! And trust me, once you read them, neither will you!
Today’s work:
As mentioned yesterday the Bonaventure group split up today. Andy and Bridget went on a tree team, while The rest of us (Christine, Meghan, Sean, Mary, and me) again tried our hands on what some call interior design, also known as house gutting. We had new team leaders as Rick had to return to his teaching duties. Ben and Jeff were in charge.
If you ever need an example of how differing managerial styles can each lead to the same end, I present Rick vs. the team of Jeff and Ben. Rick was much more vocal. Telling us what should and should not be done. Ben and Jeff were quiet. But by any standard, each was remarkably successful.
We began the day earlier today. Our first job was the completion of the apartment that we had worked on for so long the previous day. It was slow work. The ceilings had to come down, the insulation removed, the mega sized aquariums, which smelled much like one would imagine mega-sized aquariums with sea water that had sat for over five weeks smelling, had to be drained and removed. Oh, and then it turned out there was another apartment (separate from the rest, but part of the same job) out back.
Agonizingly slowly the job got done. And to a person, we were all so very glad to move on to the next job site. This happened to be directly across the street. It was a single family house with multiple closets still full of a lifetime of memories, books, and ironically, the same style of NFL sleeping bag that I grew up with (a definite “this could have been me” moment.)
This job went super-fast. It was the “team” clicking on all cylinders. It was amateurs working as if they were trained professionals, relying on effort and ingenuity to make of for a lack of training and experience. We flew: carrying out still wet clothes, laying personal items aside by the fence, knocking down walls, carrying drywall to the street, removing cabinets, and more. In what seemed like only minutes (but was probably more like two hours) we were done.
Lunch time. As a rule, I do not eat lunch. But since we had just finished one job and the next job was a ways away, I went to lunch. I am glad I did. It was at a special area set up to allow hurricane victims and volunteers to eat. I do not know who organizes it. I have no idea how long they have been here or if every day is as well organized as today was, but my hat is off to them today. For as refreshing as the food and drink were (I had at least 3 of the semi-frozen grape drinks) it was even more refreshing to see that people from various groups around the country are lending a helping hand. So from me (and I am sure the thousands and thousands who may not say it) thank you.
After lunch our forces were strategically split between two nearby houses. While each house was quite small, they had the annoyingly common problem of having multiple layers of walls. As one who can now think of himself as a gutter, I bet I will never touch a wall again without thinking “mmm, I wonder if there is dry wall behind this wood paneling?”. It is awful. It makes taking down walls exponentially more difficult.
While those of us at the main house suffered from this layering, Sean and the others that went to the second house had it worse. They had three layers! It was so bad there that the job was called off after one large room was conquered at the expense of several hours.
Save a minor mishap with a nail to the foot of a fellow gutter (from Philadelphia), our house went quite well. By now the team of amateurs was rounding into playoff shape as we continually came up with new, and faster ways. (For instance, if you lay down the garbage hauler, it loads in about half the time. And I would know. It was my turn to take out the garbage. Again and again and again.)
After finishing the job, Ben and Jeff gave us a choice: we could clean a lawn, or we could start another interior project. We chose the former.
The drive to the lawn project took us through some of the worst areas. This time were driving through what we had seen off of “90” yesterday. It was horrific all over again. I do not know how else to say it.
When we got to the street of the lawn project we could not find the correct home. So the runner up candidate: beginning the next interior project was elected. This too however was to be an incomplete job. Here, while there was work to be done (the mold was so bad in one room that even with masks it was unbreathable), shockingly, there were people sleeping in the house. So after speaking with the people and trying to arrange a later date for the work, we returned to HandsonUSA base camp.
All in all a very productive day.!
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Assorted notes:
* Bridget and Andy each said that “treeing” went well and that it was hard to do.
* Meghan had an amazing interview with a survivor. I would love to include it in its entirety on an upcoming podcast.
* Andy got to walk down to the beach.
* Mary, Sean, and I did dishes following dinner. It is a good way to spend the time and faster than cooking.
* Mary, Christine, and Meghan all had great times destroying walls. They worked very hard. I do not think that it came out enough in the essay. But they did. (and for me to say my sister worked hard is really to say something!
* Sean is helping to cook dinner again tomorrow
* Work teams generally carry food and if they see dogs or cats, try to feed them. Dave “Biloxi or Bust” fed a dog today. Unfortunately we did see a very thin cat and had not food. Hopefully we will be able to find it again tomorrow.
* Great timing huh? One of the funnier things that happened today was near the end of the day. We were all absolutely filthy and had been working all day in some of the foulest smelling environs imagineable. In the last room what do we find on the ground but a spray bottle of odor neutralizer.
* I spoke with Larry Orsini. He is still outside of New Orleans. He sounded like he is doing a great deal of work! He reiterated that he and his wife will be coming down again and will also return for our March trip.
* My second run (40 minutes, 34 in AM) today was in a new direction. Both runs were pretty good, but my feet do have some blisters from wearing boots all day.
* It is amazing how nice everyone here is. I can see why people want to stay for as long as they possible can.
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I am not sure what tomorrow’s team will look like. I think we will be gutting more houses. Stay tuned.
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