Being veterans of one day, we got a much earlier start on our duties today. Luckily, one of my teammates was on his game because he saved us a few times. First, as we were leaving, he remembered to get the key. The rest of us were focused on the punch list of items we needed from the warehouse and we did a great job of getting all those. But that one little piece of metal was key to getting us in the house (I know, I know — a very bad pun). And my teammate made sure we had it which saved us a whole trip had he not remembered.
Secondly, as we were getting off the freeway, he remembered we needed gas for the generator and the weed eater. Again, he saved us some time and effort. A quick stop at the kwicky gas mart and we were on our way.
And finally, he was instrumental in taking care of the many little jobs that appear to take 15-30 minutes but are time sponges costing 1.5 to 2 hours of labor. He hit all of those inside the house and on top of it including the roof, while my other teammate and I completed the laminate floor (complete with some very custom cuts and positioning) as well as tackled the hideous jungle of a front yard.
We were very lucky with the weather today. It cooperated and at times was downright pleasant. We still had to drink lots of water and sweated out most of it. But there were times in the shade with a nice breeze that I would almost not be swealtering and actually enjoying the day. We were also working smarter today and got quite a bit done. The house will still need a professional plumber to come in, probably for a day or two, but after that the house should be almost quite inhabitable. And that is the frustrating thing — access to professionals. That appears to be the holdup on quite a few things down here. All the volunteers in the world can be made available but things won’t progress further until bureaucrats and experts get on all these jobs. These places needs permits, expert installs, sign offs, signatures and release for occupation.
Lots more to write and describe but technical computer issues have also hampered my jumbled thoughts. And I have been busy from lights on (6am) until lights out (10pm). It’s enough to get your days work done, clean up, grub, prep for the next day and wind down before lights out. The neat thing is the nice socialization that happens all over. The folks here — both staff and volunteers from all over — are great. There are church groups here from South Carolina, Texas, Washington, Indiana, and Ohio — Ohio. Let me tell ya about Ohio. Those folks know how to volunteer. One church is down here on their 4th trip! And they’ve raised over $15,000! And looking at the map, there are an unbalanced amount of pushpins rising up from the state of Ohio than other states. An interesting note, the only two states missing pushpins are Idaho and Rhode Island.
That’s ’bout it for tonight. Lights out soon. Stay tuned because I had a great blog post story today that needs a post of it’s own.
…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net
