Bringing the Drama

tonight i fought a lot of baton rouge traffic to make it out to the big mall where the only best buy in BR is located. it took me about 20 minutes i guess with traffic, and i had left about 6:45. after walking up and down the aisles, i had no luck finding the new ryan adams. i checked my watch, sure enough, its the 27th. i come to find out they had received only one new release and it was some rap group. i don’t remember the name, but i think it involved an area code. i kindly ask for a suggestion as to where i could go next. i get back on the interstate to the super target. the album was listed on the rack, but they had none in stock. what is the point of labeling the rack when you don’t have 50% of the albums that are supposed to go there? just when i’m about to just forget about it, i make it to walmart. they only had two ryan adams records, and yes, both were jacksonville city nights. it was $3 more than i would normally have paid at a BB but i figure it was worth it not to have to drive around more another day. my first impression of it is much more honky tonk/country than i thought it would be, even the songs i had heard back in june.

some observations of the night:

1) each store stocks way too much ac/dc and bryan adams.
2) BR traffic still sucks
3) apparently the cold roses emblem is a fixture now, which is good because the sticker on my car is fading to just be b&w

so today was pretty good…i FINALLY heard from the insurance adjustor. he’s filed my claim and forwarded it to the main office. i hope to have my check next week. i’m going to call and see if i can move it along, but lately they haven’t been much help over the phone. once i talk to the contractor and find out when he can start, i can really think about getting my house fixed. that would be a ginormous weight off my shoulders.

earlier tonight i went and bought a new chainsaw. i can’t wait to use it on the trees that are still laying in my yard. i have a couple of friends hopefully that will be able to monitor my progress, so have no fear.

the coldplay show has been postponed. no telling what will happen, but at least it hasn’t been officially cancelled yet. but based on the other shows i had tickets for going from postponed to cancelled, i’m not holding my breath. we’ll see.

now i’m just hoping i wake up tomorrow and rita has still kept going west. this hurricane stuff is just ridiculous.

so now there’s going to be another hurricane in the gulf this week, and the current forecast track moved from northern mexico up to galveston/houston. i may have mentioned that i’d FINALLY get to see coldplay in houston, and the show is this saturday. so now tonight i’m wondering why God doesn’t want me to see the x&y tour? (i was also supposed to see them in raleigh two weeks ago) i thought i could at least still go to THIS show. so i guess i’ll have to cling to my friend jacob’s fan boy stories, like the one where chris and the guitarist (what’s his name?) serenaded him and some other groupies in an atlanta parking lot.

at least i can say with certainty (unlike just about everything else) that the new ryan adams record comes out next week and i’m happy about that.

yesterday was proving to be a pretty trying day. today is the clemson/miami game, and like i said before, my plan was to go to the same place i watched the a&m game. that was until i heard that my great aunt’s house was going to be cleaned up today. i was totally committed to going to metairie today to help clean out her fridge and rip out some carpet. family is more important than a football game. but dang it, i was going to be missing watching the game! then yesterday i still had not heard about my job. the only news i had really heard was that they were going to stop paying us after next week. they were not going to lay us off, just stop paying us until we could get back to our regular offices. i was getting nervous. i contacted my friend laurin to see if she had heard from a guy at work she might be working for. she was able to give me my boss’ phone number. i was completely prepared to call it today to find out what was going on since still no one had called me.

in the interim, last night i was going to go out with my uncle and his lady friend. i don’t know whether or not to call her his g/f or not yet, so LF will work.

THEN, before we are leaving my uncle’s house, a guy from my office calls me and says “you’re on a list of people to call. when will you be available to go to huntsville?” so now i’m on a list to go to huntsville on october 1st. (i’ll be in touch geof!) i really have no particulars other than that. someone is supposed to call me next week to let me know. and after that, we were leaving this swank sushi bar place (i did not eat anything raw, just red wine and fried shrimp) my mom calls and leaves a message saying they have plenty of people to clean out my great aunt’s house, and i don’t have to worry about going.

so now i’m going to go this afternoon to watch the clemson game, i no longer have to worry about work. and i’m hopeful i can talk to the contractor today or tomorrow about his estimate and get things rolling on that end. oh, and as far as what will become of my house while i’m gone, my friend ryan called me to ask if he could rent out my spare bedroom, because he found someone who wants to rent out his condo for almost 2x what ryan is paying. the housing boom has begun!

oh, and congrats to my friends in orlando on their new baby.

so today i talked to the adjustor and he’s meeting me at my house tomorrow to finish the estimate on my house. also this afternoon, i was able to talk to the contractor and sounds like he’s going to meet me at my house either wednesday or thursday. this is certainly shaping up to be much easier than i thought. i just hope things continue in the way that they are going.

i still don’t know about my water. it works and all, but the company i get water from hasn’t been listed on the ’safe list’ according to the parish government. their main office was in the area most damaged by the hurricane, but i’m hopeful to see them listed very soon. funny, they supply water for a subdivision on the complete opposite side of town. anyway, other than that, my utilities are back for the most part. i still plan on staying in BR for the time being. i’ll probably end up at the same place i did opening weekend for the clemson/miami game. i’ll order the same food and hope for the same result, only not as close.

and like i said in a comment, the national news really sucks. there’s a webcast of the local news i watch via this website. before the storm, i was in the process of getting one of the reporter’s phone numbers, or at least meeting her through one of my friends at work. not sure where that goes now since all of us at work will probably be spread out. still no telling what will happen with work now. i think its down to huntsville and florida though.

so after some issues the past two days, i was able to drive down to do some work on my house today. it all started later than i wanted because as my grandfather and uncle left for the grocery, and i left for home, i accidentally left my house keys in the house. so i had to wait for them to get back in order to retrieve the keys. it was only about an hour, and i slept in my car. anyway, i put in a pretty full day of work vacuuming, ripping up more carpet, clearing the roof shingles from the backyard. none of this was the most frustrating part of the day….

i posted last time about how i had not heard from my adjustor. so i get home today and what do i find on my door? a note from the adjustor with his cell phone and 800 number. what a great system, they don’t even call me to tell me he’s coming, he doesn’t call me to tell me he’s coming, so i totally miss him. i called him as soon as i read his note, and obviously i couldn’t berate him over the phone since he is the one determining how much money i’ll get. so i talk with him, he seems like a good guy, and he tells me he’s already done the estimate for the outside. he’ll have to come back to do the inside. he’s supposed to call me (yeah, i’ve heard that before!) and let me know if he’s coming monday or tuesday. now, if the contractor guy tells me he can come early next week, things will definitely be moving.

anyway, i was able to get stuff as clean as i could. i found one light fixture completely full of water, and i took that off and am letting it dry. i was impressed that the slab where i had pulled the carpet in the breakfast room was dry. i noticed the water had also seeped into the living room, nothing like the breakfast room, but enough to notice. so i cut another 3 or 4 feet into that room to pull up the carpet. i also tried to hammer up the plastic to act as a ceiling, but i noticed after about 10 minutes that doing that by myself was not going to work. besides, with the adjustor coming in the next couple of days, no sense in making him look through plastic, esp if he wants me to take it down. i had to hose out my garbage can because it had all my food from the fridge in it. the trash guys came around lunch, and after they left, i took some dishwashing liquid and my hose and tried to hose out the garbage can. then i realized the smell was probably from the carpet i had ripped out last week. i hope the parish trash guys come around, because i pretty much have most of two trees, pieces of my house, and wet carpet in a big pile by the curb.

i found i did have power back, so the garage door worked. and i did have water, not sure of the quality though, so i didn’t drink it. but it was good enough to wash my hands with. i turned the a/c back on, and left it on thanks to my trusty programmable thermostat. its more humid in the area where the roof is damaged obviously, but it wasn’t really bad. i just hope it continues to not rain the next week or so. i was able to watch a little tv while i was there, which was nice when i went to eat my lunch. that brings me to my final point for the night…

these people who don’t live here are enjoying speculating about what went wrong, and how to fix things. i watched a guy from cnn try to pick apart the police chief of N.O. by asking why the convention center was not protected from the start. only after it had to be pounded into him that convention center NEVER WAS A SHELTER did the cnn reporter let up. basically, the cops weren’t there because they weren’t supposed to be there because it wasn’t supposed to be a shelter. people just started going there, so there was nothing setup at first. also, i belong to a message board, where apparently its become the cool thing to comment on what went wrong and who’s to blame. yet none of them live anywhere close. this whole blame thing really is taking away from what should be a recovery effort. of course, politics are playing a major role, sadly. at least the head guy for fema got fired today. i definitely liked seeing that.

the sad thing of the past two days, all the shows at the new orleans HOB were cancelled for the rest of the year. yes, that means the schmay trio show and nickel creek. however, i’m supposed to get an automatic refund, so i don’t actually have to go somewhere or call someone. and besides, if i’m working in orlando for the rest of the year, i’d rather try to go to the NC show there anyway.

so today was a good day because i talked to a contractor. my uncle in BR was able to find someone at his office who knew the guy, and he called me this morning. i talked to him about 10 min, and discussed the damage, what all i saw messed up, that sort of thing. then he told me he should be able to come out and get an estimate this weekend. really, this is a big step. its all about who you know in a situation like this. there is so much work to be done, in order to actually get work done, you have to have some kind of inside track. so it appears i have one. i’m very hopeful to have all the work done by the end of the month. i’ll explain…

as far as my job, we don’t go back until at least 9/26. i don’t have to transfer anywhere. that’s the date we’ve been given. now here’s the thing…i’ve heard we’ll be temporarily located to houston, then today i heard between houston, huntsville, orlando, and nearby mississippi. i’m not sure where i’d be located if they did the dispersing people, so i’m not sure how that will work. i probably should call the company hotline and find out. so obviously if i get relocated, i’d like to have my house fixed before i have to leave.

my insurance company is rather frustrating. i called them last tuesday night and filed a claim after len had told me about my house. they had not called me, but i called them yesterday. i have an adjustor assigned, but there’s no telling when i’m going to hear from him. i am very disappointed in how things are being handled. i’d like someone just to call me to tell me where i am in the process, or that i’ve had someone assigned, SOMETHING. i’m going ahead with the contractor guy, so hopefully things will work out in the end. its just frustrating having to deal with all of it. i’m an engineer, and it doesn’t seem to be working very efficiently AT ALL.

my friend chad went and took pictures of my house last week, so here are some to check out. its not that bad anymore obviously because the tree is gone and there are tarps over the hole. these are the best i can get because i have not found a way to get any of the 70+ pictures i’ve taken online yet. i have before and after shots too. chad and i are going to my house tomorrow to cleanup some things and maybe hammer up some plastic to act as a ceiling. with the power back on, it’d be nice to be able to use the A/C. no word on water service yet, but at least the utilities are starting to come back.

going back to the ‘its who you know’ thing, i talked to my friend jacob today, and got a number for the tree guy working through this organization called PRC. its a local organization made up of some of the churches in southern La. and they have different teams out doing volunteer work. i was able to get the tree guy’s number for my uncle in slidell and my friend who still have trees in their houses. hopefully they’ll be able to help, but apparently in both cases the trees are really big. i told them it wouldn’t hurt to see what the tree crews are working with. who knows, they might actually have a forklift or cherry picker. the PRC is pretty good, i was actually supposed to go volunteer at the N.O. airport monday with them but they had so many volunteers, they didn’t need me. God is good! they are really doing some good work around here, its really cool to see a big huge and organized church group like them. and hey, it doesn’t hurt when kevin mawae mentions them on espn either.

i am definitely looking forward to this weekend and more clemson football. i don’t know what the heck the sports books are thinking, but i’m amazed clemson is a 1.5 point underdog. wtf indeed!

its funny how disasters bring people together. over the past week, i’ve had more phone calls, emails, text messages, etc than i’ve had in a very long time. with the cell phone coverage being really hampered, i became pretty good at getting a text message together. i’ve learned how to deal with dialup since that’s the only option i have right now. before the storm even hit, i was on the phone with two old friends, one of which i hadn’t talked to in 5 months. we talked for over an hour and a half. like i said in the previous post, i had 10 voice mail messages on the way back from slidell. three of which were from my mom or sister ‘checking on us’, so i guess technically there were 7. anyway, its been awesome seeing how many people have thought about me to call or message or email. mostly i’m glad people just remember where i live. so yeah, i still have a few people to call tomorrow and then i might be caught up.

i heard my neighborhood has power back already. living near the weather station and airport has its benefits. i’m going to make a couple of phone calls and might find one of my friends who knows someone who might be able to do the carpentry work on my house. once that’s done, i can take care of the drywall type stuff, then its up to the roofer. i’ve already got a name of a good person to call, the guy who did andy’s roof. so things seem to be coming together. it’d be great to have it done by the end of the month or end of october. but i’m going to try not to get my hopes up.

today my family and i went over to my uncle’s for a labor day party type thing. i can’t really say bbq because he smoked sausage and roast, and it really wasn’t a celebration, because you don’t celebrate labor day. anyway, party type thing will suffice. it was a good day, then my uncle and i watched football the rest of the day and evening. too bad the noles won, i was hoping for the U to take the game. both teams have pretty shoddy qbs, so i look forward to seeing clemson play them later in the season.

speaking of clemson, they won their game saturday night in rather dramatic fashion. i was able to remember there was a clemson alumni party in BR and some friends and i went over and watched the game amongest new friends. it was pretty cool, esp when that game winning FG split the uprights.

so today my dad, my uncle, and i went down to slidell to check out the house, remove the trees, cover the holes with tarps, and then rip up and remove the carpet in my breakfast room. that literally took all day, but along the way we were able to help my neighbor joe remove a tree from his roof. i had talked to him twice before today (i’ve lived in my house a year) and i couldn’t remember his name. anyway, its really frustrating to have to realize it may be thanksgiving before i get my house completely fixed. yes, that’s THREE MONTHS. i might have to move a lot of stuff out during this interim time. and here i was last week just looking forward to football season.

gas is really hard to come by right now for no reason other than people are just freaking out. its weird to drive on the interstate with everyone going the speed limit or under trying to save gas. gas stations are open 6 am to 6 pm, and when they are open, there are lines usually lasting at least 10 or 15 minutes, sometimes longer. and that’s in baton rouge, where there was relatively little storm damage. today when we got to my exit at about 6:30 or 7:00 am, the line was across the interstate overpass into the other shopping center parking lot. at least 100 cars. ONE HUNDRED CARS lined up for gasoline. its my reality right now.

anyway, as far as i know, all of my family is accounted for, except one great aunt. she evacuated, but we are not sure where to, and nobody’s been able to reach her yet. i have four friends who either lost their homes completely or had severe flood damage. three of them live on the MS gulf coast. and then i have to remember i have several friends from my old job who live on the MS gulf coast who are probably in worse shape than i am. and that still doesn’t include people from work i know who live in new orleans. its so weird, just this whole situation. i hope it gets better soon. i had 10 voice mails on my phone on the way back to baton rouge tonight. sorry if i can’t call everyone back in a timely manner. i’m trying. i do really appreciate the phone calls, the text messages, the emails, the blog comments, etc. its good to have friends. i’ll blog about that and more happy things next time.

so the tree did more than i thought. i’ll be honest here, when i saw how much damage the tree actually did, it took a minute for it to sink in. i guess actually seeing the damage was too much. of course, that didn’t last long because i went and grabbed my work gloves and went to work picking up the debris. the tree completely knocked out the ceiling in the breakfast room and half of the kitchen. so i’ll have to get some sheetrock. i’ll also have to get some roof support beams to replace the broken ones. however, the amazing thing was the tree did not appear to damage any of my electrical wires, water lines, gas lines, all that is okay. everything in my house except for the breakfast room and kitchen is completely dry. none of my appliances were damaged. they just have insulation on them. i HATE that stuff. its all over everything inside and outside. anyway, i went through and made a list of everything with measurements, and i’ll go talk to my uncle tomorrow about buying the stuff and replacing everything.

i dragged out all the sheetrock that had fallen from the ceiling along with the branches inside my house and the roof pieces. that took a while, but i got all the big stuff. then i picked up all the debris in my front yard. i then went inside and downed two diet iced teas. then i took a big garbage bag and cleaned out my fridge. it sucks cause i had just gone to the store thursday or friday. so seeing a whole unopened gallon of milk in the bag stung a bit.

i have now dubbed the scrawny oak tree in the back of my house ‘the bouncer’. here’s why: when the pine tree in the old lady that lives behind me’s yard fell, part of the oak tree broke its fall and kept the pine tree from breaking through my roof over my bedroom. basically its leaning and gently resting on my house, and it’ll be easy to cut up later in the week. so the only real damage inside my house is on the side of my house where i don’t have a lot of stuff. i’ll have to replace a couple of DDR pads, but most of the stuff in that room i was going to have to get rid of anyway.

rumor has it i won’t have electricity for a month. i’m hoping it is just a rumor, and i might get it next week sometime. i have no water, no elec, no phone. i also found out i have a vacation from work until september 26th. i’m not sure how to take that, i need to find out if i’ll get paid the entire time. i’ll find that out tomorrow.