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!