Bringing the Drama

so the guy who was supposed to come out and give me an estimate to do the sheetrock/ceiling never showed. he never called either. he was actually supposed to go to len’s house first, but that never happened. fortunately we work with his dad, so we can find out what’s up. i’m sure it was that he got caught up in another job or something (every contractor is busy beyond belief right now) so i’m not that worried. besides, he can’t do any work until i get the roof repaired, but i still wish he could have called.

len helped me cut up and move the rest of the downed trees to the front of the yard near the street yesterday. he’s a great friend. so now i could cut my grass, and i might actually do that tomorrow. of course, now most of the grass is dead, so i guess it’ll be cut more out of principle.

jacob and i started a music/film blog called ‘elitist hacks’. you can check it out here. i don’t know what it’ll turn into, but we figured we had to start somewhere. i’ll still write and send in reviews when asked (in fact, i have a couple of articles on tap for circle six next week), but i wanted to type more than just what i’m asked to do. plus i’m trying to figure out how i could expand the whole writing thing, and if i’m going to do something like that, i’d want to work with jacob cause he has connections. besides, jacob and i think we have some pretty good opinions when it comes to music.

my sister and i went and saw david crowder band tonight in mobile, al. it was the first show i had gone too since eisley back in july. it was a great great show. my sister and i had been kind of fighting, but tonight we had a great time with each other. i’m thankful for that. and trying to get the new website off the ground, i typed a review and posted it on elitist hacks. enjoy it.

so today i talked to a guy who can do sheetrock and the siding detail, which means the only thing that has not been taken care of is the new floor, which i am going to do myself. things are looking good, i hope to really have everything done before thanksgiving. that’d be awesome, because my family will probably meet at my aunt and uncle’s like usual and it’d be really great to have everyone over to see my house afterward. so its looking very likely at this point, and i hope it continues.

today on the way home from work, i dropped off something to mail at the post office, and braved the traffic between the post office and my house. len was with me, and we took shortcuts and backroads in order to cut down on the sitting in traffic time. we cut through the area near the mall, specifically the parking lot, and as we were coming to the exit, this guy in an astro van starts to pull in front of me like he didn’t see me. so i blew the horn, and he stopped going over in my lane. i passed like normal, well the guy continues blowing his horn. so we sit in traffic, and then we pull out onto the road. when the guy passes us in the other lane, he has his hand out the window and flips us (but i guess technically just me since i was driving) off. wtf? those are the kind of people i would like to leave town now. i don’t know where they came from or what they lost, but if they have zero sense when it comes to driving, then get the hell out of my town. is it difficult to comprehend, when you are getting a horn blown at you, that usually means you are doing something A) stupid or B) something where you’re not looking. never does it mean when you are doing it, you have the opportunity to blow back and flip the person off like they were wrong. in the case of the guy in the astro van today, it was A and possibly B. i guess he did not understand the rules of the road fully, but then again, maybe that’s why he was driving an old beat up van in the first place. the dumbass.

after that episode, i got home and for the first time this week didn’t have to worry about calling anyone or doing anything. i went outside late afternoon and picked up more debris in my yard because….THE DEBRIS TRUCKS ARE IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD! i know its not a big deal for pretty much everyone who reads this, but you have no idea how it is to have two giant piles of debris in your front yard, and just having them sit there for a couple of months. so maybe by the end of the week, the debris will be gone. i can only hope.

so its been this never ending odyssey to find a contractor to do the big work on my house. and by ‘big work’ i mean, fixing the roof and all the rafters. the sheetrock and siding trim is secondary. anyway, i had gotten the guy doing work for my uncle to give me an estimate to do all the big work except giving me a new roof. $9500. before i had gotten the estimate, i had called up a guy to give me an estimate just on my roof. he was going to come tonight or tomorrow. so i called him on my way home and told him he might have to write up an estimate for not just the roof, but the rafters, etc also. so he comes tonight, $8300. the only difference is the first guy would have done the sheetrock. so i’m trading having the sheetrock done for having a roof done PLUS $1200. NICE! the cheaper guy has already done one of my friend’s houses and other houses in the area and comes highly recommended. so what if the workers for the cheaper company may not have their green cards properly filed and the foreman is the only one on the crew to speak english, at least in my broken spanish i can go out and say how i enjoy soccer and baseball while they are here. bueno!

i’ve finally started to take investing more seriously. that guy from law and order makes it sound so easy on tv. i like my 401k at work better, i just blindly contribute every week and don’t even know where its going or anything. well, i mean, i do, but i don’t really have to keep close track on it. with my actual money, i look at a webpage and send $500 into the ether hoping that some CEO doesn’t just blow all the money on a new yacht. so yeah, that’s right, heads up four eyes, i’m watching you!

one final thought…i started listening (at the prodding of a few friends like marika and jacob) to death cab…and i think they sound like a male version of eisley. of course, i think they’re good and all, but i can’t help but hear the similarities.

so the big powerball got up to $340 million, and i went and bought 5 sets of numbers earlier tonight. the lady in the convenience store carded me. i’m glad she’s doing her part in keeping minors away from gambling away their hard earned money. if only she’d have kept me from gambling away my $5 since i ended up with only ONE number total in all 5 sets of numbers. i think the first thing i’d have done with the money, is call up my friends and family that had severe damage to their homes, and say “hey, i just won the giant obscene jackpot, how’s about we go buy some sledgehammers and demolish your house instead of rebuilding it? i’ll buy you a new house.” we could have bought old cars and just run them into houses. then we could have sat around a fire and thrown paper money into it. sadly, that time has now passed.

you know, one day after opining about my job on here, i find out i got a promotion at work. the promotion i should have gotten, that i thought i had not gotten and was bitter about. so maybe it slows down the job search, but it doesn’t end it.

do you ever have movies that push you over the edge? i’m talking get you from thinking ‘yeah, that’d be good’ to ‘i really want to do it…NOW’. i went and saw elizabethtown today and i’ve never liked a movie that much walking out before. yeah, i’ve gone through my top 5, but elizabethtown had something more. the way it made me think of things in my own life set it apart from other movies i’ve seen, and the music in it wasn’t bad either. two ryan adams songs appeared, including one of my top 2 favorites, english girls approximately. and some things i’m dealing with my dad about, after seeing the movie, i think i’m going to try to talk to him in the next week because i sure don’t want to end up standing over his casket as ‘my father’s gun‘ starts to go in my head wishing i had done more. the sense of family was awesome. and how she made him that road trip box..to think of how much time and thought went into something like that. if a girl did that for me i’d be her’s forever.

and i want to quit my job. any suggestions on what i should do? i think i should just move to tennessee or something. i’m sick of dealing with the crap at work, i’m tired of what i do, and i don’t want to wake up in 5 years and still have it.

i definitely think a trip to memphis is in my near future.

lately i’ve been feeling somehow out of place for the way i’ve dealt with the tree that fell on my house. yes, it is bad, and yes, i’m really frustrated getting it fixed, but this weekend i came to the realization that i’ve been complaining too much. one of my friends had a tree fall on his house, and the tree went all the way to the floor in the middle of his house. and then going to work for the first time today, i talked with people who had major flooding at their houses. then driving through one of the heavily damaged neighborhoods this morning, i think all my selfishness melted away. it was a very sobering commute. i don’t even think you can understand unless you’re driving past piles and piles of flooded out appliances, sheetrock, carpet, furniture….and pass houses where you can see straight through because all they’ve left is the studs. its so widespread everywhere around here, and i just hate that so many people have damage. the tornado last november was nothing, the damage was isolated, and most people had there houses fixed by the end of the year. this is just nuts right now.

in happier news, the hometown was featured on the today show this morning. now, could harry NOT just decide to play a concert here later this week? would it be THAT inconvenient?

i have all but 7 pieces of the tree that fell on my house now out by the curb. seeing as how no one has come to pick up the debris in my neighborhood, i may get the rest of the debris out to the front before they come. my backyard should be back to being functional by this weekend. just in time to grill out and enjoy the beautiful weather.

what a great couple of days! so the new chainsaw works pretty good. my friend len and i have spent the past couple of days cutting up the trees laying in our yards. it was funny, yesterday at my house, we kind of were wondering how to use them. “you ever used a chainsaw before?”, but now we’re professionals. we heard about a church group of mormons who’ll come pick up the pieces (and cut up any remaining trees that are already down) and put them near the curb. btw, fema still has not picked up the big pile of stuff in front of my house. i’ve seen the debris trucks in my area for at least a week. but anyway…

last night a couple of friends helped me staple up some plastic to seal off my attic. its a HUGE difference. awesome. my uncle came into town to spend the night, he’s working over in pascagoula getting a plant up and running again. we were able to fix my security system (a wire had come loose when the tree fell). so things seem to be somewhat normal around here, if not for the massive amounts of people everywhere and all.

i’m supposedly going to be able to meet the contractor who is starting on my aunt and uncle’s house tomorrow. hopefully i can get him lined up, then i can go to huntsville. while i’m not feeling much loyalty to either of my bosses right now, i would like to make the extra money. i don’t think it’ll be for more than a month.

used the new phone today as a speakerphone. laurin called when len and i were taking a break from cutting trees. she was stuck at work. so that was a fun conversation. plus the phone kicked some ass, i have never had a phone that could do speakerphone. the reception is good too, no longer can len complain that he can’t hear me. and now that i have all my numbers transferred over, its time to bid goodbye to my old phone.

so yesterday i brought some stuff home, including my computer, and am back on the normal mode with having fast internet, everything up and running at my house. i don’t think you can appreciate broadband until you’ve used a 28.8K modem for a month. anyway, one of the good things about having my computer back, is that i was able to post pictures of my house and the tree and all.

i was supposed to have a friend come over yesterday and we were going to seal up the hole in my ceiling with some plastic. he couldn’t come because the interstate was just a parking lot. the problem apparently is all these people from the N.O. area have moved to the parish i live in. according to the official parish website, the population has gone from 216K to 300K.

the traffic is horrible! for instance, i went to walmart at 10:30 today. this is pretty much on me because i overslept and should have been there when it opened (their hours are 8-5). it took me an hour and a half to go and then get home, and i wasn’t really in there that long. there were whole families in there, i’m talking 6 and 7 people to a cart! it is insane! my head was about to explode. people were just walking around without carts like they just wanted something to do. hey, how about they just go walk outside or something?

getting home last week proved to be almost 3 hours! most of the people were leaving for rita. i think gov. blanco should have been at the state line with TX telling people “do not come into louisiana, there is nothing for you here, GO NORTH!” oh well, so much for that. and now all these people are just hanging around. i don’t even want to attempt the red cross place across town. people sleep out in their cars to get there early. no thanks!

oh, and my friend chad told me the post office has all our mail from during katrina. so last week, i drove over there, people were parking on the U.S. highway that runs in front, lined up on the street, causing a massive traffic jam. i called chad and told him i have nothing at that post office worth waiting 2 hours to get right now.