[ June ]

Gulfport Diary

Blog for June
Last update:
Because this page is now complete, I reordered it into chronological instead of blog (reverse) order.

Friday, June 9

In the midst of packing tools and such, we played a "gig" at the retirement home, Assisted Living part. They sang along as usual since we play mostly "oldies" from about 1900 onward. Old gentleman in the front row center had a great voice.

Saturday, June 10

Left the instruments and amplifiers in the car and packed around them. We figured that when we got to Tennessee, we would dig out the instruments and give Granny Farnsworth a concert. Over 30 years ago, the Farnsworths kind of took us under their wing when we were "the Yankees" in church. Granny (Miz Eula) and the twins (Rose Mary and Ellen) were like substitute grandma and aunts to our kids. We got milk and eggs from them (it's nice when you know the cow personally) and we were all like family. Anyhow, we arrived to find that Granny had fallen and -- you guessed it -- broken her hip. OK not really her hip, more like the thigh bone near the top, and was in the hospital. Well, it wasn't in the joint so they did surgery and bolted her back together with some kind of metal plate. We rode with her son Edwin to the hospital, also saw her other son Frank over there.

But (and now I sound like a second grader) before that, on the way, we drove around our old neighborhood in Knoxville. Our old house now has an addition (rather ugly) that about tripled the size. Actually it's an improvement; it was only about 1200 square feet. The house is recognizable but a couple of lovely trees are gone so it looks rather stark. When we left Knoxville, it was planned to build some kind of apartment building next door where they tore down an old house. Couldn't figure that out; they dug a big hole and just pushed the house into it. Termite heaven! Turns out that instead, they built some nice little houses. Improved the whole neighborhood. Mrs. Cassady had vinyl siding put on her little house, but everything else looked about the same.

By the time we got to Dayton, it was like we had traveled 600 miles and 30 years into the past. But not really; everything in town has changed. Bryan College looks really good. They've taken out the "triangle" streets and replaced them with grass, built a bunch of new buildings and we trust they're as prosperous as they look. Historically, they have sent many students to Grace Seminary. Anyway, Kathy and the twins talked a mile a minute most of the time. Didn't even try to get a word in edgewise. A lot has happened since we last visited about 15 years ago.

Sunday, June 11

Saw lots of folks at church. My but we've all aged. Saw Wilma Harrow who is also 90. Had supper with Edwin and Rosie and several other Farnsworths. Their "boys", now in their 30s, were there with one of the grandkids, Granny's great-grandaughter. Rosie is much better than a couple of years ago when she almost died. Ed takes her out about once a week for dinner; oftentimes it's after a doctor appointment.

Pastor Winkler, now retired, is still going to church at Ogden, at the request of the new pastor. Ruth Kantzer is still the pianist; I took Intro to Fine Arts from her back when I was a new professor at Bryan some 30+ years ago. Everyone had to ask about our kids; all have fond memories of our two little kids in their pajamas falling asleep on the pews during the evening service.

Monday, June 12

Got an early start. Had breakfast south of Chattanooga, arrived in Gulfport about 3:00 local time. Got oriented a bit, had supper, then went to help some folks pack up dishes, books and such. That's a long story, but we knocked off about 9:30. We got a motel room for two nights until we get the "lodges" set up. They're basically tool sheds with wiring, insulation and some wallboard. Plan is to move them into place on Wednesday, install stuff and sleep there Wednesday night. Meanwhile we help this older couple pack stuff into a "pod" for moving on Tuesday.

What we found was kind of like when my grandfather arrived in this country: So we arrived to a base camp that wasn't exactly air-conditioned. We retreated to a nearby motel until we could get the "lodges" in place and air conditioned.

About three groups are here, one from Lynchburg, Va. Mostly kids (12 on up), they have lots of energy and will help clean up yards and such. Looked like there were precious few adults to ride herd on them. On the one job today, there were three 12-year-olds and seven adults. The adults did the roofing and the kids mostly complained. Somehow, something got lost in the translation of why they were here....

Soapbox

A lot of folks wrote letters to the editor about this whole Katrina mess, like the ones comparing it to the response of some groups to tornado damage. Well, there are a few facts to consider:
  • The damage is like a tornado 30 miles wide that went on for approximately 120 miles of relatively populated country.
  • It's not just a tornado; it came with a salt-water flood about 10 blocks wide, 3 to 15 feet deep and 100 miles long.
  • The folks who made headlines were mostly welfare cases in New Orleans complaining that the government didn't take care of them. (Admittedly, what the government did after the initial rescues, was largely ineffective.)
  • The rebuilding of Gulfport is currently being done mostly by Christian groups. Not the government, and not the Red Cross.
  • Ten months later, there are still 12 million cubic yards of debris to be cleaned up from Biloxi to New Orleans. (Doesn't include cleaning up the beaches and shallow waters.)
  • There are some FEMA workers staying in motels at $100.00 a night; your tax dollars at work. (I have no idea what they actually do all day. They're doing some good.) Church groups sleep on the ground except for the lucky ones who get the floor inside a church building.
  • The shysters have collected the government aid money and left leaky roofs and half-finished construction in their wake.
  • The Christian groups frequently have to remove the "repairs" and do them over, so it's twice the work.
  • The Christian groups operate solely on donations from their churches back home. Whenever possible, the homeowners buy the materials and we do the labor for free. Sometimes we buy the materials, too.
  • One church from Alabama sends cooks with a truckload of groceries for a week every month, just to feed one camp of 120 workers three meals a day.
  • Repeat: Most Christian groups accept no payment whatsoever. Doesn't matter if the people are dirt poor or drive Lincolns and Cadillacs.
  • New Orleans got the lion's share of the government funds; Gulfport, huh? Where's that? Biloxi? Hee hee hee! What a silly name!
  • If you didn't get your car out in time, it was flooded with salt water. Seats are full of mold, wiring is inoperative, engine is rusted on the inside. In most cases, insurance didn't pay a thing, or gave you "blue book" value. Ever try to find a used car in a town where people are driving anything that runs? There weren't any cars to buy!
  • Lots of people are helping themselves, but did you ever think what a job it would be to strip your first floor down to the studs, throw out all your furniture, and rebuild from new wiring and drywall while holding a regular job and still paying your mortgage? Oh, and don't forget re-roofing your whole house and cleaning heaps of debris from what used to be your yard, including both of your cars.
  • Now pretend that you're
    • 68 years old, your house was flooded 3 feet deep and your wife has Parkinson's.
    • Or a black 71-year-old great-grandmother with a pension of $640.00 a month whose entire second floor was trashed and whose patio roof ended up in the next county.
    • Or an elderly white lady whose 60-year-old son has a heart condition.
    • Or a single lady who has lost her mother and sister since the storm, whose roof still has blue tarps on it, and whose bedroom ceiling caved in the other day.
    • Or a small business owner whose windows blew out, office was flooded, records all washed into the bay, and whose metal roof looks like a piece of crumpled aluminum foil.
  • OK, so the businessman "should" have insurance. Well, he did. Just try to find a contractor. Every reputable contractor has been hired by the big chain stores. The contractors charge $12.00 a square foot for installing drywall. Those who charge less, blow the government check at the casino and then leave town.
  • Two years later, your "going" business is a dim memory. You reopen and nobody remembers who you are. They're all going to McD's or Wal-Mart, who were back in business inside a month.
  • Oh, and just about half the population isn't even here any more. The well-to-do people have all moved to Florida (idiots!), so the number of potential customers is half of what it was before. Many of the poor folks are living with relatives in some other state and have nothing to return to; no job, no home, no car, no friends. You can't find an undamaged apartment or if you do, the rent has doubled and costs more than you can earn.
  • There are rumblings about these groups "taking away jobs" from local people. All I can figure out is that they hate Christians. First, the "help" that people can afford locally is crooked, and second, help-wanted signs are on almost every marquee, from motel cleaning ladies to store clerks to accountants. If you have any skills at all, you can get a job. If you can find a place to live.
  • The carpetbaggers have done their damage. Now we have Christians who are following the Great Commandment, sweating in 90+ degree heat, paying their own expenses, even flying in from California. Sweating. Hurting. Sleeping on the ground. Sweating all night. Laughing. Getting filthy dirty. Joking. Coming to supper covered with dust. Putting Benadryl cream on their fire-ant bites. Drinking gallons of water. Praying. Swapping stories. Counseling. Getting hugs from the people. Taking companions to the ER for treatment of heatstroke or chainsaw injuries. Hearing "Bless you!" from store clerks. Reluctantly going back home to make room for the next bunch. Making plans to return. Trying to explain to their friends back home that they've never had so much fun in their lives.

Tuesday, June 13

As advertised, we went over to help Tom and Merle pack up the house. It belongs to a friend. This friend sort of fled to Florida (ha!) and wants her stuff shipped to her. In return, Tom and Merle get some of the furniture which they desperately need for their house so they can get out of the FEMA trailer. A "POD" was delivered today (PODS = Portable On-Demand Storage), which is just a cargo container about 20 feet long with a translucent roof (for daylight) and assorted eyebolts for tying stuff down. Set it in your driveway, fill it, and they transport it to wherever you want it. Like Florida. ("Note: Contents may settle during shipment.")

What does this have to do with hurricane relief? Well, we're helping to get one family back in their house, and freeing up another house for another family to live in. Housing is something worse than critical here. Today's house wasn't damaged much, but one old lady couldn't handle it by herself. Because we've moved several times, Kathy was an ideal candidate to pack up the Bavarian china and such and I packed kitchen stuff, books, and odds and ends. The guys who were going to do the packing wanted $1500.00 and then didn't show up. Very strange. I think they were FlyByNight Movers, Inc. (They didn't get paid, either!) The work wasn't strenuous, the place is air-conditioned, and it doesn't sound like much, but think for a second about sending some of the teens over to pack Bavarian china for shipping to Florida....
So we packed odds and ends. Then we had one item left and couldn't decide whether to call it an "odd" or an "end".

Now some of y'all want to know what Dan Wray is up to. Well, he ended up being coordinator or "boss" for all the crews when the fellow who was doing that job cut his leg with a chainsaw, like to the bone, yesterday. He's back hobbling around at suppertime tonight, leg in a cast, with dozens of stitches and staples in his leg. Dan took over and did a fine job.

Dan also went out and ripped out paneling and some flooring for a lady while she was out for her dialysis treatments. He had a crew cleaning up a yard over in Biloxi, but they had to quit when they ran out of water about 2:30. Don't want to take any chances with dehydration or heatstroke. He brought the crew back and they will continue hauling stuff out to the street in the morning. Dan came into the air-conditioned office then and did paperwork for probably two hours.

Because nobody would be at the house this morning until 9:00 or so, we sat in the church sanctuary and I typed some of the above. One group assembled for instructions there before going out: They went out and ripped out a lot of drywall. Most of the work was done with masks on. We talked to some of them at supper and it wasn't too bad. They were a lot quieter than last night, though.

Wednesday, June 14

(8:00 AM) Started the day with biscuits and gravy. TV news is talking about "Katrina fraud". Rest assured, folks, that the church hasn't paid for night clubs, strippers and other hanky-panky like rental assistance to a P.O. box. In other news, looks like the stuff won't be ready until noon or so, and so we won't have any of the "lodges" ready until tomorrow. First one will be fitted as a room for VBS classes.

(3:00 PM) Went over to help Tom and Merle again this morning. Packed a bit, then Dan brought about a dozen teens from South Carolina. They had finished that yard cleanup that was ended by lack of water yesterday. After some of the "muscles" moved heavy stuff, it was, "OK make like ants, you guys! Grab a box, go out this door and then come in the other door." In minutes, all of the boxes were out at the POD. Everyone went potty and then they were off to the next job.

We stayed; Kathy straightened up some stuff, I vacuumed where the furniture had been (you know how that is!) and then we went out for lunch at Darwell's down by the tracks. The restaurant got back into business and now is several connected buildings. They have a smokeshack out front and do their own barbeque. The whole operation reminds me so much of Digg's Diner even though the layout is totally different.

(7:00 PM) Returned to "home base" and Kathy had a nap before returning to the church office. In the afternoon, she called a bunch of people to find out how they were progressing. Some are desperate, some are in good shape. Some answered the phone and she left messages for others. After about ten minutes, calls for Kathy started coming in, where people were calling back. They use their answering machines as screening devices. After supper she tried the four who had not called back, got one more. One lady said, "Have you ever felt like burning something down?" Guess she had some dudes come in and do a terrible job with the drywall. Same story over and over. Makes you want to weep or strangle someone.

"Lodges" are going together. I looked into one, and it was so full of teens putting up insulation that I just backed out, went back and shuffled papers. Should be able to get to work putting in wallboard and bunks tomorrow.

Thursday, June 15

(7:30 PM) I think I'm tired. Made small fixes to the wiring in four "lodges" (a.k.a. "tool sheds"), then wired another from scratch. Got the wiring roughed in on another, then went out to "evaluate" a home. Wow! It's overwhelming. At supper, Dan came over and plopped down beside us. He probably worked harder than we did. Kathy spent most of the day on the phone with people still needing help, and when she was pretty much finished with that, that was when she "interrupted" my work and we went out. After supper we went into the church and Kathy followed up on the no-answers, several of whom were at home in the evening. Somewhere in all this, she cut out a giraffe (for VBS) and then after the evening phone session worked on it some more, painting spots I think.

There is quite a crew of teens here, and they were insulating the lodges. As you can see from the photo, there are five of them. A sixth one is out front for use in VBS. So this crew was up on chairs insulating the ceiling, shirts soaked with sweat, and a couple of kids (look like 12-year-olds) spent the time practicing their "hydrating" (read: guzzling soft drinks) back in their tent. Since I was working on the electrical stuff at the far end of the row in the picture (below in tomorrow's blog), I saw what was going on. Well, Otis, the grizzled old guy who is more or less in charge of the construction, wasn't blind to what was going on. We were leaving and the other teens had finished for the day, and Otis had these two kids working, putting away the air conditioners and the bundles of insulation that had been moved outside to make room for us-uns to work. Hottest part of the day; they didn't get away with much. Otis is pleased with my work so I didn't have to do any of it over. (The first part of the morning was spent doing over someone else's work that didn't suit Otis.)

After everyone was sitting around, shooting baskets or watching Spiderman II, there was the intermittent sound of a circular saw. Otis was still working on one of the lodges, along with Dan and a couple of others. They needed headlights on the saw....

Friday, June 16

(noon local time) Finished wiring the last lodge, at least as far as can be done before the walls and ceiling go in. Then we (myself and a fellow named Loy) put in corner boards for all the buildings (the ones you nail the walls to). Ken had a chop saw and a crew of teens. Each one would grab an 8-foot board (2x4 or 2x2), bring it to Ken, he would cut it off and they would take it to an appropriate building; so all of the boards and shims were in the buildings when we got to them. Made it go really fast.

Kathy talked on the phone, wrote a report, fixed the vacuum cleaner and vacuumed the hallways in the office/children's building. The secretary and some of the others were amazed that a human (a mere mortal!) could fix the vacuum cleaner (Kathy's dad was a mechanic; it "runs" in the family). That building is amazingly large when you start vacuuming the whole thing. And then Dan came in and got the miter saw from the tool room. A bit of sawdust fell off onto the clean carpet. Kathy just calmly vacuumed it up. She also scrubbed the floor of the church kitchen down to taking all the wax off. Plan is to get some kind of industrial-strength wax for it in the morning, hoping it's ready for the thundering herd of VBS. A lot of the teens, the ones who were carrying boards in the morning, went to pass out flyers for VBS. They're hoping for 150 kids to come next week.

(Waiting for Dan to come back with a load of 2x4s) We have learned a few things here.
I cut it off twice but it's still too short!
Speaking of Dan, he went and bought a load of 2x4s, brought them back and distributed them to the buildings, only to find that they were too short! Had to reload them all, return them, and get longer ones.
How long do I need them? Quite a while; we're building a house....
Three of us solved a minor engineering problem on how to put in the ceilings of the rest of the sheds -- I mean lodges. It was suppertime so we decided to continue in the morning. I used some of the time when Dan was gone to set up our instruments in the sanctuary. Hadn't had time to do it until today.

Kathy and I had a good "jam" session. The movie was supposed to start at 7:30 but about 3/4 of the kids were still out having pizza. So we "jammed" until about 8:15 when the last van load pulled in. The ones who were waiting for the movie liked our music, and one even requested "The Entertainer" which I managed to play once I got going on it.

Saturday, June 17

Heads on the wrong end of the nails? They're for the other side of the room, silly!
(morning) Eagerly anticipating the team from Winona Lake. Trying to beat the heat and have two lodges ready; we'll see what happens.

Talked to Otis a while. Seems that it took just about all day last, um, Tuesday I think, to move the lodges from where they are in the top photo to where they are in the photo below. They used a Bobcat when what I think they needed was one of those giant forklifts from down at the waterfront where Dole and Chiquita unload their bananas from the ships. (If you ate a banana today, it probably came through here.)

About 11:00 some Wisconsin guys arrived who are actual carpenters and such. Well, there is a whole busload coming, maybe 40 more skilled laborers. Plus, they backed in a 50-foot trailer for roofing and drywall. They mean to put this town together!

Later in the day, the bus arrived. Also a whole herd of pickups with trailers from Rossville, GA. In each trailer is a complete workshop; some even have table saws and such. The group from Winona Lake pulled in about 7:30 or so. A group of 20 from Habitat for Humanity will be getting in on Monday. I understand that they will be staying off-site, which is probably good; the campground is almost full.

We went over to see Tom and Merle. Dan and I mostly stood around, but at the critical times, Dan would feed wire up into the ceiling, Tom would pull it and I would poke something up from the bottom so he could see where it was supposed to go. In an hour and a half, we three did what would have taken Tom a whole day. So their wiring is all roughed in, ready for inspection, except that the TV cable and the phone lines have to be run.

After supper, there was a team leader meeting and work orders were handed out. Everyone should be about ready to go to work tomorrow afternoon.

Stupid air mattress has deflated and left me on the cold, hard ground two nights in a row now. It's getting kind of "old".

Sunday, June 18

Are we having fun yet?
Quick synopsis: Al and Dalton cut wall sections and I screwed them up. (No smart remarks, please!) Went to second service, then out for lunch, had catfish, biscuits and molasses. Got back, finished up lodge #1, ready for paint in the morning, "sealed" it with masking tape. Will write more later, gotta go do some other stuff. Paulette is reading over my shoulder....

(Later) We're ensconced in the church nursery for the night. VBS decorations are nothing short of awesome, and the little room next to the sanctuary where we slept for a couple of nights, is sort of uninhabitable due to (a) the sanctuary going full blast (maybe until midnight) with a disco ball, music, and people putting up decorations like a whole jeep (minus engine & transmission) they brought in in pieces and reassembled, jungle animal cutouts like Kathy's giraffe, and twisted green paper "vines", and (b) the room is being used to assemble some of the decorations. The chairs from the sanctuary are stacked in another side room and oh, my, but it's going to be fun.

But as I said, our team was "assigned" the second service at 10:45. What to do? Al Shorts and Dalton Kanode snapped chalk lines and cut boards, and I put screws in to fasten them to the wall. Kathy helped measure and mark and Paulette helped by helping me to get the screws in line along the studs. Got that stage maybe 3/4 done before church.
And then the fun began.
First, at about 10:42 I remembered we had left the car trunk open, so I ran out and shut it. Having lost presence of mind, I did not check for tools lying around. About 11:20 there was a crash of thunder and I said, "I think the tools are still outside, like the circular saw." So I ran out into a real frog-choker of a downpour, about 200 feet to the shed -- I mean lodge -- and put the electric tools inside in one swell foop. At this point, the church yard was merely wet. Then it rained even harder as I ran back to the service. As I ran back, I noted that there was already half an inch of standing water in the yard and the water was a veritable Niagra off the roof. Well, I went into the men's room, took off my shirt, and wrung out about half a cup of water. Nothing to do now but put it back on and go back into the service. I have been too hot all week, but temporarily I was cold. Stood at the back in a slight breeze from the air conditioner to try to get dry, but twenty minutes later at the end of the sermon I was still pretty damp. It was still raining pitchforks outside. That was my second shower of the day.

Went out for lunch kind of late, like after I dried off. Got to Aunt Jenny's Kitchen in Ocean Springs, about 15 miles east of here, at about 2:00. There are two basic menu items: catfish and chicken, available in child's plate, large plate, and all you can eat. Elvis Presley used to hang out in the basement (some kind of club) of that building before the present owners bought it -- if that sort of thing thrills you. Anyhow, the hush puppies were made with jalapenos, and the biscuits (as many as you want) were served with butter and choice of apple jelly or molasses. We kept stuffing ourselves with biscuits and sat and talked with Dan and some other folks who were there. Finally ordered a round of the best banana puddin' we've ever tasted. I think we finally waddled out, completely stuffed, at about 4:00. Southern cooking! Wow!
Kathy sawing outlet opening


Got back to "camp" and largely ignored supper except for the watermelon someone brought, and worked on that building, finally masking and taping the windows, outlets and leaving it to be spray painted tomorrow. Debbie Shorts was working almost in the dark at the end. With the windows covered, it heated up like a Vietnam-era "hotbox", so we know the air circulation was doing a lot of good. One building down, four to go. Well, actually, the team from Wisconsin finished off one other that's almost ready to paint, will be tomorrow, and have a good start on a third. So #1 is ready, #3 is almost, #4 in progress. We'll clean out #2 when we get time and start on it, maybe after supper tomorrow if anyone is really ambitious. It's storing insulation and many 5-gallon buckets of paint at the moment. We have "field" tasks scheduled, which is why we came. Kathy and I should be back by 2:30 or 3:00 but that's not certain. Dan is sending me one way and Kathy another.

So I ended today sitting in the two-year-old nursery writing this blog while the cell phone and laptop get charged up. Son Jonathan called to wish me Happy Father's Day. Hope we have the Leaky Air Mattress syndrome cured; I really hate the hard floor for sleeping.

Monday, June 19

Today, Al and Dalton and the "gals" went down and worked on Tom and Merle's house. They got some framing done and stapled down a lot of wire runs. Everyone was working away from the church at least in the afternoon, as we have to clear the parking lot for VBS. As I left, Otis was getting out hoses and a compressor to spray paint the "lodge" in the morning.

I rode with Tom up to Tylertown, 2 hours one way, except that we were pulling a trailer so it took nearly three with the stop for gas. Our main objective was to buy a three-piece shower that could accommodate a wheelchair. This theoretically four-hour round trip took nearly 8 1/2. Well, we stopped and bought two medicine chests for the bathrooms, and when we got to the warehouse they were on lunch break. A kind lady directed us to May's, a typical small-town restaurant where they had a buffet with fried okra, Southern fried chicken and custard pie among other things. After we sat down, the waitress brought us fried grits and rolls. I highly recommend this restaurant but it's only open from 4:30 to 1:15 for breakfast and lunch. It's also at least a half hour out of the way unless you're looking for sinks, tubs, showers and jacuzzis. (I won't say we ate too much. Note: I'm just not saying it....)

Then we got to the warehouse and had to wait for several other people to get loaded. Then we waited for 45 minutes with nothing happening at all. The owner of the business came out and apologized; he had a truckload of bathtubs that had to be unloaded and the same crew that loads up customers, also has to unload trucks. Before Katrina, he sold maybe one bathtub a week; now he's selling 25 to 30 per week, and this was his weekly supply. He was only exaggerating slightly when he said he could use another 20 employees. After another 45 minutes or so, we finally got to load the shower and get back on the road.

Tom talked with several of his ham radio buddies on the way up and back. From the sounds of it, most are in their sixties. They were also the only means of communication out of Gulfport immediately after Katrina. Nowadays a couple of them talk about "handicap" accommodations for their wives and a couple of others talk about arthritis remedies, when they're not planning where to meet for lunch in Hattiesburg. Reckon I could join right in if I had a ham license. Especially the lunch part.

Kathy and I didn't actually work hard today, physically, but we're really beat this evening. Some hard work during the past week, some lack of sleep, partly a crash after running on adrenaline for a week. But we see work getting done. Two fellows from California (three? not sure) flew in. Because of lost baggage, they had to borrow some of Dan's tools. One is a licensed electrician. But they went out and "did their thing" today with everyone else. Hope they get their baggage soon. Otis had the "lodge" painted; if the paint smell dissipates, we may be able to sleep in it tomorrow night. Or maybe not....

Thanks for your prayers.

Tuesday, June 20

Hoboy! Makes you want to cry, just about did. Lady called this morning, ceiling fell down in her bedroom. We went to see her, then sent a couple of guys over to put an appropriate blue tarp on the roof. It had rained a lot overnight and water poured in under the tarp that was there, came in through a hole made by a tree that came down during the hurricane.

Went over to Tom's place in the afternoon. Dalton was making large banging noises, breaking up the old cast-iron tub. When he got tired, I took a few swings. There's something satisfying about tearing up stuff. Anyway, we got that huge shower unit into the house but it still needs installation. Al framed up another pocket door and a closet. An electrician (an inspector!) from California came by with Dan and gave some good advice. He will do some of the wiring tomorrow.

During the evening, we got a chance to play our music for about an hour and a half. People enjoyed it, and then we packed up the instruments and had some watermelon. Met with Dan about what to do tomorrow; we will probably have something different like make some visits to find out how much previous teams were able to do.

Not much time for the usual side comments as we're really tired but thought y'all needed a report.

Wednesday, June 21

Kathy stayed at the church this morning, doing some cleaning and following up some work orders. More on that in a minute.

I went down to Tom's house and helped out. Dalton used a concrete saw to make room to install that handicap shower unit, and I ran the shop vac to catch at least some of the concrete debris coming off the saw. Ran a couple of more wires. Al put up supports for the ceiling fans, and George, the electrical inspector from California, finished outlets and such, all except the actual installation.

We went out and looked at several houses in the afternoon. There was one that was truly notable. Miz Miriam is about 70 years old, has 4 great-grandchildren. She is an Aunt Jemima type who loves everyone. Her house looks OK from the street, but was in reality almost destroyed. The patio roof simply blew away, probably to the next county; similarly for several other parts of the house. The entire second floor was trashed. One group from Cross Point Church has already been there and done some of the urgent things and most of the drywall upstairs. Her daughter's house half a block away is in similar shape and actually had a crew there today.

With that background, you can understand why we feel that a crew needs to get back there and make the upstairs livable. Miz Miriam had a huge pot of gumbo simmering on the stove, and her daughter was going to take it over to feed the crew fixing her house. Everyone who works on either house gets fed. But the amount of work to be done is still overwhelming. We could stay another month and only scratch the surface.

Addendum:
Tom and Merle took us all out for pizza, "all" being everyone who helped them this week. Must have been 20 of us. Afterwards, we set up our instruments at the dining tent in the camp, and then Tom and Merle came over from the pizza place and we serenaded them for an hour or more. We usually knock off at 9:00 or so because a few early risers crawl into their tents about then.

Thursday, June 22

Tomorrow is the last day here. In one way, we're tired and glad to head on home. In another way, we wish we could stay another month. As I write, Kathy is taking a nap until supper and I have my shoes off, finally letting the blood circulate to the bottoms of my feet.

Mostly helped with assorted stuff today. We got the handicapped shower stall in (no plumbing yet), thanks to Dalton and Al. I mostly helped with the grunt work. Several doorways have been expanded to wheelchair width. But the piece de resistance was when Al framed in the medicine cabinet in the front bathroom and George, the electrician from California, did the wiring for the light bar and outlets. Tom had gone in for a CAT scan and was so pleased when he got back that he had to go get Merle and bring her over from the FEMA trailer, about 50 feet. She moves very slowly, hanging onto his arm. She was overjoyed at the new medicine cabinet. When I heard Tom say he was going to get her, I grabbed some cleaner and grubbed out some of the Katrina mud still on the toilet. I had already swept the floor and sucked out stuff (sawdust and at least one wire nut) from the sink drain with the shop vac. Anyway, not much mud was visible, and the walls of that one room were OK and are still intact. Not much, but it's her house and the bathroom is usable. (No hot water, of course, but the electricity should be hooked up in another week or two.) Still needs an application of Dutch Cleanser and some elbow grease in the tub and sink. The handicapped bathroom still needs drywall, toilet & sink, and floor covering.

Got a lot done in spite of the fact that a man about 3 houses away needed his "floors sanded lightly". Well that doesn't really work too well, so Dalton spent from about 10:00 on running a big rotary floor sander that kept trying to get away from him. George installed several light fixtures for the man. Somebody thought "the girls" could run that floor sander if someone would just show them where to switch it on. Hah! It's a job for about three men and a horse, or maybe a lion tamer with whip and chair! (Don't turn your back on that thing! It'll kill ya!) But at least the electricity was turned on and the air conditioning was working. I removed the closet doors so he could sand into the closets, but then I went back over to help Al and Tom. At last report before Kathy came to retrieve George and me back to camp, out of 3 rooms, Dalton & crew expected to have one actually sanded. One person can run the machine while the rest stand around and watch. [Late-breaking report at supper: Debbie Shorts actually ran the "beast" when Dalton was tired. Slammed into the wall a few times but they got all 3 rooms done, and stained! They were so tired they were about to fall over. Finish coat tomorrow. Everyone coated with dust.]

Me? This afternoon, I helped Tom and Al rassle* that huge shower unit in and out about three times until Al used the Sawz-All enough times and it actually fit. (The bloomin' drain came out in the middle of a floor joist, among other problems.) And then Tom and I pulled TV and telephone cables through the attic. I had the "cooler" part, standing on a chair and feeding cables up from below; Tom was in the 110-degree attic on this 91-degree day.

Meanwhile, back at the camp, they trenched for power to the bunkhouses. Everything is going slower than anticipated; it's right about eight days behind schedule now. But we've all survived, and hopefully the bunkhouses (shacks, sheds, lodges, whatevers) will replace the tents before the first tropical storm hits.

Two houses toward the beach from Tom & Merle is a nice brick house (was nice, anyhow). A team from Columbia City is cleaning it up. There is a typical pile of trash along the street, from the yard and inside the house. There is a group of 9 churches from the Ft. Wayne area who are sending teams each week, in rotation, to get this family back into their house. They pass each other on the freeway as one is leaving and the other is arriving, sort of tag team fashion. Hoosiers seem to be very active in the restoration.

George, the electrician, just got news from his team that two parents and their child received Christ while the team was working on their house. They left two Bibles with them. George was disappointed that he was with us instead of them and "only" worked for about 11 hours wiring up lights and such.
* No, not "wrestle"; that's too tame!

Friday, June 23

Last day. Interesting. Rode with Dan over to Tom and Merle's place. A couple of us went over to Mr. Austin's house and put a coat of varnish on the floor, and a bunch of people came by for an hour or two and made like ants, carrying Tom's stuff over to the neighbor's house. I measured all the rooms for drywall. After things settled down a bit, we went down to Katrina's Kitchen near the waterfront, next to what used to be a Wal-Mart until the merchandise went inland along with all of the windows and furnishings. Driving over there, Dan pointed out sets of piers about 6 to 10 feet high that had houses on top. Unfortunately, the storm surge was 15 feet and the houses are gone without a trace.

Katrina's Kitchen is a striped tent that serves meals to anyone and everyone at no charge. They serve 2000 meals a day. The only requirement is that you're hungry. There were convicts ("trustees") from a work gang at the next table wearing their prison garb. To my left were several guys talking about their homosexual experiences. There was a busload of teens who had been doing relief work all morning. Katrina's Kitchen has a gospel tent meeting each evening at 7:30. We made a bit of a donation. Quite a few of our team had reached a stopping point so went off to do other things and prepare for departure.

Returned to Tom's place, and Kathy and I helped him pull some TV and phone cables. Tom was in the attic and got really warm, so we went into the trailer and got cooled off. He had had enough for one day and needed to pack his stuff for a ham radio "thing" of some kind, so we bid fond goodbyes.

Packed Crammed our tubs of tools into the already-full car, stopped at the church one more time, saw the two new buildings that had been delivered in the morning. Supper was going to be hot dogs for about 500 people (VBS kids, parents and workers, plus relief workers), so we decided to head east to spend the night in Pensacola. Also stopped at Aunt Jenny's Restaurant for supper, for one more round of 'lasses on biscuits and banana puddin'.

Saturday, June 24

Not much to tell. Drove over to Pensacola and Kathy got to dabble her toes in the warm Gulf waters for a few minutes. Left there and drove to Tennessee.

Sunday, June 25

Went to Ogden Church up on the mountain above Dayton, had lunch with Ellen and Rose Mary Farnsworth. Got to see Lois Abel, our landlady of 30 years ago. She now lives in one of the "little" houses and David (Junior) lives in the "big" house with his wife Linda now. Small confusion -- David's sister is Linda Kay but we're used to multiple people with the same name. Also got to see Granny Farnsworth who is in a rehab center now. Talked with Edwin and Rosie for a while. Admired the emus and the rhea. One of the emus bit Kathy and another snatched my other pair of glasses from my pocket. No harm done and Edwin just laughed.

Monday, June 26

Traveled home. Not much to say other than we had a "lot of weather", raining pitchforks and hoehandles from Knoxville to somewhere in Kentucky, and there was a lot of slow traffic in Knoxville for some unknown reason. Had supper in Piqua, OH, where my Grandmother Barnhart was born. Oddly enough, the sauce that Kathy got for the onion "petals" (Arby's) was "southwest" style. Well, my grandfather, S.W.Barnhart, was nicknamed "Southwest". Mildly amusing. But we made it home with only a few missing items, some sixteen days after we started. Cats have forgiven us and all is well.

The Way Home:Approaching the Indiana border