The Bald Man's Part

I found out the parish I am working in is the poorest parish in the state of Louisiana. I can understand it as I have seen some of it first hand. Today was a pretty interesting day, I laughed a lot, both with the insured and at them (and not necessarily behind their back). But over all it was pretty good. I did one learn one important lesson, though. When there is a hurricane over you trailer, you don't go out and stand in it. No matter what you think you need to do, don't. Just find a place with no windows, put your head between you legs and kiss your a$$ goodbye.

Now, if you don't heed my advice, be it on you own head, literally...

Because, 18 staples, one ruptured disk in back, two MRIs, and constant pain is nothing compared to having you bald head spread around on the internet.

Happy Rosh Hashanah Everyone

Today is the beginning of Rash Hashanah, according to the desk calendar my sister gave me for Christmas. She better give me another one this year, it was one of the few "amenities" I brought from home. People have been complaining because I haven't posted anything in a while, and when I say people, I mean my mother. Way to live up to the stereotype mommy.

So, Star Date...36...and all...is...going along...fine...and...dandy (that's my literary attempt to badly, imitate the pause acting of the famous, and now rather fat, William Shatner, but with his new music CD out he'll be ok). I haven't posted anything lately because I have been extremely busy. I have however gotten a lot accomplish in the past couple of days, but when you literly start working at 6:30am and stop at 9:30pm, pausing only for dinner, you get stuff done. But it hasn't all been work.

Last Friday the big wigs came in and took all of us on a boat cruise and to a restaurant/bar for the evening. I won $150 gift certificate to Best Buy on the boat trip. That was pretty neat. I think our company thinks the only way to please us is to shove free booze down our throats. I suppose it works for some, but not everyone. There was that one guy who got smashed and started calling the vice president of the company some not so nice things. He didn't remember any of it the next day. But I did some good networking and found out some interesting information.

From Katrina we had received, up to last weekend, 16,000 claims. I'm going to write that out for you for a more dramatic effect, sixteen thousand claims. This is for the five offices scattered around the coast. That is a hell of a lot of claims, a HELL of a lot of claims. As of last weekend, one month from the storm, we had closed/inspected 9,000 of those claims. Pretty good by anybody's standards. I am very impress with out output. That being said...

I am surprised by the condition of the cities in my territory. This far out from when it hit and it still seems as if little has been accomplished. Most people have electricity, but the towns still look in total disarray. It looks close to the same as one week after the storm. This just indicates the amazing magnitude of the hurricane. I have heard rumors of St. Benard Parish being bull dozed, yeah the whole parish. They are taking it a zip code at a time and saying, "Aint' no way we can fix dis here place." Drew, my roommate, has been in New Orleans with our pastor for the last couple of days filming and helping out. He has been telling me stories of people, damages, and areas that made it. It's pretty crazy stuff. The people are being nice, but the media is killing me. You would think the only people affected are the ones who are poor, black, and given up on by society. They weren't the only ones affected, as you all know, they just don't do anything but complain because...you know what, I am not going to subject you to that rant, if you want to know how I feel you can call me. I want to introduce you all to my new Denham Springs girlfriend. If I'm not with Elizabeth, I'm with her. I call her Jasmine




Anybody have the nubmer to Rogaine?

Back to the Grind

Well today marked the first day back, and I started it out with bang, or a boom I should say. Earlier today I was on a roof damaged by the hurricane. The people had already put some tarps over the roof and it had collected some early morning dew. The equation of a wet plastic plus gravity combined with last night's Chinese buffet yielded a painful result. You see, I keep my camera in my back pocket when I am working, and when my feet flew up and my butt went down...well you get the gist. Although I did not fall completely off the roof,I landed on my camera with a nice boom that resonated through the house(or so I was later told). I think I have bruise the size of my hand on my butt, I only wish I could check and see. I find myself essentially chasing my tail as I turn round and round to see the extent of the damage.

Our company has already closed around 50% of the Katrina claims we have had reported. This is an amazing feat with some companies not having anyone out here looking at homes at all. As a means of thanks, the company is taking all the adjusters on a boat cruise this Friday. Free food and booze, and options for gambling. I don't know about the gambling or booze, but I am all about the free food. The night gets finished off with a catered Cajun meal. That's what they tell us. What I hear is you don't have to work Friday and Saturday. Now that is thanks enough, everything else is, as they say in the Harlem school yard, all gravy. With the rate things are going, and everything is subject to change, we can have Katrina finished in 4 to six weeks. Then I can focus on Rita. Let's hope nothing else come through between now and then.

Weathering Rita

Board/Card Games Played - 8
Changes of clothes by evacuee, (because of being wet)- 6
Urban Kayak Trips - 4
Accidents during Urban Kayaking - 1
Pages of Book Read - 67
Run-Ins with Police -2
Negative Comments said to cops - 4
Times Rearranged Living room - 3
Minutes used discussing changes to living room - 128
Times People yelled at each other - 7
Being at home with friends and family - priceless

Furlough

As defined by Webster:

Main Entry: 1fur·lough
Pronunciation: 'f&r-(")lO
Function: noun
Etymology: Dutch verlof, literally, permission, from Middle Dutch, from ver- for- + lof permission; akin to Middle High German loube permission -- more at FOR-, LEAVE
: a leave of absence from duty granted especially to a soldier; also : a document authorizing such a leave of absence

As defined by David:

(in a singsong voice)...I get to go home, I get to go home, I get to go home.

Ah, yes, finally an opportunity to return home and take care of some business and much needed rest. I left Baton Rouge last night and drove around the storm, arriving in Shreveport around 9:30pm. Now I have three full days of not having to work, and one more day of travel to get back down. That's right, I have to go back and workagainn for another undetermined amount of time. But that I can handle.

I came home last night to meet a large group of my friends at the house. It feels good to be home. So, you may not here much from me in the next couple of days, but don't worry, I am no longer in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Rita, no, now I am right in the middle of it.

Mass Exodus

Yeah, it is mass exodus here for the adjuster. Before you get your hopes up, I am not one of those adjusters. We have lost a slew of people in the past couple of days as Rita nears Texas. They are going home to batten down the hatches and prepare for the after math of the storm. One of the adjuster's here now, has his home in the worst possible place of Houston. His wife has evacuated and he is sitting around trying to keep himself busy, but still worrying. I haven't heard much on the company's position on all of this, but I know we don't have many more adjusters to work, storms or regular territories. Rumors of gas shortages and FEMA taking over certain stations have been rampant. Gas is starting to become more difficult find. Gotta love it.

Today I became the bad guy. Honestly I am surprised it has taken this long. I have been listening to the news, radio stations around here for updates on Rita and, God forbid, something outside the world of Katrina. I have had little success with the latter, but I have sure heard lots of complaints from the "Salt of the Earth." But, today began the bitching about the adjuster's and insurance companies and how we are here on our own behalf with disregard for the policy holders. How people haven't heard from us or something went wrong that we have no control over. It was all I could do to not call this radio station and give them a good piece of my mind on behalf of the Red Cross, FEMA, and Us. People sitting there, not making any effort to help themselves, giving death threats and spitting on the Red Cross volunteers. Now tell me, with my taxes going to these people who refuse to help themselves, your donations and, not to mention my time, who is the real bad guy? (I am getting all worked up as I type this, banging on the keys of my poor defenseless computer)

However, one thing the radio personalities said today that I liked was "This will bring out the best in good people, and the worst in the bad people." Sure enough, and the media only adds fuel to the fire. As time goes by and tempers flare, not even the good people can be the best for long. But, thanks to everyone for the encouraging emails and notes. I appreciate it. Don't worry about me, I am doing just fine. It sometimes takes a quick outburst to relax yourself. Tomorrow is my day off, well deserved. Quanta La Gusta!

The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth

Not much new going on here. I am spending most of my time debating if ignorance should be a punishable crime. But then I realize even I am ignorant at many things (now I know that is hard to believe). So, I just pull the dwindling reserve of patience I have and take a swig of the bitter reality of my position. Mmm tastes like Caster oil, with the active ingredient of humility, of which I could use more. More than once I have heard the phrase "God's Country" and "Salt of the Earth," usually mentioned in a sarcastic overtone. However, you don't get much more down and out than some of the things I have seen. This, in-turn, makes me think of Plato's
Allegory of the Cave, and I wonder if these people have ever had an opportunity to see what the outside of there own scope of reference. Predisposition to a good life. Doctor's and Lawyers are more likely to make more doctor's and lawyer's. Contractor's make Contractor's, and government assistance is hereditary. Granted all of these are generalizations and there are anomalies to every instance. But, this can and does get battled everyday, with valid points on both sides. So, I will leave this to the politicians, sociologist, and those with more time than myself, to wage these verbal wars of value of living. Pursuit of life, liberty, and the easy money, or so it seems some days.

But, enough of that. I finally have another day off starting tomorrow evening around six. I can't tell you how much sleep I am looking forward to catching up on. This soon to arrive day has been able to push me over a hump and help me to center on my third wind. You may ask how many winds are typical? I couldn't tell you, first let us find a storm deemed "typical."

I'll call him Alectryon, for that is better than Cock

It is pretty safe to say morale is quickly approaching rock bottom with everyone here. Everyone is reaching an average of 15 days away from the norms of everyday life. If you couldn't read it on the wordless faces of the people you pass, just ask them how they are and that is the first topic of conversation. Normally this would just bounce off me like the super ball, but today was an especially difficult day workwise. As I count my days on the diminishing supply of Charmin I brought with me, I feel myself start to wane. So, now I have resigned to be moody and temperamental like my cohorts. My two issues are energy and frustration. Energy because I don't appear to have any and frustration because I have too much. Normally in situations like this I would go work out, but now I mostly just pace in my room or walk laps around the balcony. More interesting info I found out. They haven't decided what to do with us yet. I keep trying to get them to tell me when they are going to start letting some of us go home, but nothing "set in stone" has be conceived. Now they are talking about sending some of us home for a few days and then making us come back for another tour of duty. That's going to bring some muteness behavior worthy enough to impress Jean Laffite. (there's a local hero around these parts for you) But, I am searching for that third wind now. Amazing how a couple of implaced words can bring you crashing down. Never to fear I shall persevere.

Let me leave you with what I had to walk through to get to a claim today. I thought I was going to have to whoop a little booty, but apparently they were scared of me, must be the facial hair, works on babies too.

This was an awesome old bridge I came across the other day. It sits about 25 feet above this white sand creek. I stopped my car in the middle of the road and walked back across it. You could smell the rust from the beams and the tar from the railway ties. This is something I always pictured being in the mountains or on Fried Green Tomatoes. I only wish I had time to take better pictures.

Disclaimer: Possible Nonsense and Venting Ahead...I'm Tired!

Argh, I just been sitting here trying to think of an eloquent way to place the jumbled mass of thought swimming in my brain on this post. But, I say to hell with that. You people are just going to have to deal with a little confusion and maybe a colorful word or two. (nothing worse than hell though, I will keep this PG rated...for now)

So the man running this office is a work friend of mine. He trained me, so I know him pretty well. He and I are a lot alike, despite the age difference. Now I wonder if it better to be in this situation with some one you know or with some one you don't. His 17 years with this company has yielded much advice, help, and constructive critism, but being in his confidences has also been a pain in the (PG rating, not PG-13, so you have to fill in the blank yourself...). I am the one who finds out the bad stuff first, like the mandatory 4 week stay and other not as interesting to you things. However, I am trying to decided if the perks out weigh the cons? For example I am one of the only ones with my own hotel room, a big feat because I am the least experience, but I don't brag to people about that. I get the juicy gossip on the other adjusters, which makes me fell better about the job I am doing, and I get to do special assignments. That is as much a pro as a con. I have to write a report on the new Catastrophe database we are using. Which means I must document my experience with it over the next week and submit it. Granted I will have no problem with this but I don't need anymore work. However this will look good to the big boss man. Good and Bad, Good and Bad, Good and Bad. So be it, I will teeter on the balance of no sleep, too much sun, and fear of being eaten by a dog for more money and personal glory. Just ask Maslow, American dream here I come.