mrvette
Phantom of the Opera
Yup, talking of the hurry-cain......in a hurry and raising CAIN......so you know my sense of humor.....
About 2 months after the event, I got a call from a buddy who was a laid off union welder, who traveled from job to job welding up power plants, paper mills, etc.....not nuclear rated....so to go to the local shipyards when union work was slow.....and he gets a call from an old gal he dated, saying to get in touch with a company that was hiring on for the Katrina FEMA effort, and so he called me, being a old contractor and knowing a bit about home construction, and so talked me into traveling out west to Houston about two months after the storm.....Houston was not affected, so the drive was interesting to say the least, out I 10 from Jax Florida right by the Florida regions, and into Alabama, Miss, La. and of course Tejas....
The devastation along I 10 was just shocking, Johnny was in his S10 pickup, I in my '85 Dodge 3/4 ton work truck....why?? because we could sleep in it, me in back on a mattress, him in the reclining front seat, the deal WAS, we had to foot the bills on our initial field crap, and get paid back from the company.....the Company was Parsons/Brinkerhoff a contractor to FEMA, We left on a Thursday AM early and followed along through fuel stops straight into the south Houston freeway where the company paid our lodging during training....
In to a cheap Holiday Inn Express, and 3 days of training, and back out on the road, for a time we both got stuck just north of the Houston Shipping channel in a old development known as Pleasantville , and my first client was trying to submit a claim for storm damage that was not evident....a Mrs. Sweet on CANDY St. seriously, which is why I saw the call list and picked her first....it was a good laugh between us over the names.....
so I do another ~18+ calls over the daze and so Johnny and I pick a well lit spot off the freeway, a shopping center and movie theater so to park the two vehicles close enough, and the first night after the burger joint dinner a a few beers we sleeping, and this cop rattles the van but good, and shines his flash through the front window....of course Johnny wakes up first, and alerts me, who is in deep snore mode.....You know, kind of like waking up a dinosaur??? The cops wants to know WTF we doing there, and so with the sticker I still have from the windows, and the ID"s we turned in, he accepts our story, and says they will watch over us.....this was still in Houston, not far off one of the beltways and I 10.....
But after 3 daze and 2 nights, we no longer presentable to the public so have to check into a CHEAP motel......:yahoo: and THIS is where it gets interesting.....the motel was painted PINK on the outside, the desk woman takes our 35 bux, and since Johnny had the van seat for the last couple nights, I gave him the flea bag bunk, and I pulled the mattress from the back of the van onto the floor so we turn on TV and all there is, one PORN channel....but don't forget, we have cell phones and are busy scheduling calls for the next day's clients/claims so we on the phones with some carry out snacks and could care LESS about the TV, really....just something to joke about.....
We had our vehicles parked out front, and in my van/work truck I had all sorts of tools, all the mechanical shit, all of everything buried down deep in the load up forward behind the bucket seats...including my .357 Magnum revolver....full up hollow points.... which we left in the van for overnight....
WELL shows what suburbanites know about inner city cheap lodging.....
long about 9pm we get this light rap on the door, and so I happened to be between calls and asked who?? got this light breathy female voice and so said not interested....Johnny jumps up and looks out the drapes to see WTF, and he snickered it was a hooker.....we laugh and go back to work....
about 1/2 hour later TWO hookers on the door....knocking louder.....same routine, not interested....but this time we thought of our tools and the GUN in the van, and off loaded it all into the room......this being maybe 930-10pm.....so I kept the gun with me, obviously and mattress maybe 10' max from the door....the door was a cheap POS with a nothing latch and yes it was locked for what it was worth.....
long about 1030 or so we get a couple of huge BANGS on the door, the POS is looking like it going to cave in and two loud male voices shouting BS at us....Until that point we more concerned over setting up watch over our trucks than anything else...vandalism/etc......
Upon hearing that pounding and shouting BS, Johnny hits the phone 911 and they heard the BS over the phone and send the cops full run on......Because Johnny says 'Geno' is on the floor with a .357 not 10' from that door and if they step into the room, he going to kill them flat out!!!!!
I am laying on the bed with the .357 dead nutz on that door, that thing had opened, there be two dead pimps on the floor and a smile on my face....
but the cops got there in time, the assholes fled the scene and we moved out, having had our showers/shaves and shits.....back to the movie/mall lot for the night....two daze later I headed home, and Johnny off to New Orleans proper......for two months of work, this time in total devastation regions, not a bunch of pussy stuff like I/we had.....
the trash on the freeways was just ASStounding, everything you can imagine and more household gear, shopping malls wiped clean, kitchen sink in middle of the road, plumbing attached....mattresses and clothing and sheets hanging from trees on north side of I 10, the 18 wheelers LOADED with POLE TRANSFORMERS to rebuild the grid, outfits from all over the northlands, NY, Pa, Va. Md. Il, Oh. you name it.....down there rebuilding the entire region,......
All you all seen the stone total devastation off I 10 you wooden believe it, houses knock off kilter by maybe 30 degrees, slabs to the south side of I10 leveled CLEAN, not even a plumbing pipe sticking out.....bridge cleaned out so much the .mil had to put in pontoons to fix the east bound lanes.... trees snapped off looking like at 10' off the ground, like a gigantic weed whacker...
large fishing vessels with bow up in the air, right up against the freeway bridge bulkhead/foundation....stern down in the water boat nearly vertical on the keel......two of them similar.....
shame I didn't have a cam, but when driving, no time to focus a ten year old cam and not get killed also....
:crap:
Long post, sorry it's so broken up, but got interrupted several times.....
About 2 months after the event, I got a call from a buddy who was a laid off union welder, who traveled from job to job welding up power plants, paper mills, etc.....not nuclear rated....so to go to the local shipyards when union work was slow.....and he gets a call from an old gal he dated, saying to get in touch with a company that was hiring on for the Katrina FEMA effort, and so he called me, being a old contractor and knowing a bit about home construction, and so talked me into traveling out west to Houston about two months after the storm.....Houston was not affected, so the drive was interesting to say the least, out I 10 from Jax Florida right by the Florida regions, and into Alabama, Miss, La. and of course Tejas....
The devastation along I 10 was just shocking, Johnny was in his S10 pickup, I in my '85 Dodge 3/4 ton work truck....why?? because we could sleep in it, me in back on a mattress, him in the reclining front seat, the deal WAS, we had to foot the bills on our initial field crap, and get paid back from the company.....the Company was Parsons/Brinkerhoff a contractor to FEMA, We left on a Thursday AM early and followed along through fuel stops straight into the south Houston freeway where the company paid our lodging during training....
In to a cheap Holiday Inn Express, and 3 days of training, and back out on the road, for a time we both got stuck just north of the Houston Shipping channel in a old development known as Pleasantville , and my first client was trying to submit a claim for storm damage that was not evident....a Mrs. Sweet on CANDY St. seriously, which is why I saw the call list and picked her first....it was a good laugh between us over the names.....
so I do another ~18+ calls over the daze and so Johnny and I pick a well lit spot off the freeway, a shopping center and movie theater so to park the two vehicles close enough, and the first night after the burger joint dinner a a few beers we sleeping, and this cop rattles the van but good, and shines his flash through the front window....of course Johnny wakes up first, and alerts me, who is in deep snore mode.....You know, kind of like waking up a dinosaur??? The cops wants to know WTF we doing there, and so with the sticker I still have from the windows, and the ID"s we turned in, he accepts our story, and says they will watch over us.....this was still in Houston, not far off one of the beltways and I 10.....
But after 3 daze and 2 nights, we no longer presentable to the public so have to check into a CHEAP motel......:yahoo: and THIS is where it gets interesting.....the motel was painted PINK on the outside, the desk woman takes our 35 bux, and since Johnny had the van seat for the last couple nights, I gave him the flea bag bunk, and I pulled the mattress from the back of the van onto the floor so we turn on TV and all there is, one PORN channel....but don't forget, we have cell phones and are busy scheduling calls for the next day's clients/claims so we on the phones with some carry out snacks and could care LESS about the TV, really....just something to joke about.....
We had our vehicles parked out front, and in my van/work truck I had all sorts of tools, all the mechanical shit, all of everything buried down deep in the load up forward behind the bucket seats...including my .357 Magnum revolver....full up hollow points.... which we left in the van for overnight....
WELL shows what suburbanites know about inner city cheap lodging.....
long about 9pm we get this light rap on the door, and so I happened to be between calls and asked who?? got this light breathy female voice and so said not interested....Johnny jumps up and looks out the drapes to see WTF, and he snickered it was a hooker.....we laugh and go back to work....
about 1/2 hour later TWO hookers on the door....knocking louder.....same routine, not interested....but this time we thought of our tools and the GUN in the van, and off loaded it all into the room......this being maybe 930-10pm.....so I kept the gun with me, obviously and mattress maybe 10' max from the door....the door was a cheap POS with a nothing latch and yes it was locked for what it was worth.....
long about 1030 or so we get a couple of huge BANGS on the door, the POS is looking like it going to cave in and two loud male voices shouting BS at us....Until that point we more concerned over setting up watch over our trucks than anything else...vandalism/etc......
Upon hearing that pounding and shouting BS, Johnny hits the phone 911 and they heard the BS over the phone and send the cops full run on......Because Johnny says 'Geno' is on the floor with a .357 not 10' from that door and if they step into the room, he going to kill them flat out!!!!!
I am laying on the bed with the .357 dead nutz on that door, that thing had opened, there be two dead pimps on the floor and a smile on my face....
but the cops got there in time, the assholes fled the scene and we moved out, having had our showers/shaves and shits.....back to the movie/mall lot for the night....two daze later I headed home, and Johnny off to New Orleans proper......for two months of work, this time in total devastation regions, not a bunch of pussy stuff like I/we had.....
the trash on the freeways was just ASStounding, everything you can imagine and more household gear, shopping malls wiped clean, kitchen sink in middle of the road, plumbing attached....mattresses and clothing and sheets hanging from trees on north side of I 10, the 18 wheelers LOADED with POLE TRANSFORMERS to rebuild the grid, outfits from all over the northlands, NY, Pa, Va. Md. Il, Oh. you name it.....down there rebuilding the entire region,......
All you all seen the stone total devastation off I 10 you wooden believe it, houses knock off kilter by maybe 30 degrees, slabs to the south side of I10 leveled CLEAN, not even a plumbing pipe sticking out.....bridge cleaned out so much the .mil had to put in pontoons to fix the east bound lanes.... trees snapped off looking like at 10' off the ground, like a gigantic weed whacker...
large fishing vessels with bow up in the air, right up against the freeway bridge bulkhead/foundation....stern down in the water boat nearly vertical on the keel......two of them similar.....
shame I didn't have a cam, but when driving, no time to focus a ten year old cam and not get killed also....
:crap:
Long post, sorry it's so broken up, but got interrupted several times.....
