World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party

It was this weekend at the Jacksonville Landing here in downtown Jacksonville on the St. John's River. I have never been to Mardi Gras but I'm guessing it is similar to this but we didn't have the nudity. However, there were many, many drunk college girls dressed quite trampy. One girl even had piercing to accentuate are ass cleavage. For those not familiar with it, the Cocktail Party corresponds to the Florida/Georgia football game that is played here every year. It is probably the biggest event of the year for the city. People show up in RVs on Thursday in "RV City" between the stadium and the Landing. I like to refer to it as Redneck City. It's probably something similar to what you would see at the Daytona 500. My friend Dragan and his brother Zoran were in for the weekend and the first thing we did after I finished work on Saturday was to check out this Cocktail Party at the Landing. When we got there it was the end of the third quarter. The place stunk like beer and in our 2 hours we saw one guy ejected by the police, a couple fierce arguments, several girls crying, and lots of flesh. Pretty standard fair for a glorified frat party. It was actually quite cool down there but I don't think many of the patrons notice the cold breeze. We grabbed dinner at one of the restaurants at the landing and then headed out of there for the dog track.

My Grandpa's lessons from many years ago paid off at the track because I won back to back quinellas in races 9 and 10. Dragan and I actually both won in race 10. I won $53 in those two races on two $2 bets and ended up clearing about $30 on the night and had a good time. Yesterday we went out to the beach to check out the ocean. Unfortunately there was a 30 mph wind coming out of the northeast causing it to feel pretty cool along the shore and sand to blow in our faces. However we did get to see a guy out in the heavy surf wind surfing. It looked like fun when he would get about 15 feet in the air when jumping the waves. After that we hit the driving range and headed to Hooters to watch the second half of the Lions v. Bears game. Well, as most of you know that didn't end well for us Lions fans. But at least our waitress was hot. ;o) Then we went to the movies and saw A History of Violence. Not too bad. I'd give it a B.

Today we went down to St. Augustine to check out the World Golf Village and the old city. The weather finally came around as the northeast wind died and the temperature was in the upper 70s. We saw an IMAX movie at the Village and played a round on their 18-hole natural grass miniature golf course. It came down to the last hole but I managed to beat Zoran by one stroke. We ate lunch at the self proclaimed "oldest brewery in America." I don't know about all that, but the turkey sandwich was good. I stopped at an Irish store and saw the Phelan arms shield logo thingy and where we originated in Ireland. According to the map I in the store we come from Waterford, Ireland. After lunch we drove home because the Lazich brothers had to catch a flight and they didn't want to miss it, especially since they missed their first flight on the way down Friday night. Well, back to the grind tomorrow. I hope everyone is doing well.

Very Tired.

I've been up the last two nights until midnight watching baseball and it has caught up to me. So I'll try to make this quick. But that's what I always try to do and it ends up four paragraphs. Well, we almost hit a record low here on Tuesday morning when it got down to 42 degrees. The locals were all wearing winter jackets and stocking caps. It was pretty funny. The last two mornings have been about 45-50. But the high temp still gets to 70 everyday. Today was a perfect fall day. Dry air, sunny, and a very slight breeze. This is what I came to Florida for. Oh, and to "Build homes with God's people in need."

Today I worked with Kristen and 3 volunteers. One college student, Maile, who has been here every Thursday since the start of the school year so we are getting to know her and a couple of her classmates quite well. The two others were just "walkups" which as the name implies are people that just show up at the warehouse in the morning. One lady worked for a real estate developer and the other is a navy boy. Maybe they were motivated by all the free marketing we were getting during the world series. (more on that later) Well, they were all really good workers. Brian, the navy boy(25), is a pilot so I of course bombarded him with flying questions because my fear of flying causes me to want to learn as much about it as I can without actually studying it. So after I just about drove him off the worksite with my ridiculous questions he offered to take me up in a little 2 or 4 seater with him. He said that he would even let me fly while we're up there. I told him that I would probably piss my pants but I would seriously consider it since this trip down he is all about new experiences. He also plays a little golf so I told him to let me know if he ever wants to play off base. He plans to volunteer with us a couple times a week until his squadron gets back from the middle east in January because he doesn't have anything to do in the meantime.

I also bombarded Jamie with real estate questions too but she hasn't lived here that long and didn't know that much about the area in which I live. I'm thinking of buying a rundown house and trying to fix it up while I'm here and resell it. You can pick up crappy houses for $50k-$100k. The nice new or fully remodeled historic homes sell from $300-$400k but the question is how much will it cost to fix them up. I'm going to research it in the months ahead and see if I want to dive in. Let me know if you want to be an investor. I hope that isn't an illegal solicitation of funds for investment purposes.

Okay, now the Sox. As you all know by now they won the series. Not only did they win, they embarrassed the Astros (and probably the Cubs too who weren't involved which is why they should be embarrassed). I don't think I would have predicted a championship before the season but that's what happens when all pitchers live up to their potential in the same season. I can't believe Crede got screwed out of the MVP. Dye played well and got some huge hits but Crede led the way offensively and defensively throughout the entire playoffs. But that doesn't really matter. What matters is that we won. I can't believe it happened 2 months after I left. I just wish I could be at the parade tomorrow which is going to start right outside my old office window at the Commission on Jackson.

Have a great weekend. I will report on the World's Largest Cocktail Party, which takes place here this weekend, next week.

Good Day.

Yesterday was probably the most enjoyable work day that I've had since I've been down here. I had to lead a siding job with a group of about 8 from the Episcopal church plus four homeowners. It was quite a mix. This was my first time leading a crew on siding so I was a little concerned with how well we would do. Especially since the group was so large. Luckily I had a couple of guys who have been volunteering with Habijax for quite a while who knew a little about siding. Anyway, we managed to get the entire house sided in one day. It feels good to actually complete an assignment in one day. And on top of it all, the Episcopals brought homemade sandwiches and cookies with drinks, pickles, grapes, plums, and vegetables. It was outstanding. I hope next week goes as well as this one did.

In our Saturday afternoon meeting we found out a little more about the jobsite shooting. Apparently when the guy showed up at the site with the bricklayers with a gun, the bricklayers attempted to disarm him and two of them got shot in the scuffle. But they were able to hold him for the police. It turns out that the women he was beating attacked the bricklayers and actually hit one in the head with a shovel so the bricklayers had to restrain them too. That woman was arrested too. Also at the meeting we found out that at some point during the year we may have to put windows and blue board (like Tyvek) on a house before the building is inspected so that the sponsor of the house that is scheduled to work on it has something to do. And since the building will not have been inspected before the blue board went up, we would tear it down the next day so it can be inspected, and then we would put it up again. Pretty stupid.

Well, the Sox won last night. Crede was outstanding yet again as was Contreras. If we can win tonight and go up 2-0 before facing Oswalt, I like our chances.

Take care.

Couple interesting stories.

First, don't freak out. But I heard at the end of the day yesterday that a worker for one of the sub-contractors got shot on one of our jobsites yesterday. Well, I got more detail today and you can relax because it was actually 2 workers and it was basically unprovoked. The story goes like this. The site was next to an apartment building. Some dude was beating up on two women. He was probably their pimp or something or maybe they were both his girlfriends. Anyway, this caught the attention of the bricklayers. They were looking at the dude and he said to them "What are you looking at?" Now, I don't know if the bricklayers responded to him but apparently the dude walked over and shot one of the guys in the hand and the other in the leg. I would say that is pretty unprovoked. Then the chicks that were getting beat by the dude start attacking the bricklayers. Unbelieveable. Anyway, I think the bricklayers are okay and the dude is in jail.

Next story, this morning I was working with three female volunteers from a credit card issuer. Not ten minutes after we arrive on the site do we see a domestic disturbance breakout in the front yard of the house kitty-corner from our site. The guys was about my build and the chick was about 200 pounds. They both had each others dreads in their hands. So there they are in the street hunched over head-to-head pulling each other's hair and swearing profusely at each other. I couldn't make this stuff up. They temporarily break it up only to be going at it five minutes later. I see clothes being thrown in the street and pushes maybe a couple slaps but no punches. They wrestle a little and the woman eventually throws the skinny punk on the ground and sits on him right in the middle of the street. Well, needless to say my volunteers were excited to now have a story to tell their co-workers who were working at a different site. After about five minutes of sitting on the guy I hear their car take off. The volunteers told me that they both got in the same car and took off. Crazy. The neighborhood also had a drunk dude yelling at a guy on a bike that the drunk apparently thinks was stolen from him. And I'm back to that site tomorrow.

Last story. I'm sitting on my couch after work getting the my daily market wrap-up and I see some dude walk up the driveway and ring the doorbell. I'm thinking this is no good as he is a pretty shady lookin' dude. Turns out he wants to cut my grass or wash my car for $1.99 so he can get some dinner from one of the fast food joints. Our grass happened to be long because whoever usually cuts it hadn't been around in a while. So I told him sure, what the hell go ahead. Then he asks for a cup of water. I oblige. Then he asks for a gas can or something else to put gas in. I told him I didn't have anything. I thought he was going to ask to borrow my car next or nap in my bed. But he eventually cuts the lawn and offers about 10 other services. Oh yeah, this dude actually has a name, William. So I give him 250% of his asking price and another cup of water and now I have a freshly cut lawn.

To give you an idea about the neighborhood. I looked into a vacant lot for sale two blocks south of my house and it was $65k. That was quite a bit more than I had expected. But it is a good size lot with nice big trees. Another 10 years and this will be the place to live in Jacksonville.

Have a nice weekend.

I'm back Baby.

Well, back to work today after a quick weekend trip to see an old, old friend from DC. I'm flying more now down here then in my last year at the Commission. The airport is so easy to get in and out of down here, it makes it tempting to take trips. Only a half hour this time from my door to my gate. It was a beautiful fall weekend in DC. I checked out the new WWII memorial. It is nice but they didn't have the fountains running so I didn't get the full effect.

Work is going well. The weeks seem to fly by. I can already tell the year is going to be over before I know it. I better keep taking weekend trips around the region while I'm here. I've been doing a lot of punchlist work in the past few weeks. They must have figured out that I'm a little detail oriented which works well with punch. Unfortunatly the homeowners that I lead don't seem to be quite so detail oriented. They are a lot like college kids, in that, like a college class, they are constantly trying to get you to wrap things up early and still give them full credit for the day. That annoyed me in school and I still find it annoying. I mean, they're getting a deal of a lifetime on the house yet few put in an honest full days work. Granted many of them have to work a shift after a full day with us but it is only 300 total hours. Well, today I lead 5 homeowners and two of them worked hard for the full day and the other 3 did a decent job.

Tomorrow, I'm going to be siding for second week in a row with the Wednesday gang. The Wednesday gang are a group of retired men who come out and volunteer every Wednesday. These guys know what they're doing. They probably think of me like I think of many of the homeowners. Last week there was about 15 of them and had the house completely sided by 11 a.m. The toughest part of the day is towing the trailer to the site and backing it onto the lot.

I'm watching "My Name is Earl" right now. I love Jason Lee. He's the best.

Everybody cheer for the Cardinals because I would like to see nothing more than to see the Sox vs. Cards in the World Series to stick it to the pathetic Cubs fans.

Keep an eye on Wilma. We might get soaked down here.

To answer Niez's question, none of the homeowners show any apparent signs of drug use. They are screened pretty thoroughly before being selected as a recipient of a Habitat house and I think apparent drug use would eliminate them from consideration. However, I think the boyfriend of one of the homeowners may be a drug dealer. They live together, she's getting a Habitat house because she's poor and he's driving a Lincoln Navigator. Something doesn't quite seem right there.

Take care of yourselves.

Punchlist.

Well, I lived through the day on Saturday. I managed to get the trailer out to the site without incident. Then I got back to the warehouse to meet my volunteers. I had only one true volunteer. He was a guy that was getting a feel for Habijax and what we do because he is going to pitch the idea of sponsorship to his company. Sponsorship consists of a company putting up $50k toward building a house and also working a certain number of volunteer hours by company employees. In return the sponsor company gets to deduct, not the $50k, but instead the appraised value of the home which is usually around $90k. It is a pretty sweet deal for the company. Anyway, the 9 remaining volunteers were actually future Habitat homeowners earning their 300 hours of "sweat equity." Keep in mind that probably close to half of the homeowners we deal with are significantly overweight females with limited formal education. They are all nice people but trying to lead a group of 10 people on punchlist is a very difficult task, especially since it was only my second time leading a group by myself and the first time I only had 4 volunteers. We had to do "Pre-Carpet Punchlist."

Pre-Carpet Punch consists of about a million things but basically we have to get the house ready for carpet to be laid. The superintendant is supposed to make a list of everything for the leader and the volunteers to do. However, my list only had about 5 things on it which wasn't nearly enough for 11 people. One thing was to repaint all 4 bedrooms and the hallway. This was a problem considering we got to the site with brushes and rollers but no paint. So I managed to keep people busy cleaning and caulking for the morning. We broke for lunch early at 11 so I could go pick-up the trailer, bring it to the warehouse, pick up a bunch of supplies, and eat lunch. I get to the other site to pick up the trailer and all the Baptist have left for the day. This is a problem because I need help getting the trailer on the truck. There happens to be a possibly homeless man sitting on the porch eating a huge sandwich that I believe the Baptist group gave him. He is like 90 with a cane. I tell him my problem and he agrees to help me back in. 15 minutes later the trailer is hooked on and the ladders are secure and I'm off. Much thanks to the sandwich eating homeless dude. I'll have to bring money with me next time for such situations.

So I finally make it back to the site at 12:30 with paint and other supplies. One such supply is an extension cord. I plug it in at the pole and start unwrapping it and bringing it toward the house. After I get it half unwound I find that the other end has no female end but instead just exposed wires. Isn't that a nice surprise? After cleaning my shorts I unplug the extension cord and decide we can work without the light. We procede to paint almost the entire house in less than 2 hours. Once the painting was done, so were my homeowners even though we were supposed to have 45 minutes left. I delayed them until 3 pm and signed their sweat equity log books and sent them on their way. However, one was slow to leave and I think she was pretty sweet on me because she was complimenting me on my beautiful teeth (most of the homeowners have at least one gold tooth and several missing teeth) and was the last person left and making small talk with me while sort of gazing at me. I didn't get the digits though. That pretty much wrapped the day. Chaotic but rewarding when it was finished.

Saturday night most of the Americorps went to Kristen's parent's house in Yankeetown near the Gulf. They had an awesome house. Two story spanish style with a full house length upstairs balcony overlooking the pool and hot tub and the whole thing was screened in with one of those Florida screen things. There was a outdoor bar next to the pool and under the upstairs balcony. This was all facing a little river that includes, at times, alligators, porpoise, manatee (we saw several), fish, and the occasional shrimping boat. It was really an incredible place. It was quiet, with a good size yard, palm trees, spanish moss, and four dogs. We just ate food and swam until we had to leave Sunday to get back in time for the Jaguars game (which we won).

Sorry this post was so long but it was an eventful weekend. I doubt there will be anymore this long. I hope everyone out there is doing great. I have to eat some lunch and go play golf. Take care.

JAP

Back to Work

Well, I'm back at it this week after a nice 4-day weekend. I flew back to Michigan to be a groomsman in my friend J.D.'s wedding. Poor bastard. The wedding went well and the weather was great. I played a poor round of golf at Poverty Shores in St. Clair while I was home. It was my first round there since I was in high school. I shot 47. I wouldn't even have made the golf team with that score.

I got back to cooler weather here in Jacksonville. It hasn't cracked 90 all week. We got drenched on Tuesday and Wednesday by Tropical Storm Tammy. We still worked full days each day anyway. On Wednesday night I tried to take everyone out for dinner at Buca di Beppo for my birthday next week and to raise money for the hurricane relief (the restaurant donated 10% of sales). However, the other AmeriCorps insisted on paying for their own and mine. I swear the more broke people are the more they insist on paying. I know Iron Mike wouldn't turn down a free meal. So I guess I'll have to spend the money on myself.

Work is going well. The days just seem to fly by. I already have over 200 hours under my belt. Speaking of that, they gave all the Americorps brand new tools and a tool belt to use everyday and keep with us when we leave. I hope to get some use out of them when I leave. I also worked out at the YMCA last night. We get full memberships at all Ys in the area for only $15 because we're part of Habijax and Americorps. The regular price is $52 and they even have a rock climbing wall.

Tomorrow is a big day. I have to get to the warehouse at 7 and immediately drive out to a jobsite in a truck with a trailer full of ladders attached. This will be my first drive with the trailer hooked up. Should be fun. I have to drop the trailer off with a big group of Baptists, who are putting up siding and then drive back to the warehouse to meet the volunteers I'll be leading for the day. I hope the group isn't too large. It will be my second solo lead this week. We will be doing Punchlist, which consists of a million little clean up type tasks. Maybe I'll explain it in detail in my next post.

One more thing, in case some of you missed it, the White Sox won their first post season series since 1917 today. They took down the defending champion Red Sox. If they can keep up the solid pitching and timely hitting, they have a great shot. I hope they get the Yankees in the next round and St. Louis in the series. That would really stick it to Cub fan. Especially if the Sox win it all. Go Sox!!!!!