HAPPY NEW YEAR.

From Charleston, SC.

Sunshine State My Ass.

It was cloudy for three days straight over the weekend. And it never stopped raining all day Saturday and Sunday. I think I like 25 and snow over 45 and rain. But I can't really complain too much because it was 60 and sunny today. We had our Christmas party on Saturday. We took a chartered paddle/river boat out in the St. John's River. There was dinner and dancing and all the usual crap. It was cool to see the city from the river but unfortunately due to the weather you couldn't stay out on the top deck for long without getting soaked and the windows were all fogged up on the inside. They actually had to dock 45 minutes early due to a boater warning put out by the Coast Guard. It was a good time nevertheless.

Work is going well. I drew blood again last week for about the fifth straight week but it was very minimal. I've gone through more band-aids this year already than the previous ten combined. At least they're only band-aids and not bandages or casts. I did return to the site of the shooting last Tuesday to finish the landscape job with 8 midshipmen. Nothing exciting happened and we finished up by lunch. I took a belaying (rock-climbing) lesson yesterday with Kristen. Neither of us fell to our deaths so it was a success. We have to do it 4 more times in order to be "certified" and no longer require supervision.

Tonight we had our Americorps "Senior Center" Christmas dinner and gift exchange. Our house is the Senior Center because we have all the old people here. The next oldest after me is probably 24. The average age in our house (30) is probably 7 years older than the other houses. We used Kristen's gift certificate at Cracker Barrel. It was Nick's first Cracker Barrel experience, which is hard to believe since he worked in Tennessee all last year. After dinner we came home and exchanged the gifts we bought for each other. I got golf balls and the Scene It Sports DVD game. Kristen got socks, a dog puzzle, and a dog calendar. And Nick got a pair of pants, a shirt, some undershirts, and a chess timer. He was very greatful for the clothes because all of his are the same as he wore for construction last year and now he works in the office and is supposed to be "business casual." It is crazy but Nick seemed more greatful for $50 in clothes than some homeowners are for getting a house for $300 a month. And I felt more satisfied helping him than helping some of the homeowners. Crazy world.

I'm heading home by car on Thursday night. I'll be sure to document the road trip with my brother on the way back down here. I'll see some of you in the next couple days and Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to everyone else.

PS - That is a picture of Lee and I at the Colts-Jags game. (I took the picture if you can't tell.)

Close Call. Sort of.

Okay, I'll try not to make this too long. The picture above is the group of homeowners that I led (or is it lead?) on a landscaping job on Saturday. We worked all morning moving dirt, raking, and laying some sod. At 11:15 we went to the "Building on Faith" dedication, which is basically a party for all the homeowners who got houses that were sponsored by churches this fall. Most of my homeowners went over there with me because they were offering free lunch. I told everybody to meet back at the site at 12:45. Well the dedication of course ran long and I was ten minutes late. As I was turning left onto the street where our site was one of the homeowners was stopped at the stop sign heading away from the site. I figured she was cutting out early. So I turned onto the street and stopped to talk to her. She said that a bunch of gun shots were just fired on the other side of the block behind our site and a guy ran through our site and by her car with a big gun in his hand. Then two other dudes went running past as well. So she pulled away (she had her two teenage kids in the car too). As she was telling me this a white car with the back all smashed up drove past us at the intersection and stopped about 50 feet away. Then she said that it was the car the guys jumped into. I told her that we should get outta there and I took off down the street. I stopped in a parking lot near the main street and called the boss on the two-way. He didn't respond so I called the 24 year old girl that gives us our assignments to ask her what I should do with the volunteers. She said to wait for her to get there. Then I drove back to the site where all the volunteers were now waiting. The boss called me back and I told him the story. As I was telling him, the homeowner who saw the guys told me that she thought the guy walking down the street toward us was one of the dudes. I told this to my boss and he said to call 911. So I call 911 and tell the dispatcher the story. I forgot to say that the homeowner said she saw one of the guys holding his leg and limping as he ran from the white car. So a few minutes later a cop shows up and we tell him the story and he goes to see if the white car is still there. The girl shows up and reassigns us to another site in a better neighborhood. (I had never worked in the shooting area before Saturday.) As I was leaving my boss pulled up and I told him that we were going to a different site and that the cop was over by the white car. Today I found out that my boss spoke to the cop for awhile after I left. He asked the cop if he knew there was a shooting and the cop held up a bag of empty casings so he came to our site from the shooting site. He said that it did not appear that anyone was actually shot and that the shooting was gang related. So the rest of Saturday afternoon I had people from the office calling to make sure the homeowner and I were all right. My boss also said today that our episode was one of the closest calls they've ever had, which is reassuring because I didn't think ours was too bad. However, I might think differently if I had shown up on time and was laying sod in the yard when the dude ran by with the gun. Something bad could have happened if all 13 of us were working in the yard when that dude ran through. The only time I ever felt anxious was when the homeowner said that the guy walking by us was in the group, but he never looked at us. The good news is that I may have to go back to that site tomorrow with some other Americorps to finish the landscaping. I told Lee that I might need him to come down here this week with his gun to provide security.

In other news, it was cold at the Jags game yesterday and they lost. I worked an extra day today so I get an extra day off down the road. I also bought Nick some clothes for Christmas and his birthday because he works in the office and it is supposed to be business casual and he still wears his clothes from when he was doing construction work last year for Habitat. I hope everyone is having a nice Holiday season, it sounds like the yahoos at ACA are. Take care.

Fall....

has finally arrived here. We topped out at 60 today and leaves are actually falling off trees. But it is still sunny almost every day. Nothing too exciting going on at work. I did get to do a drywall patch today for the first time so that was nice. We've gotten to the point where the regular tasks are getting kind of boring so anytime we get to try something new it's a good time. I'm sure you are all very concern so you will be relieved to know that my leg has healed nicely. We are dedicating houses on Saturday that were part of the "Building on Faith" program, in which various churches sponsored the building of 8 houses with funds and labor. Thank God, the Episcopal were getting to be a pain in the ass. Actually, they weren't too bad with me but they had problems with some of the other Happijax staff. I have attached a picture of the group of Methodists that I led on Saturday. We prepped the house for priming (spackle, caulk, and clean).

I'm really looking forward to having a week and a half off at Christmas. I actually miss winter at this time of year. I'm particularly looking forward to the drive back down here after Christmas because Matt is coming with me and we are going to take a few days and make it a scenic trip. I think we are going to head through West Virginia and the Carolinas. Should be a great time. We may end up in the backwoods of WV for New Year's Eve. I hope nobody ends up sqealin' like a pig Deliverance style. We are going to end the trip by going to the Gator Bowl here in Jacksonville on the 2nd.

In case anyone is interested I shot 95 yesterday with 9 penalties (a personal record). I'm thinking of quiting until someone comes down to visit and wants to play golf.

For some reason I've been thinking a lot lately about what I want to do when I finish here and after I take my cross country journey. I didn't think I would start to think about any of that crap until at least May. I thought I knew what I wanted to do for sure when I left to come here but I don't know anymore. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there that wish they had problems like this. It's hard to balance doing good for others, doing for yourself, doing what you love, or doing something you might not love to set yourself up for doing that in the future. I guess we'll wait and see which options present themselves in the future.

Well, that's enough from Doogie Howser for one night. Hope you all are having a great holiday season and keep your clothes on at the office parties.

-Juicebox. Out.

Metal Flashing

We have a guy that makes the announcements at morning circle everyday to the staff and volunteers. His favorite thing to say when talking about safety is that boards with nails are like snakes and they'll jump up and bite you. Well, he can add metal flashing to that. On Tuesday when I was in the warehouse at lunchtime getting more supplies I had a run in with some flashing. For those who don't know, flashing is thin metal that is used for building houses and can be rolled up like paper towel. You know how when you stand up a roll of paper towel on the counter it unrolls a little. Well, this flashing does the same thing. So I was hurrying back to my truck at the loading dock and there was some flashing there that was partially unroll and I accidently kicked it with the side of my shin. Much like a snake bite, it kind of hurt so I sat down on the edge of the truck bed to check it out and there was about a 2 inch cut in my leg. It was very clean like a razor cut and I could actually see the skin pulled apart and something bright white inside the cut. But not for long as it filled with blood. I was already late for meeting my homeowner on the jobsite so I went to the bathroom and got some wet paper towel and held it on my leg for the 5 minute drive to the site. I was 15 minutes late but luckily the homeowner didn't take off. Once there, I got out the first aid kit and through a couple band-aids on it. The homeowner saw it and thought I should go to the hospital but I told her she was being a bit dramatic. Once I got home I cleaned it out really well, put on some Neosporine, and two more band-aids. I've done that the last two nights and it doesn't look infected and seems to be healing. I hope that is my last injury of my tour but I highly doubt it.

Also, I got to put OSB on the roof of a house yesterday so that was exciting since we don't get to do carpentry stuff very often. The weather is still nice but cooler, 30s and 40s in the mornings and low 60s in the afternoons.

I don't have any construction pictures so I put a picture of Nick using my computer in the office/recording studio in our house.