Katrina Roundup

Mom suggested I make a single post containing all of the projects completed during my time working in NOLA. Some of them were finished at home, but they were all primarly done there.













Not bad.

Hot Zone

Yep. I did it.



Note. This picture was taken in my apartment, then superimposed over the demolition site. NOT taken at an actual demolition, and the asbestos tape came off of a roll. No, I do not contain any asbestos.

Augh

After so many productive days I hit this



Yesterday and today, work got shut down due to bad rain and thunderstorms.

Am I the only one who sees the irony in calling a stop to hurricane damage cleanup due to inclement weather?

On the Kindness of Strangers

I made my way today to the Quarter Stitch in the French Quarter. There I met the two owners, and a lady whose name I found out later was Mary. Mary (and the owners) had been here when NOLA flooded. Mary chose not to leave, and rode out the storm and the flooding in her two-story house. She helped to save some of her neighbors whose houses had gone completely underwater. She was smart and had stored food and water so that she and her neighbors would have somewhere to go. She is still living in a FEMA trailer, and is slowly refinishing the first floor of her house. She only has the summers to really work, being a catholic school teacher.

We talked for a while, about teaching, and I told her what I've been doing here. She told me about a book, where students from the University of New Orleans went out and interviewed people affected by Katrina, and put some of those anecdotes into a book. I take notes so that I can find and purchase it and she says she's going to go check and see if the bookstore, La Librarie has it. I stay, chatting with the owners, and she returns with the book, for me! She wanted to get it for me as a thank you for all that I'm doing here. I was so touched. Here she is, having gone through hell, and she's thanking me for helping with the cleanup efforts.

I also spent an exorbitant amount on yarn in that shop. I'm all for helping keep these local businesses up and running. They wrap it up like it's your birthday, but the shop owner is a little shy abou thaving her picture taken, so I told her she could hold the package up in front of her face. . . Then shot the picture as she laughed!

Knitting progress so far

Here this fine Mother's Day, I've completed the second of two hats for my cousin Jenny who is going to be a mother again on Wednesday. Now there are two little pink matching hats. One for her daughter Madison, and one for Emma, who will be born this Wednesday. I really like the idea of a big sis gift. They're made with the same yarn, Sirdar Baby Bamboo, which is 80% bamboo, 20% superwash merino. It's incredibly soft, which is nice for a hat, but did make this yarn a bit of a pain to use. I have one more skein that I bought as a just in case it was needed, but they did each take exactly one skein (97 yards) with a little modification. I did the decreases every other row for the first 4 rows after the pigtail hole, then every other row. I started to see that the skein was running short and didn't want to run out. It makes the hat a little short, but it's so cute, I think it will work just fine.

Here is how tiny it is when it's not stretched. It's just a little bigger than my open palm.

But it looks cute, and is a hat I'd definitely wear myself!


I've also made it completely through Jeff's first sock, and have made very good progress on the second!

(do you like my yellow vest in that shot?)
Now that I have one project off the needles, I"m going to start on a pair of socks for myself, for when I need a change from shades of brown!

70 hours

I never realized how tiring a 70-hour work week could be, until I did one. Thursday night was particularly challenging, what with the 14-hour day.

However, there have been some fun highlights. . . The ego boosts.

- My nickname on one job site is "Hot Zone" I'm going to try to get a picture of what inspired this nickname. . .


- Heard second-hand from a coworker, who saw me in a tank-top. "It's nice to see a lady all hottied up!" (Dude, I was wearing Steel-toe Boots, baggy Carhartt pants and yes, a tank-top)

More fun

So Jeff's toe socks are over halfway completed, but unfortunately I've had a LOT going on and not a lot of time to work on them. I spent all day yesterday either just doing my job regular-like, or RUNNING. I had to write a crew up and it wasn't even my crew!

But at least I logged 14 hours!

ohh, I'm tired.

But not as tired as I was after the black belt test, at least!

I'll tell everyone stories when I get home.

New Orleans and Socks!

Progress on the first of two socks for Jeff is coming along. I was about 2 inches in by the time my plane landed, and after two days of work I'm past where I'm putting the heel and off to the cuff.

There are no heels on this bad boy yet, because I'm not positive where I need to put them, so I'm doing an afterthought heel. I left a few inches between the ribbing at the arch (to pull in the arch, Jeff likes his socks tight) and where I started doing the pattern all the way around. That gives me a bit of fudge factor to place the heel, and hopefully will end up with just right! That and I am tired of doing short row heels!

Craftiness before leaving

I leave today for New Orleans once more. Another 2-week mobilization. I am both looking forward to it and not. Hey, the hours are fantastic. The work is interesting, and the people I actually work with are great. The people whom I am telling how to do their jobs probably aren't so much looking forward to having me back, but tough noogies! I'm definitely NOT looking forward to how hot and humid it is there, and I'm not looking forward to being 2 weeks without Jeff.

I was talking with my boss, and he thinks this will probably be my last tour. They're ramping down, especially those individuals who are not local and therefore need to get housing and flights and cars. Expensive stuff, and I'm all for the government saving money. Also, work has gotten too busy for me to really leave. In my opinion this is all just fine.

It would have been be detrimental to my career to refuse to return. I played that game once, because I hated the assignment. I went, was trained, and then wouldn't return because I hated it. This time I do actually enjoy the work. They need to get their fair investment out of me this time. The last two week stint, they really only got 6 days of work out of me, because the entire first week I was training, shadowing a number of different people rather than working. At the same time, I don't want this to be my primary job. I want my regular job to be my primary job, and this be something interesting to add on occasionally.

To top it off, I'm headed there with a decent sunburn thanks to the crappy tent. Yeah, NOT looking forward to hot weather with a sunburn.

I did get a bunch of stuff done in the past few weeks. I planted a weeping willow in the back yard where it's low and a little muddy, I planted a jasmine on the side of the porch. I'll keep it trained to a trellis rather than the porch, btu I really like the idea of that gorgeous jasmine smell when they're in bloom, just washing over the porch. Somehow seeing all that destruction made me want to beautify my little home.

I also got a lot of work done on the knee socks. They're sooooo cute! I almost want cold weather so I can wear them now! But of course I'm headed to NOLA.


I don't know if I'll get its mate done before I go. Probably not, since I'm simply being anxious right now blogging at 8 in the morning with a flight at 1 PM!

I also did another dyeing of some roving. This time it was some of the roving with a black stripe down it.

I'm calling it Crayola, because, well, it reminds me of one of those 8-color boxes of Crayons!

I've made some more progress on Mom Kass' felted vest. Some frustration with the USM not counting rows accurately, but I"m hoping that felting will erase all ills. I still haven't decided what to pair with it for the neck, front and arm accents, but it will be something neutral. Perhaps I'll dye some of that Licorice Twist yarn to suit!

I definitely overpacked the yarn last time. I made 1.5 pairs of socks, but had packed enough for 7 pairs! This time I've packed enough for 3 pairs, and am planning a trip to Quarter Stitch, which is a really cute yarn shop just off of Jackson Square. This time I'm smart, planning on yarn for the return trip!

Some of the work

Some interesting shots of the houses and demos I've been working on

The excavator operator was having fun stacking the "white goods" (Fridges, washers, stoves)


This was a lovely looking structure!

More fun

The second Saturday I was here we had the day off because of tremendous thunderstorms and rain which had flooded most of the sites and the landfills.

We started off the day with a trip to Cafe Dumonde!


Ordered begniets and coffee


They were delicious


We didn't ride the carriages, but one of the horses kept looking at me cockeyed (it has been pointed out to me that those are mules, not horses, oops! )


And we ended the day with some very happy booze on Bourbon Street!

Finally

I finally have a wireless card for the laptop, and can do some blog posting while I'm waiting for the next dump truck to arrive.

So let's start off with the first day I got here. Rebecca , my coworker, showed me around. She's spent a total of about three months here, 2-5 weeks at a time, so was invaluable in helping me get a feel for this city.

We wandered around, walked by the river and saw some ferry boats,


then headed off to a restaurant for some crawfish! The season had just started so I got an entire garbage can lid full! (no, this is not really a garbage can, but it's just about the same size.

I did the inevitable.

Finger puppets.