Blue Dog Nights

Well, another week has passed and it’s hard to comprehend that I’ve only been here for 6 weeks. It certainly seems much longer. Our most recent group of AmeriCorp volunteers left Friday, and while it’s great to have volunteers to help us accomplish our goals, it’s good to have a little break since we are knee-deep in preparations for a Thanksgiving Roofing Blitz. Our goal is to rebuild/repair at least 15 roofs. Exactly how we are going to pull this off, I haven’t figured out yet, but we’re certainly going to do our best to make it happen. If you know of a chruch or organization that would be interested in becoming a “Thanksgiving Angel”, please give us a call at 985-594-5350 or email me at volunteer_bayougrace@yahoo.com. To download our Roofing Blitz flyer, click roofing-blitz-flyerpdf1. We’ve also recently launched our first newsletter. If you would like to receive this, please email Danny at gedbayougrace@yahoo.com.

The “Bayou Gremlins” continue to make things somewhat frustrating for me. Earlier this week I was overjoyed to receive a laptop connect card so I could get regular Internet access in my motor home and while out in the field. I started to install the device on my work computer, but it got hung up and, as usual I got a phone call that required my immediate attention, so I just stopped the process. Then later that evening, I decided I would try to do the installation on my personal laptop since I didn’t want to risk something going wrong with my work laptop. Good thing. I went through the whole process, clicking “Yes”, clicking “Next”, and so forth. Finally, I got the “Yahoo, you’ve successfully installed your new device, so just re-start you’re computer and you’ll be good to go” message. With great anticipation, I clicked the “Yes, please re-start my computer” button. Long story short, now my computer won’t boot. It’s so bad that I’m not even getting the blue screen of death, I’m getting the black screen of death!

I did get a chance to have a little fun this week. I went fishing with Mike and Darryl and caught my first speckled trout. Darryl caught 25 trout and 2 redfish. Mike–well, better luck next time. For Halloween I went over to Natatlie’s house and had a great time eating barbequed hamburgers, green sausage, and thoroughly enjoyed seeing hundreds of treat-or-treaters. Yesterday, Julie, Ben, and another gentleman from Detroit were in the area and I took them on a little tour of Point-aux-Chenes and Isle de Jean Charles, two areas devestated by Gustav and Ike. In a couple of days, I’ll be heading up to Pearlington, MS, where they are staying at the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance camp for the next week. I’m looking foward to catching up with old friends and making new ones, and giving my Big Sis Sue a great big hug!

Well, I’m not sure how much longer the Bayou Gremlins are going to allow me to keep this wireless signal, so I’d better not press my luck. Click below for a rather brief retrospective of the last 6 weeks I’ve spent in Terrebonne Parish. For more Week 6 pics, click here.