Katrina relief......

mrvette

Phantom of the Opera
Joined
Mar 24, 2008
Messages
15,207
Location
NE Florida
I posted over on CF about my experiences with this but they more concerned with my writing style than the story...so it goes....

So my welder buddy was slow on the jobs, not a union member yet, so he and I decided to do the Katrina housing damage effort, we drove to Houston for training, did 2 days in the motel there, and came back to East Houston to a little town called Pleasantville which is off the I 10 freeway and their inner loop called I 610 as I recall.....anyway, there parallel road to I 10 on the south side is Market street, the whole mess follows the Houston shipping channel and this older town is hurry caine prone for flooding and had been order evacuated for Katrina....so all these phoney damage claims coming in so they needed to be handled for FEMA.....we got paid some 50 bux/house to do the work,

but we had to foot our own living expenses for the trip, untill we got paid, then it was easy street, figger 6/day at nearly 50 each....

so the issue was to support ourselves with just the trucks, the firm we worked for was Parsons Brinkerhoff, a contractor to FEMA.....

so we are living out of my 3/4 ton Dodge work van, and his S10 pickup....

we parked overnight in a Tinseltown theater parking lot under very bright lights, and SSS out of water bottles, from the local McD's whatever next door....fine...we exist like this under the watchful eye of the Houston PD for some 3 days.....but we starting to really need to SSS in a place with a shower....so we go hotel looking, anything we find is 80+++/night.....
we can't afford that for just a bathroom, so we went into a PINK motel on/near that freeway junction....we hit the joint, check in and do our SSS so we go see the field supervisors some hour drive east...stupid location....
anyway, so we back at the hotel with our cphones we calling people to set appointments....come along about 930pm is this tap on the door, John goes to look out the drapes, and sure enough a hooker dressed for the kill....
we go silent, not wanting to bring home anything uninvited ......
so it goes silent and TWO of them show up, same tapping and crap on the front door, they eventually disappear, I think of my .357 Mag pistol in the truck under the tools, and decide to get it outta there cause this is not such a hot place afterall....hookers, PINK paint and all......so sure enough about 1030 or so is some loud hammering, it's the PIMP, so I lay on the floor mattress and load the gun 158 grain hollow points, they ARE going down....

so we blocked the flimsey door with a chair and some clothing jambed around/under it so it would not slide easy....and sure enough TWO pinps showed up trying to force the door, so Johnny grabs the cphone and 911, houston PD.....he tries to describe where we are, and they finally figger it out, us not remembering the NAME of the joint to this day.....

they not too concerned on the phone in dispatch there untill they hear the hammering and shouting from the door area....so then Johnny says, look we have had a couple drinks each, and you don't know Geno, but he WILL drop these guys soon as they step in the room, he only 5' from the door,.....he basically can't miss.....they heard THAT, and 3 cruisers showed in a minit or three, whatever......so we packed outta there, drove the the movie house lot for what was my next to the last night out there, I really wasn't suited for the job, so they let me go.....I made some 1700 bux that week anyway, Johnny stayed for 3 months and got paid some 20 grand for his efforts....

your tax money at work..... :hunter::hunter::bonkers::yahoo::yahoo::pprrtt::beer:
 
Gene.

I hope you got paid for your efforts. My son-in-law worked down there for around 3 months, and still has not been paid in full as of yet. Good old FEMA contractors!
 
Gene.

I hope you got paid for your efforts. My son-in-law worked down there for around 3 months, and still has not been paid in full as of yet. Good old FEMA contractors!

HUYMM no idea, I was paid quickly enough and more than I figgered on too boot....but the paperwork did make some sense, even though the reason I was fired was that basically I didn't get along with the computer too good....

one of the 'stylist' with the wand type things, and so it was right handed where the scroll bars are, and running it with my left hand like I write did not work well, so not only slow, but error prone....plus, as I found out It was supposed to be a weeks' training....we got 2 days at most....

but Johnny did well with it...being right handed and younger helped handle the crap better....and he got paid everything, be amazed how thick the paperwork was....jeebus....


after that episode with the hookers/pimps/gun/cops in that cheep motel I was just as glad to head home to wife anyway....

it was a strange trip in a LOT of ways.....

my son Tom wants to come here see me for a while, and head to N.Orleans to see some friends and what's up.....so maybe wife and I can tag along for hell of it, at some point, never actually BEEN there, just by the joint....

:crutches::crutches::crap:
 
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