Fun with FEMA

I just got off the phone with a nice man who is a contractor for FEMA, who has a TRAILER with my name on it. Woo and hoo! Actually, I'm not particularly anxious to live in a 250 sq ft trailer in the middle of the toxic dust storm that is New Orleans, but it would give us base camp in town and someplace to store stuff we want to salvage from the house. The trick though is that I have until Friday to get the yard cleared of debris so we can put the trailer on it, and I have to go to N.O. to sign the paperwork. We're about six hours away. If I don't get the lot cleared in time for the trailer to be delivered Friday, it goes back to the warehouse and I get knocked to the bottom of the list.

Fortunately, New Orleans is crawling with workers right now. I just have to find myself one with a bobcat, because the yard's still full of the bricks and demolition debris from the old kitchen. They'll have to dump the stuff out on the sidewalk or on the median, because there's nowhere to take the trash yet, but it would at least by out of my way and the problem of the Army Corps of Engineers instead.

Sorry I've been so long in posting, there just really hasn't been much to say. I went into town for a couple of days last week, it looks like f---ing Baghdad. All of the grass and plants are dead and the trees lost a lot of branches, so it's brown and dusty. Every house has a refrigerator in front of it. The stoplights don't work, but the streets are clear. I walked through the house with Boudreax the contractor, and it has just enough damage that it's a toss-up between trying to salvage the framing and put it up on a new foundation, or clearing the lot and starting over. My vote is for starting over, since that will allow us to rebuild with concrete walls and storm-resistant windows. I have a total crush on insulated concrete form construction.

Oh and word to the wise, stay away from Countrywide mortgage. Trust me on this.