Hurry up and wait

I was thinking about Thurman Thomas today. For those of you who do not know, he is the hall of fame running back that helped lead the Buffalo Bills to four straight super bowls. He was not the fastest running back, probably not the strongest running back, but he had the patience to wait and wait for his blocks to develop.

Why was I thinking of Thurman Thomas? Because much of today was spent waiting, but when we got to work, we did get quite a bit done.

It started at breakfast which is usually followed by a meeting with Randy, but today he was busy so we waited for about 15 minutes before realizing he was not going to be able to make the meeting. For me, the day started by going back to finish a job we had started a few days before. After determining the property line, there was only really one tree to cut down, but it was probably the biggest tree I had ever cut down (something I have said at least three times this week).

But first we had to put a new chain on the saw. Oh, but wait, the only chain we had was the wrong size. No worries, we were working near the downtown hardware store. Oh wait, they do not have the right size. So a drive to Long Beach sets us back another 30 minutes. So the tree is so large that it takes at least thirty minutes to few fell it, then cut the branches, but since the trunk is about 2 miles across (no not a misprint, oh, ok, maybe ;) ) we finally gave up cutting it all.

But it is lunch time, so we go back to base. We are supposed to go to dry wall in the afternoon. The dry wall team has been working at the Whavers’ house for most of the week and need a hand today holding up drywall to the ceiling.

But before we leave, we get a different job. Randy wants us to go help build a shed, but we have to wait for him to get back to show where and how. But he is in the midst of about a hundred things so we have to wait for about an hour.

After yet another wait, we get to work on the shed with a team from Asbury College. Finally things click and the combined crews make about 50% of 14* 16 foot shed for a family still living in a FEMA trailer.

So in spite of much waiting, like Thurman Thomas, being a volunteer sometimes is much waiting and then a fast burst of activity.

Updates on other jobs/things:

* The roof at Karl’s is done! They finished it today.

* Met Jen from Asbury College today. She is from WNY! She lives in Freedom (near Arcade).

* The team from Boston College left today. Asbury leaves tomorrow.

* Most of the team went to Sonic for dinner. Those who stayed were treated to great bread and pizza made by Joe Coate. They also had spaghetti and a few other things made my me.

* tomorrow we will go to a Shrimp boil at Kimball’s.