News bites

Miscellaneous items:

• We all took Tina to the airport to start the day. She was already missed today as we could have used an extra set of hands on the job.
  
• Warm and muggy today. We all were totally soaked with sweat. So much so we took a popscicle/Fudgesicle break mid afternoon.
• Maybe the most surprising thing to me is how wet everything still is. Water in all drawers, cabinets, lights, today above all ceilings, etc. And MAN did it smell. In fact (and I realize many Katrina veterans will disagree) the smell of some of these homes rivals anything I smelled there. Or at least I think it does. Maybe I forget how bad Biloxi really smelled.
• Tomorrow BonaResponds (fortified with three new volunteers) will attempt to tackle three jobs. Stay tuned.
• A large St. Joseph's University group arrived today. Making the Atlantic-10 the #1 conference in terms of volunteering here.
• I ate way too much today. Went to Hyvee with the volunteers and home owner today. Got a great salad and OJ to eat on site, then we had pizza for dinner. Wil have to hit the bike and pool more when get home. Running here is arguably the best of any relief trip I have been on (with POSSIBLE exception of Neosho (HODR Newton County).
  
• Our GPS system (Sally) is a bit suspect. Definitely favors highways to all else, even if it means driving twice as far.
• T-shirts will not be in before we leave :(
  
• Among the Biloxi alum from Handson here now are Richard (I called him Rick in the blog article then) and Monkey Mike. Both of whom played key roles in the formation of BonaResponds. Richard was our first site leader and showed us how to gut homes (in fact we talked today about gutting the apartment on Nixon Street). He is also one of the many volunteers who gave us the confidence to try bigger things and BonaResponds is one result.
  
• We plan on leaving tomorrow after the nightly meeting. Since we only have one driver we will probably stop mid way and get at least a nap.
• Spoke on several occasions with Randy May of Randy's Rangers. He will probably be setting up camp somewhere in the area to help with recovery efforts.
  
• New pictures are online at our flickr page