Best Second, Third and Fourth Trips to the Rockaways

Last Saturday and last Sunday and this Saturday that just happened I went out to the Rockaways to help out with the clean up again and you know what?  Each time I had great out-of-towners with me to help.  Instead of three more posts, why don't we finish this Rockaway-documenting now?

Last Saturday—Carol came up from DC and leant a hand with a lot of other great folks, like Maria.

And my old friend Carlo.

Kiley and husband were there too.

At our first house I helped scrape off the old carpet padding

And tore out all the boards with the nails in them that hold in the carpet . . . I know these have a name, I just can't remember it right now.

At our second house they needed walls knocked out in the basement.

Things got a little crowded there so I went with a few other people to a third house where they needed their lawn furniture sprayed off . . . so . . . yeah . . . everyone had their different needs.

Some Sandy damage just makes you go "How did that happen?!"  This looks more likely to have been a front loader accident than storm damages.

Last Sunday they sent us up to the Far Rockaways.  Neighbor Di and roommate Derrin were there that day along with a second batch of DC'ers (Eliza, Ben, Kat, Ashley and Richie) who I didn't get a good group photo of.

We spent the morning at this house pulling soaked insulation out of the crawlspace, which is a gnarly and smelly job, but it must be done and I'm glad I was not in that crawlspace myself.

Crazy high high water mark.

Then we helped at this house

Where we scraped the tile off the floor

And tore the paneling off the walls.

Afterwards, Kat taught Broek about Power Posture, or Power Bodylanguage, or something.  As you can see, Broek is a quicklearn.

Walking through the neighborhood . . .

Puppies! (If one of these guys gets your finger they will NOT want to give it back so just be ready for that)

We this from here

To here

And across the street we helped remove a few last pieces of furniture

But the Mystery of How to Remove the Hide-a-Bed remained unsolved (Yes, we put the bed back inside.  We still couldn't get it out of the living room)

Came across a pile of water-soaked comics on the street.  Bagged and boarded and ruined, check out the Ghost Rider #1 all taped up in its bag for posterity.

As the day wrapped up Congressman Gregory Meeks paid us a visit.

End of another day that was much longer than the photos suggest

Back on the bus, other fine folk like Andrea and Elijah

And Cesar!

And back in Bensonhurst, a reward: Fun-Size Milky Way bars!

We supplemented our reward with a Sicilian Pizza (among other entrees) at Spumoni Gardens.

When we asked to see the dessert menu our waiter said, "No.  I'm making you something special" and a few minutes later this wonderful thing was at our table.

Okay and now on the Saturday That Just Happened I went out to Breezy Point to help with Operation Gut + Pump with Mom, Owen and Emily

Command Center.  This time we were working under the Fire Department and they ran a tight ship.

Heading to Job #1

We helped empty out the crawlspace under this house,

Owen was in charge of piling the refuse.  Look at this incredibly organized, well-engineered pile he made.  I guarantee there wasn't another house with a pile quite so nice anywhere else in the Rockaways.

Although we didn't work inside the house, this is what it looked like in there.

Back to HQ for some lunch,

And warming at the fire (because things were finally getting cold, real cold)

Before heading to the beach for our second job.  Look at that house!  Look at how it was ripped away from its chimney!



We helped empty the basement of the house on the left.  The ocean blasted all the bricks off the side of the neighbors house . . . and while that house protected our house from the sea, those bricks battered open the basement.

Workin

Workin

Workin

And then we were done.

Here is Mom in her vest,

And Owen in a sweatshirt that made me jealous.

I do not know for sure, but I think Saturday was the last trip I'll be able to take to the Rockaways this season.  It was an honor and a pleasure to serve there with so many fine people.