Oak Ridge Habitat Build
I just finished a week of building with an awesome group of 20 college students from Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. I was so impressed with these young people! They were hard working, got along really well and had fun. It reminded me of all the military deployments and annual training trips I went on, I really miss that kind of camaraderie. Their school has about 3500 students and 10% are Habitat volunteers. They split up to do 4 builds in different states over their spring break. They do fund raisers to finance the trip and a local church put them up in their gym. Other church groups fed them each night and one invited them to a play. A local volunteer fed us during the day. His wife prepared a great lunch, but he specialized in fabulous desserts.
We spent 2 days working on a Brush with Kindness house. It's a neighborhood revitalization program. We trimmed hedges, cleaned the car port roof and gutters. We spent the rest of the week putting siding on the Habitat office. Here are some pictures.
https://picasaweb.google.com/118205599704530902363/Tennessee?authkey=Gv1sRgCMrjicKgtLiMiAE#
Next week there are 2 student groups coming in. I’m not sure what projects we’ll do, but I get the under 18 group. I love the Habitat workers here, they have been great. Tim, the construction supervisor and Debbie the volunteer coordinator are so much fun! Both are very involved and dedicated.
I finished my application for AmeriCorps and applied for 3 jobs working in Louisiana and Mississippi. All are either Hurricane Katrina or Deep Water Horizon projects. Most positions are for 10 months, but then I got to thinking about working in July and August down there. Hmmm, I might want to rethink that. Right now, I’m signed up for a Habitat build in Thibodaux, Louisiana following the Corpus Christi build. Maybe I can just volunteer with them until the heat sets in.
I got a call from Yellowstone about a job working the front desk for their lodge. Apparently the typing test I took was just a little shy of what they were looking for, so they sent my name on to another section. I have yet to hear from them.
Yesterday I took a ride to visit my house. I was stationed here at McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base in 2000. I worked in both the clinic and later in finance as a civilian. I bought a house in Maryville, lived in it for 3 months before I moved to Michigan for an AGR job. That’s an active duty position with the Air National Guard. The pay is almost double that of the civilian position I had. My house has been rented out for the last 12 years. The tenants I have now have been there for about 8 years. I kept meaning to call my property manager to go visit the house, but never got around to it. I know the house is OK, I do a home inspection every year, but since I’m here, it would be nice to see it. I settled for a drive by. It looked just as I remember it. Its still out in the country, but that country is a bit more populated There is a Super Wal-Mart about 5 miles away. Great news if I ever move back! I found a park I used to go to and went for a short walk. Nothing else really looked familiar, but it’s been 12 years.
The weather here in Tennessee has been cold at night and in the 60s during the day. Today is Sunday and the warmest it’s been so far, almost 70. The campground I’m in is pretty small, only about 15 sites. Late yesterday about 4 groups pulled in, all loaded down with canoes. This morning they were up at the crack of dawn and now the whole park is a ghost town. I think I’m the only one still here. After I get my chores done and pry myself off the couch, I’m going hiking. There is a nice state park just down the road, that's probably where the canoers went. I thought ever so briefly of asking if I could join them, but I was watching them leave while still lying in bed and looking out the window. I would have had to get up and go outside for that and it seemed like just too much effort at the time.
We spent 2 days working on a Brush with Kindness house. It's a neighborhood revitalization program. We trimmed hedges, cleaned the car port roof and gutters. We spent the rest of the week putting siding on the Habitat office. Here are some pictures.
https://picasaweb.google.com/118205599704530902363/Tennessee?authkey=Gv1sRgCMrjicKgtLiMiAE#
Next week there are 2 student groups coming in. I’m not sure what projects we’ll do, but I get the under 18 group. I love the Habitat workers here, they have been great. Tim, the construction supervisor and Debbie the volunteer coordinator are so much fun! Both are very involved and dedicated.
I finished my application for AmeriCorps and applied for 3 jobs working in Louisiana and Mississippi. All are either Hurricane Katrina or Deep Water Horizon projects. Most positions are for 10 months, but then I got to thinking about working in July and August down there. Hmmm, I might want to rethink that. Right now, I’m signed up for a Habitat build in Thibodaux, Louisiana following the Corpus Christi build. Maybe I can just volunteer with them until the heat sets in.
I got a call from Yellowstone about a job working the front desk for their lodge. Apparently the typing test I took was just a little shy of what they were looking for, so they sent my name on to another section. I have yet to hear from them.
Yesterday I took a ride to visit my house. I was stationed here at McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base in 2000. I worked in both the clinic and later in finance as a civilian. I bought a house in Maryville, lived in it for 3 months before I moved to Michigan for an AGR job. That’s an active duty position with the Air National Guard. The pay is almost double that of the civilian position I had. My house has been rented out for the last 12 years. The tenants I have now have been there for about 8 years. I kept meaning to call my property manager to go visit the house, but never got around to it. I know the house is OK, I do a home inspection every year, but since I’m here, it would be nice to see it. I settled for a drive by. It looked just as I remember it. Its still out in the country, but that country is a bit more populated There is a Super Wal-Mart about 5 miles away. Great news if I ever move back! I found a park I used to go to and went for a short walk. Nothing else really looked familiar, but it’s been 12 years.
The weather here in Tennessee has been cold at night and in the 60s during the day. Today is Sunday and the warmest it’s been so far, almost 70. The campground I’m in is pretty small, only about 15 sites. Late yesterday about 4 groups pulled in, all loaded down with canoes. This morning they were up at the crack of dawn and now the whole park is a ghost town. I think I’m the only one still here. After I get my chores done and pry myself off the couch, I’m going hiking. There is a nice state park just down the road, that's probably where the canoers went. I thought ever so briefly of asking if I could join them, but I was watching them leave while still lying in bed and looking out the window. I would have had to get up and go outside for that and it seemed like just too much effort at the time.
Comments
Post a Comment