it's hard to stay up to date going online once a week

So it's now July 3. Since we got to Mississippi I think I've been online a total of 8 times. It sure makes it harder when you have to drive to the library for internet access, and even then we don't get much free time to do that.

This week we only had two groups of about 20. One from Texas, and one from North Carolina I had half of the North Carolina group and doing a vinyl soffit underneath a house. That only makes sense when you know that most of the houses in this area are on 7+ foot stilts because they are realatively close to the ocean. In order to hold the insulation in underneath the house we put a vinyl soffit underneath to help hold the insulation as well as for aesthetic reasons. It's a relatively simple job, but the prep work is rarely simple. Both of the houses had plumbing hanging down so we did two different things. The first house we basically dropped the ceiling under the house six inches so it was a straight run with the vinyl. The second house, we boxed in the plumbing and ran the vinyl. In both cases it took about a week of prep work (dropping the ceiling/boxing in plumbing, as well as lay all of the tracks to put the vinyl in) and only a couple of days to actually put up all of the vinyl. That first week is often very frustrating because it never looks like we're moving very fast, but once the vinyl starts going up we can see quickly how all of our prep work paid off.

The first house belonged to an elderly lady who had just moved into her house. Her house was destroyed in Hurricane Camille and again in Hurricane Katrina. This time it was literally picked up and moved 10 feet toward the bay. She was a sweet lady who always bought us bananas and made us sandwiches. She was very grateful for what we were doing. I was happy to be doing some finishing touches on her house especially knowing that for almost three years prior she had been living in a FEMA trailer.

The second house belongs to a lady who attends the local Episcipal church. Our home this summer happens to be right across from the Episcipal churches cemetary (some claim we're actually in the cemetary. She's very anxious because her house is very close to being livable. The electrician was in this week to work on some of the final electrical work. All that really needs to be done is the plumbing needs to be connected and she be able to move in. It still blows me away that three years after the storm, people who have been trying to come back are still not in their homes. In our area only one in three people decided to come back.

So it seems an awkward place to stop but I need to go get ready for our service tonight. Tomorrow we're having bbq ribs and I'm excited. I hope you're doing well. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers as I sweat out the heat in Mississippi.