Time and Chance

I know with it being Thanksgiving week and all, I should be writing something about being thankful for all we have. And of course I am, but for me being here in Sands Point, ranked by Bloomburg Bussinessnews as the 15th most wealthiest town in America, it has raised so many questions about wealth and poverty.

As I drive around this town I can't help but contemplate the inequity of life. In general, most of us are not exposed to this. Take for instance Farmington, the town I am from. There are a few doctors or business owners who are moderately wealthy and there are a few have nots, but in general there is no huge disparity between wealth and poverty or social statuses. We all rub shoulders at Walmart or Hannaford's or go hungry. There is no where else to shop. Not so, here. 

I have searched my heart and although there is the slightest tinge of envy, for the most part there is only the question of why. Why are some born with the proverbial silver spoon in their mouths while so many others are born in poverty? Why do some go through life always at the right place at the right time while others can't seem to catch a break no matter how hard they try? 

I love the line from the Eagles song, The Sad Cafe. "I don't know why fortune smiles on some
and let's the rest go free" they croon. Take Robert for instance. We met Robert last week. His yard looked like someone had dropped a bomb on it. Thirteen enormous oak trees had come down in the storm. All had missed his house, fortunately. He came hobbling up to us on a crutch nursing a broken foot. During the storm a tree had come down in the road outside his house. Emergency crews showed up to clear the street and Robert went outside to see what was happening. He tripped over a fallen limb and broke his foot. He told me he laid there on the ground in pain watching trees whip in the wind wondering when one would fall on him. No one noticed him or his plight. He watched the emergency crews drive away and manged to drag himself back into the house. The next morning he looked out on a yard filled with the detritus of the storm. All of his neighbors were almost completely unscathed. A stray limb or two laying on their lawns was the only evidence that there had even been a hurricane.

The cleanup and removal of trees from Robert's yard was going to cost him a small fortune. The estimated  amount was very close to the GDP of many third world nations. He wanted to know if we could help. I told him if he could get the debris to the street we would haul it off. This made Robert very happy. He hired Adam to cut and haul all thirteen trees to the street. He also asked Adam to cut down the one remaining oak, damaged by the storm, that remained in his yard. It measured three feet in diameter...a massive old tree. Adam began to cut. He put in his wedges, attached a come-a-along to guide its fall. He did everything right, made his last cut and the tree swung off the stump, turned 180 degrees...and fell directly onto Robert's newly remodelled $100,000 dollar kitchen. His wife who was in the kitchen at the time narrowly escaped with her life!



Not  a very clear picture, but here you can see Robert talking with Mark and Adam, the size of the tree's stump (right) and it's direct path to the house.


I don't know much about Robert other than he is "in salons".  Obviously he has done well for himself, after all he does live in Sands Point. But from his perspective, life has not treated him fairly these past few weeks. He keeps asking, "Why, why me"? I don't think Robert is a "bad" person. As a matter of fact he seems like a decent sort, a good guy. I don't know why fortune smiles on some and let's the rest go free. I really don't. Sometimes life does seem unfair. There's a teaching going around in the Christian church that says that God wants all believers to be healthy and wealthy, that this is a sign of God's blessing on your life. I don't buy it. I have seen too many good people struggle financially or live with debilitating diseases. I have seen a lot of bad people who are wealthy because they have cheated, stolen and manipulated their way to the top. Instead, I agree with the writer of Ecclesiastes.
                                                              
                                                      I have seen something else under the sun:

                                                The race is not to the swift
                                                 or the battle to the strong,
                                           nor does food come to the wise
                                                  or wealth to the brilliant
                                                   or favor to the learned;
                                      but time and chance happen to them all.

                                                            Ecclesiastes 9:11

The race is not always to the swift or the battle to the strong. Sometimes it is, but not always. Time and Chance happen to all men. On this Thanksgiving week, perhaps a better question to ask than "why are others so much more fortunate than I" would be "what do I do with what I have been given". Should I use some of the abundance that Time and Chance has heaped on me to alleviate some of the misery that been has heaped on those whom Fortune has not smiled so kindly upon? Yes, I'm sure this is a better question and one that is perhaps far easier to answer.

Note: To those of you who are doctrinally inclined, I believe that health and wealth are blessings from God and that at times He chooses to bless in this way. But I also believe that "the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike" and "that a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions".

I'm a Member of a Country Club

Those of you who are country music fans will recognize my post title as the lead line in Travis Tritts' 1990 debut single, Country Club. In the song he follows a rich girl into a country club. She declines his advances by saying, "...I'm glad you asked, but I'll have to pass/Cause only members are allowed in here." He responds with, "Well I'm a member of a country club/Country music is what I love..."

Well, I'm a member of a country club too, or at least I'm staying at one. All of us are. To be truthful, we're only staying in the employee housing, but still...

This is the way it happened. We've been using part of the country club's grounds as a TDRS and staging area. It's been a sweet job as my brother and I are the only two debris trucks working in Sands Point. However, there have been a lot of power and light crews in here too and the Village Club at Sands Point has allowed them to stay in some of the buildings. I was talking with the manager and edging my way

The employee housing house

around to asking if he had room for my crews when Justin just comes right out and asks. After a moments thought, Phil said he could put us up in the employee housing building at no cost to us. Extremely generous! We even have a kitchen were we can make meals AND, at least for Jon and me, it's only a 2 minute commute.

One of the Halls

The first night we stayed here my phone rang about 8:30 pm. It was Phil inviting all of us up to the "Mansion" for a small farewell and thank you party for the power crews. Food and drink provided.

The Mansion, and for that matter all of the country club, is part of the old Guggenheim Estate. The "Mansion" which is now the clubhouse is one of the lesser mansions on the estate.



Some of the crew on the main staircase





My brother Jon schmoozing one of the big wigs





Justin gettin' down at the old baby grand

Oh, in my last post I mentioned that Vidal would be bringing pupusas for all of us for lunch. He did and they were EXCELLENT! Here we are (below) enjoying a good lunch and good conversation in a mix of Spanish and English. 

Left to right: Raul, Vidal, Eliot, Mark, Jon and Justin

There's No Place Like New York City

It's really true - there's no place like the Big Apple. When most people think of New York City they think of Manhattan. Actually, NYC consist of five boroughs. 8.2 million people live here. Half of my crew is working in Queens. My brother and I are working on Long Island in the very exclusive Village of Sand's Point.

Two years ago I worked the same area of Queens my other crews are working in. A micro burst had come through and laid over many of the old sycamore trees planted between the sidewalks and the street crushing cars and taking out power. This time the area affected by Hurricane Sandy is much more widespread, but the damage is still similar.

Following our week in Newton, I decide to continue on to this job in New York. Finding hotel rooms for everyone was not easy because there are so many people out of power and of course all the out-of-town crews are filling the hotels too. Barbe spent three hours on the phone Tuesday afternoon calling hotels as far away as Connecticut, with no success. I was beginning to think we might have to sleep at a homeless shelter. Finally she did found us rooms at The Grand in Maspeth, one of the many "towns" which make up Queens.

Doing these storms is always an adventure. Staying at this hotel is certainly one. Our first indication that things weren't as one would expect was the cleaning lady on duty all night. That, and people checking in and out at all hours. The rooms look like they haven't been redecorated since 1970 and the red carpet with the diamond pattern in the hallway tends to make you dizzy when you walk down it. The rooms are small, especially with 4 of us to a room, but hey...it's a place to sleep and shower for $120 per night. We're hoping that maybe by next week we can move into something a bit more respectable, but of course that comes with a higher price tag.

On a positive note, there are lots of really good places to eat within walking distance. We get up at 4 am every morning and leave The Grand by 5 am. There's an awesome bakery with the most incredible coffee and coffee rolls 2 blocks down. We all savor breakfast as we commute the 25 minutes or so to where we park our trucks. Mark drove our 15 passenger van down here so there is plenty of room for everyone. Some of the guys brought pickups as well.

Getting gas is still a major problem. We were shocked to see lines of cars 10 blocks long waiting to gas up. Usually only one station in 10 even has gas  Crews like ours are given priority, but we still try to conserve as much as possible.

We are removing some very large trees which came down in the storm. To even be able to lift them with our loaders they need to be cut into short sections. Below is my brother Jon's stepson, Justin trying to cut through one of the large oaks with our saw, with out much luck. (This was taken the day it snowed.)

We finally had to call in reinforcements from Dom's Tree Service, the contractor we are working for. This is Vidal with a much bigger saw standing in the tree trunk. The picture is taken from up on my loader. Vidal is from El Salvador. Tomorrow he is making arrangements to have pupusas brought to us. This is a traditional Salvadorean food and one I really enjoy. I have been working with quite a few men from Honduras and Guatemala. It's been really cool because I know their countries and also have a chance to practice my Spanish.

Front: Vidal, Back left to right: Homeowner, my son Mark and Eliot

Riding the Storm Out in Newton, Massachusetts

As Hurricane Sandy approaches the East Coast my crews and I are asked to mobilize immediately. We leave Farmington, Maine long before daylight on Monday, October 29th arriving in Newton, Massachusetts at 7 am and are immediately placed on standby.

Newton is one of the oldest and most affluent towns in the Boston area. It's old money and old money prefers to live quietly aloof behind stone walls and hedges, seemingly unaffected by the troubles that plague the rest of us. It's a town full of Lexuses, excellent public schools and winding, tree lined streets. Stately, old three story New England mansions with a myriad of gables, dormers, turrets, porches and chimneys are everywhere in abundance. The streets are narrow with low, overarching trees limbs...difficult to maneuver my truck through. The old oaks and maples wait with us to see what Hurricane Sandy will  bring. Somehow, looking at their huge size, I don't think this is the first storm they have weathered.

Around 2 pm the wind begins to strengthen. The DPW splits my crews up and sends each of us to different sections of the town. As trees begin to topple we are sent out to clear the streets so emergency vehicles can respond. The wind and rain really aren't that bad, but as darkness approaches I am uncomfortable with the idea of putting myself and my crew in harms way other than for true emergencies. Falling limbs and toppling trees are the main cause of death in high winds, but for emergency crews, "hot" power lines are a huge concern. Falling trees usually bring them down and the lines become tangled in the chaos of broken limbs. In addition, for self loaders like ours, booming up into an overhead live power line is a real and constant danger. Trying to do this in pitch darkness is nearly impossible and very dangerous. Around 8 pm I finally tell my crews to shut down and pull back to the staging area. The city isn't thrilled, but...

We find our way back to the hotel through gusty winds, sheeting rain and deep puddles of water that want to tear the wheel from of my hands. Early the next morning we awake to see what has happened throughout the night. Massachusetts, for the most part, has been spared. The news coming out of New Jersey and New York City is not as good.

For the rest of the week we putter around Newton, bucket trucks take down damaged trees and we load up what were once beautiful, old shade trees, now reduced to a jumbled heap of broken limbs and logs, and take them to disposal sites where they will be ground up and turned into mulch or bio mass fuel. For us, it has been a good week. By Friday evening we are done. I make the decision to leave our trucks in Mass and head home in our pickups. There is plenty of work ahead for us in New Jersey, presumably. I just need to determine if it is worthwhile and profitable enough for us to go to. This weekend I will be in constant communication with my primes. The flood waters still need to recede, bids need to be placed, contracts awarded and temporary reduction sites prepared.

Winter is fast approaching. Personally, I am ready to head for Honduras. Balancing my own desires with my obligation to my crews who are anxious to work and need the extra income this storm will produce is difficult. In the end, I pray for divine guidance and let tomorrow with all it's questions and decisions wait. It is good to be back home with my family.