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.