I'm Writing a Book!

Technorati Tags: DIY,Home,Repair,inspection,contractors

I've started writing a book.  It is a DIY book about how to inspect your own home.  It is targeted at the homeowner that wants to do a thorough job of maintaining their home in the best possible condition. 

It will discuss the 5 major "systems" of a house; Roof, Foundation, Electrical, Plumbing & Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning. It will explain how to inspect these systems and what to look for as far as potential problems. It will also contain two additional chapters; one on Grounds and Drainage and another on how to work with Contractors (and not get screwed)

I have managed to make pretty good progress and the first drafts are done.  I went through it and cleaned up the formatting and obvious errors.  Now my wife is proofreading the second draft for me.  I plan to distribute it to a few friends for a final run through to check readability and to see if it "speaks" to the target audience.

I will post here when it is ready to publish.  I'm thinking of putting it up on one of the sites I already write articles for.  The also have the facilities to publish full works and sell them on their site.  Maybe I can make a little money by selling it. Hope so, that would be nice.

On another note........

I recently acquired a "speech to text" program called Dragon naturally Speaking 10".  I have used an older version in the past, version 6 or 7 I think.  This new version blows the old ones away!    It is amazingly accurate after minimal training.  It almost never misses. It even adds punctuation in the right places automatically. How cool is that?  I wish I had it when I was writing this book, It would have gone a lot faster.  I'm not a poor typist but this is so much faster.

Later,

Dana

True Professionals, Inc.

Thermal-Diagnostics

Looking Back

Well, I'm back home in Los Angeles now. I got back on the 20th at 6:00 PM. I've been home for a week now just getting sorted out after 50 days away. Lots of things to catch up on.

First thing was to send off my Motion TabletPC to see why it died on the way home in Phoenix! It just quit working and would not respond to the on-off switch to restart it from standby after I checked my mail while on a two hour layover there. It did this once before and I had to send it in.
It turns out that the mother board was cooked and needed replacing. To the tune of $530! and 2-5 weeks! This was not acceptable as I need this computer for my work that I would soon return to. (at least I hope my job is still there!)

I began the search for a new TabletPC as that is my preferred form factor. There are a ton of offerings out there. Some were just not in my price range for a field unit that gets some hard use. I saw units in excess of $4500. These were the "ruggedized" Military Spec type that you can drop in the water and run over with a truck. I really did't need that. I used one of those for my FEMA inspections that PaRR inspections provided.
I decided to switch to a "convertable" style from the "slate" style that I had been using. The convertable style has a built-in keyboard and looks like a conventional laptop except the screen can spin around and lie flat over the keyboard like a slate. The unit I eventually chose, an
HP tx2510us, is a "dual mode" screen with both "touch screen" and an "active digitizer" that works with a special stylus. It is taking a little while to get used to the new system (along with Vista) but I like it so far. I wanted the digitizer screen system since I do a lot of "inking" as in handwritting and that does not work well on a pure touch screen system.

Oh Oh! When I called in to tell the guys ar work that I was back and ready to restart I was told that "John will call you". That does not bode well! I may be looking for a different position or going on my own at a time when the Real Estate market is in the tank. This would kind of suck since I've been with this group for 6 years now and am one of the senior inspectors there.
We had been told by the CEO that since work was slow, it would be ok to step away for a while and do something else with no problems when we were ready to come back. The ethics of this is questionable. They have been known to reverse on past statements and I should have been better prepared to make a change. I have been working on some options but nothing is in the income producing stage yet. Better get busy! Time will tell I guess. Still waiting for "that call" from John.

Later,
Dana

San Leon, Texas is Wasted!!

I think they want some help

Where's the House?

Nothing left but the address!

Odd place to park your boat!

Even the bird houses got hit!

Texas Prairie Chicken

These used to be mobile homes

Former Mobile Home location

Wow!

Another Wow!

This small community just south and east of Bacliff and right on Galveston Bay where I have been working was really hit hard. It is very low, with some areas that are actually below sea level. The results of this are obvious by the pictures I took there the other day. These pictures are one month after the Ike hurricane and most still do not have any utility services. A few of the businesses out on the main highway into town, 517, have power but that's all.
Still in the clean up phase after the storm, very little repairs are under way due to lack of utilities. This is going to take a long time and some will never be able to rebuild. Due to the location and conditions in San Leon, many could not afford insurance or the insurance companies will just not write a policy for any amount of money. In spite of all this destruction, the people I met were pretty up-tone and getting on with their lives. The mind set down here on the Gulf Coast seems to be Sh** Happens - lets just move on. I have to laugh when they find out I'm from California and the first thing out of their mouths is "Earthquake" I just tell them that after the earthquake, all your stuff is in one pile and dry. You don't have to ask the guy six blocks away if they have seen your car.
It looks like things are starting to slow down as far as work for me goes. I may be coming home soon. This will be the second weekend with little or no work. That sucks since the weekends are the best time to catch people at home with an "ambush inspection". I cannot reach many clients by phone since a lot of utilities are still out. The typical process is to call for an appointment, tell them what documents I will need to see and then go by the next day. This usually works on about half of the applicants, the others I cannot reach. When they make their first application, they are supposed to list several contact options. After the storm, the phones don't work, they have left the area and not returned and some have even blocked incoming calls on that line. Time to "ambush" them. LOL
I'm actually starting to like the Gulf Coast area. I'm getting used to the humidity and the weather has been pretty nice. The "beach lifestyle" is pretty strong down here. This is definitely Jimmy Buffet and Kenny Chesney country. The cost of living is quite low, housing prices are a total shock to someone from hyper-inflated California! You can rent a nice house with a huge yard for about $500-$600 a month and buy a very nice house for under $200,000. Wow, it wouldn't be hard to consider living here. Of course the wage rates are a lot lower down here I would expect, hence the low housing prices. If I could create a business down here that made the money that I currently make in CA, we could live like a king and have a ton of room for all the dogs.
Ok, this is getting pretty long so I will cut it off here and say "Later"
Dana

Looks like the end is in sight.

I'm running out of inspections to do. I got it down ot one last guy that I need to verify occupancy on and I'm through with that batch I started last week. I did pick up 3 more this morning and they are scheduled for Sunday morning.
The broadcast voicemail that PaRR uses to communicate to all the inspectors in the field had a message about not calling in to let them know about low or no work conditions. PaRR does not send the work to us, FEMA does. Kind of sounds like they are getting a lot of traffic about this and I'm not the only one running out to jobs. This might mean it is getting near the end and I will be released soon. If figures, just when I get a good system down to crank out a lot of inspection and make some serious money, they run out of work! I need at least 8-10 per day to make any money after expenses are factored in.

Over all, this has been a frustrating experience. Many stops and starts and moves to new locations. Lost time to handle housing issues and fighting with the ass***** at Alamo/National Car Rental, writing up and scheduling of 30 inspections only to be told to send them all back and move to a new area. The potential to make some serious money was there in theory but in practice, there are too many things that are beyond your control to put it all together. I think I will be lucky to break even and just chalk it up to an interesting experience. Considering that I would have made at least $200-250 per day back home doing what I usually do, the weekly cost of a rental car, housing costs and food, as well as $50/week for Fedex Express to send in the payroll, doing 8 inspections per day is the minimum to come to the plus side of the equation.
I did not really attain that very many times for a number of reasons including those listed above. I've done something like 180 inspections at $50 each. The gross for that would be $9000. add in the $2500 I got for 6 days of standby, back out the 10% PaRR holds back for 45 days and all my costs, I'm probably ok. I haven't added up all my expenses yet. I have also been paying all my normal bills back home. I'll take a few days off when I get back to sort it all out.

Although I did get to see a lot of country that I wouldn't normally see and meet a lot of very nice people, it wasn't a vacation by any means. I made a few new friendes, got to meet a "long distance friend" in person that I only knew via the internet, had one client actually call and thank me for helping them and got quite a few free cups of coffen and soft drinks, even got a flat pumped up so I could make it to the repair shop. And tomorrow I'm going up to meet another Otterhound owner that lives in Houston. All in all, I don't regret doing this but would have to think about it if they call again. I may try PB Inspections next time to see if they are better or worse to work with/for.

One of the things that always amazed me was the low cost of housing down here in the South. I got to see a lot of mortgages and rental agreeents and housing is cheap down here! At least compared to what I'm familiar with in Los Angeles. What costs me $2100 per month goes for about $500 here. Nice, new 1800 sq ft homes are going for $150-180 thousand. The median price in California is over $500,000. And that doesn't buy very much in LA. Maybe a nice condo or a 2-3 bedroom in a working class area. My typical home inspection job in LA is on million dollar homes. I suppose the wage rate is a lot less down here so I guess it all works out.

Long post tonight since I have not been all that active over the last week or so and wanted to get down a few "Thoughts from a Boomer" to make up.

Later, Dana

1st. Visit to Galveston

I don't think this place will be re-opening any time soon!

This hole is 30 feet above the beach level.

Hope the car wasn't in here!

I took the time today to make a quick tour of Galveston today for the first time since the storm.

It's been almost one month since Hurricane Ike came to town and Galveston is still a wreck. Everybody is busy cleaning up but very few businesses are open. A bit hard to find food and fuel on the Island still. Then are big piles of debris along most of the steets off the main drags. I passed one huge lot completely filled with 40-50 foot high piles.

I took the time to stop by the FEMA camp at the airport to check it out. It's not as big as the Beaumont camp but very nice. If I get inspections down here, I may move down from Texas City. This is a lot closer to my inspections than the Beaumont Camp was.

I have not posted for a while since then has not been anything to new to pass on. I've been out 40 days now and it is all starting to blend together. Every day is much like the previous ones .
I'm almost done with the current batch of inspections in La Marque and Alvin. I'm working on clearing the last few applicants I have not been able to make an appointment with.
I wonder where the next group will be ? I'll keep you posted.

Later -Dana

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Fair Warning!



Bridge near Baytown, TX


Serious winds near Winnie, TX


He huffed and puffed and blew my brick house down!


Just one of the remaining thousands of boats
that were blown up onto I -45 Freeway
north of the causeway to Galveston.


I've been very busy here in La Marque,Texas. Most of the jobs are pretty close together so my production is up. Damages are generally not too bad but there are a few bad ones. Yesterday, I was in an area called Omega Bay. This is a marina type development right on the bay. They really caught hell. The houses are built to resist high water conditions with all the main living areas up on the second floor. The lower floor is storage and garages / carports but some have been built out into living areas. Bad decision! This houses are up on pads, about 10 feet above water level. They had up to 4 feet of water is the lower floor rooms. Anything that was in them was gone or destroyed.
Today, Sunday, I'm backup in the main part of La Marque TX. Not much damage here, mostly trees down and roof damage and interior leaks. Ironically, I've seen several houses that have burnt down due to electrical fires caused by wind and falling trees hitting power lines.

Well, back to work. Its almost One PM and I have at least 5 more inspections to do today.

Later, Dana

The "Camp-out" is Over.

The "Camp Out" is Over (Wednesday, 9/24/08)

Well, they did it again! I had just gotten a download of 35 new inspections in the Baytown area and my number came up on the list to go Galveston. So now I get to send all 35 back and get new ones in the Galveston area.
I got 52 jobs in La Marque TX, on the mainland, about 15 miles north of Galveston Island. The Island has been closed since Ike came calling and they are just now starting to let the evacuees back into see what is left of their homes and businesses. I think we are being "staged" in the area to be ready when the claims start coming in. This time I'll try to get a bunch of inspections done before they take them away.

This is some 90 miles from the Beaumont FEMA camp so it's too far to drive back and forth each day. Time to pack and move again. I have a friend that lives in Texas City that offered a corner of floor in her living room to put down my air mattress so I am good to go for now. La Marque is about 15 minutes from here. Sweet! I have already booked 12 inspections for tomorrow, Friday, and a couple for Sunday as well. Everything is pretty close together so I am able to book them pretty tight and get more done each day. I should be able to knock out these first 50 by the weekend. Cha Ching! Up in Baytown, they were spread all over the county, some were pretty far out in the sticks. I was doing well to get in 6 in one day up there.

Stay Tuned, the Adventure Continues!
Dana

Life as a "Refugee"

Kind of tonge in cheek but I am living in a "camp". I got to the Houston area on Friday and have not been able the find a motel room within 30 miles of the area I'm working. I'm working in Baytown, TX, about 16 miles east of downtown. Another inspector turned me on to a camp that FEMA has set up just west of Beaumont, TX for all the disaster workers.

This place in crawling with all kinds of people. Mostly from all over the US and some local crews.
Lots of forestry crews (go figure?) plus security companies, inspectors, utility crews, FEMA teams and hundreds of truckers and the big rigs they came in.

The comp itself is designed to hold 2000 people. It consists of about eight big "gang" sleeping tents that hold several hundred each, a huge "mess tent"where they serve three meals a day, dozens of very nice shower trailers, about 100 "porta potties" , a laundry tent with about 100 washers and dryers and 24/7 security. It seems every third. person has a gun!

The great thing about this is that it's all free for the disaster workers. I'm not having to spend $200-$300a week on a hotel and I get a nice hot breakfast every morning before I leave.
The down side is that it is about a 1/2mile walk to the parking area and 50 + miles from Baytown. I'll take the good with the bad though. The rental car I have gets 32 mpg so it works out in the long run.

Well, it's 10:15 'time to hit the hay
Later,
Dana

Made it to Texas

Made the trip to Texas today, I'm currently in Beaumont. The drive was not too bad but when I got here I could not find a place to stay. Every hotel and motel for 50 miles in all directions is full of repair crews from all over the US here to get everything going again. About 90% of east Texas had no power since Ike came calling. Things are pretty messed up around here. Many hotels are still closed due to no power. The area I will be inspecting in is called Baytown. It is about 20 miles east of downtown Houston. I've seen some wild things on this trip. Today it was the Motel 6 with a big section of the roof missing but still filled to capacity.

I thought I was going to have to sleep in the car tonight but a friend told me about this FEMA shelter here in Beaumont. It's pretty cool. A huge tent city with all the amenities. Hot showers, a place to sleep, free food and even a laundry. I writing this while I wait for my clothes to wash. Just in time too. I was down to my last shirt. It's the little things like a laundry that really help when you are out on the road for a long time. I would take a few pictures but it is not allowed since this is a "Federal Facility" and no cameras are allowed. There seem to be mostly repair crews from out of the area staying here. It's pretty busy but not at capacity by any means. It looks like they could house a few thousand here if they needed to. I did not try the food yet. Tonight they had steak, potato, veggies and pie for dinner. I'll see what breakfast is like tomorrow and let you know. It did not sould like they were serving MRE's which is what my friend got when she was bouncing around Louisiana from shelter to shelter. As I said yesterday, she is back home now. I will try to get down to Texas City where she lives over the next few days. We only know each other from on-line gaming that I do, we have never met face to face.
It should be fun.
Looks like the washers are done so I'll log off for tonight.
Later,
Dana

I Got The Call!

I'm moving again! Just when I was getting to know my way around here and Baton Rouge.
Thought I was going to be here a while longer. Just got 25 new inspections in the Baton Rouge area. That is enough to take me through Sunday at least. I had just finished filling out all the forms for 25 contact sheets and I get a call from the office telling me to clear the jobs off my computer and call in to get a fresh download of new jobs in TEXAS!! I sort of expected it any time but thought I had some more time with the new inspections I had received. Oh Well, it comes with the territory I guess.

By the way, I've grown to hate driving around here. This town is one way street hell and you are constantly having to make U-turns to get any where. It even confounds my GPS now and then. The GPS had me making serial U-turns and going in circles the other day. LOL
All in all, the VZ Navigator service on my Verizon phone has been very useful. For some reason, the GPS that I use with my tablet computer crapped out and will not work anymore. I would just buy a new copy of Microsoft Streets & Trips with GPS device built in but I have no optical drive to load the software on my Tablet PC.

I'll start packing tonight and head out in the morning. I still don't know where in Texas I'm going. They just said head out and start driving and stop somewhere along the way and connect to the server to download my new jobs. Then I will know. Gee Thanks! It's a good thing I'm not anal about this. It would make someone that was crazy (er). I wish I had gotten around to doing laundry today. I'm almost out of clothes again. As hot and muggy as it has been, you sweat out the shirts pretty fast. Guess I'll have to do that on the fly during the trip.

I've been keeping in touch with my friend from Texas, Joanna. She and her family had to evacuate because they live just north of Galveston. I looked on the map and was amazed how close they really were to where the hurricane came ashore. It looks like the eye came right over their town of Texas City. Also amazing is the fact that they suffered no damage. She has been calling me from all around Louisiana as they were moved from shelter to shelter. One night they actually were put in a horse barn! She's home now so she is starting to cool down, but she was pissed and I got to hear about it every night. LOL Glad it all worked out for her and family.

Guess I have a bit of a drive tomorrow so I better sign off now. I'll keep in touch if I can get on-line.
Later,
Dana

Still hard at it.

Good evening my friends.

Another productive day. Getting a mix of things to inspect now. Today was several houses, a few apartments and two mobile homes.
Did a total of 8 inspections today in Baton Rouge and made it back to the Big Easy around 5:30 PM. It's payroll day and I needed to pack up all my paperwork on the inspections I've done over the last week and a half and Fedex them and an invoice to PaRR Inspections in Virginia. I set up a Fedex account so I can just drop the envelope in a drop box.
I've uploaded several inspections today but did not get any more downloaded to me. I wonder if they are planning on sending me to Texas soon? A bit concerned about that because the conditions are a bit rough over there. Housing and transport is not good, poor or no cell service which means no wireless broadband for sending up reports and tough inspection conditions. Oh well, I signed up for this. I guess I take what comes and make it work.

I have been taking a few pictures as I travel around. Some are of the very poor conditions of normal life in some of the poorer areas, some are funny and others are just interesting. I'll try to share a few here.

This house was for sale for $159,900 in Baton Rouge!
Coming from the hyper inflated Los Angeles area, this is amazing. This house would be at least $750,000 or more in L. A.



Driving south towards New Orleans over the causeway.




These run day and night up and down Canal Street to the French Quarter and Bourbon Street.

This is the view out the tenth floor window from my hotel room.



Most of the Baton Rouge neighborhood streets look like this.
Note the piles of downed trees waiting to be removed.



Nice tree, too bad it fell over. Thought the grass looked cool on the roots.

One of the shacks in the poor area south of the river in Harvey. Lots of these in the area I was inspecting. It was hard to tell if they were damaged by Gustav or Ike or Katrina or just old, falling down shacks. Tough call. Deferred maintenance anyone?

Well, I'm on the road at 6 AM tomorrow and it's alost midnight here now. Time to sign off.
Night all
Dana

It's going well

I've gotten most of the bugs worked out now and things are going smoothly. I've been working in Baton Rouge for the last few days and just got 12 more up there. Guess I'll be around here for a few more days at least.
PaRR has been sending batches of inspectors to the Texas area for the hurricane Ike event. Not sure I want to do that yet. It would seem that given the extent of the damage, the inspections will be a lot more time consuming. and the pay will be the same.

I have not been seeing much damage other than trees down up in Baton Rouge. All the people I have met have been very nice and have been willing to adjust to be able to meet me for the inspection. They did not have a mandatory evacuation there but since most of the power was out for several days, many moved out. Everyone lost food in refrigerators and freezers and I have gotten several reports from my applicants of break ins and stolen property like TVs etc. It's too bad but there are always those jerks that will take advantage of a disaster and prey on their neighbors while they are vulnerable. It always happens during these events. There are also scam artists "contractors" that will take cash money for work and never come back.
"Kick 'em while they are down" seems to be their philosophy.
I have only had two possible fraud applications from people trying to "game" the system. We don't confront them about it, just do the inspection and make a comment in the notes and flag the inspection for review. Let FEMA handle them. We are not FEMA cops, just inspectors.

Later,
Dana

Even better day

Had a great day today. Finally got my first paycheck deposited, two days late but it came in. Also got the rental car handled for another week and finished up the last of the inspections in the Harvey area, south of NO. Clean slate, ready to go to Baton Rouge tomorrow. Jumped on the phone and booked 8 inspections so I have a full day up there. Might be able to knock them all out in two days. May also get more in that area.

Found a great little Chinese joint a few blocks down from the hotel. Good food and a ton of it. One $10 order is enough for three meals and we have a microwave in the room so that works out well. I get tired of eating with a steering wheel in front of me all the time so a sit-down meal is nice now and then.

I'm finally getting the kinks worked out of this estimating program that FEMA uses called "Ace III" so things are moving much faster and I will be able to do a lot more inspections in less time. Volume is the name of the game here. At $50 per inspection you can make some decent money in a day if you move quickly and work efficiently. I use Microsoft's Streets and Trips which links to the Ace III program and imports a data base of all the addresses of the jobs I've been assigned and plots them on a map of the area for me. I can then look at the locations and make decisions about routing and such and make he best use of my time. When I book the appointment with the applicants, I can ask them a few questions about the type and extent of damage that they are claiming and that gives me an idea of the time it will take to do the inspection. It's all coming together nicely.

The talk among the inspectors here is whether we will be going to Texas after this. Looks like south Texas got their ass handed to them pretty badly and will be needing a lot of help. This could become a career of sorts. There are those that work it like one and use the time in between for personal projects. It is totally doable if you know what you are doing. A six figure income is not out of reach. The down side is that you are away from home for long stretches. It's not like you can stop and take a vacation when you want. You do not control how much FEMA sends down to you. And when you are assigned an inspection, you have 72 hours to turn it around. There are bonuses to be had if you are fast and accurate, as well as penalties for delays or mistakes. All it's a good and challenging game. Keeps you on your toes for sure.
Let the games begin!
Dana

A Good Day

It was a good day for inspections today. It started out with tornado warnings in the area I was heading for so I waited a bit. No problems on the drive over but as soon as it got to the house it started to dump rain. I called the applicant and just waived at her through the window and said I would be in when it let up. It did in a few minutes.
One of the problems we have is making contact with the applicants since many have been forced to move out or don't have phone service. The drill is to call them a few times, leave messages and then go by the site and "post" it with a sign that tells them to contact us ASAP to move forward on THEIR request for assistance. I also tell them that I will be moving on very soon and they might not see me again for a few weeks. This usually gets some action. It's a game called "take it away" that I play to get them to actually commit to an appointment time. If I let them run the schedule, I would be running back and forth all over the area and driving a lot more than is needed. It's been a pretty successful action so far. Some have just flat moved out of the area and are not coming back any time soon. These we can return to FEMA as "no contacts - returns" after 7 days.

I'm almost done with the Harvey area. I got three new ones there tonight in my download but managed to get them all scheduled for tomorrow. WOOT.

The next batch of 20 or so inspections are in Baton Rouge, about 80 miles north west of NO.
Part of the trip is over a causeway across Lake Pontchartrain that sits north of NO. The water is almost over the causeway now because of hurricane Ike so I will be waiting to see how that works out. It would ease up by Sunday or Monday.

Looks like Texas is getting its butt kicked tonight, especially around Galveston which is right on the coast. We may be going there next.

later,
Dana

Interesting developments

Things are getting a bit more interesting around here. Today we have tornado warnings in the area just west and north of us, between NO and Baton Rouge. Winds in our area are being clocked at 40-50+ MPH. This could be a problem since I need to travel over a big ass bridge to the south side this morning to get back to Harvey area to complete some inspections. The bridge may be closed in fact. Need to find a SigAlert site for this area. It's supposed to rain a lot today so time to break out the rain gear. Glad I remembered to bring it.

Downloaded about 18 new inspections this morning early. Looks like I'll be doing some traveling for a while, they are all in Baton Rouge, about 80 miles north. I will try to get to them tomorrow maybe when the weather settles down a bit. We finally got a stable base here in NO to work from and they give us jobs 80 miles away! Bummer. Guess we'll see how it goes. Danny can't seem to get a hook up this morning so we don't know if he is headed there too.

Stay Tuned!
Dana

Good progress today

Made pretty good progress thinning down my list today. Got 6 inspections done and still managed to have time to do some laundry today. Good thing too, I was down to one t-shirt.
I managed to geet the completed inspections uploaded to FEMA and got three new ones. Starting to get the hang of this process. We are trying to get as many inspections done as quickly as possible because we may loose some time if Ike causes problems and rains us out.

All the people I have been dealing with have been really nice. One lady offered to cook for me. LOL Everyone offers water or other drink in spite of the fact that they are in pretty bad straights sometimes.
I think I'll make one more pass through review to sort out a few issues I have come across then really start pounding them out. Need to starting making a little more money to cover expenses both here and at home. Those bills continue to come due even when I'm not there. Very inconsiderate of them I think.
Well, got an early one in the morning so I'll call it a night. Ten after midnight now.
Later all,
Dana

Making Progress Here

I managed to get in a couple of inspections today and get back to the field office to have them checked over for mistakes. FEMA does not like mistakes and will kick them back and charge you for it! There is an error checking function built in to the program and the PaRR QC people do a great job at helping you get it sorted out. I wish there were more checkers though, it still took a two hour wait for me and I got in fairly early. My room mate got in at about 5 PM and he had to wait almost four hours. The good news is that I did well on my two "test"inspections and was released to continue on my own. I managed to get 6 scheduled for tomorow. I need to stop and wash some clothes or I will be inspecting in my underware soon so I'm taking a few hours off.

Many of the inspections I'm doing are in an area that did not get any damage and the claims are only for reimbursement of travel and lodging expenses incurred due to the mandatory evacuation.

Some of the applicants are trying to "game" the system based on what happened after Katrina.
FEMA was so late to the party and playing catch up that they were throwing money at anyone that applied. They were giving out $2000 checks to anyone that applied, without doing an inspection so there are those that are applying and waiting for FEMA to deliver "their check" in spite of the fact that they had zero damages. It's in their blood I guess after living for generations on the dole. I have not met any of these people yet. All the applicants that I have dealt with have been straight up about any damages or lack of damage.

Good news on the lodging front, the hotel we are at dropped the rates to $59.00 a night now and credited back my account retroactively. Way cool! That rate is a little more confrontable when we are splitting it two ways. It is a big relief to not have to look for a new place and pack and move every night. That was starting to wear on me. It was starting to piss off my wife as well since I had her searching the Net for rooms over and over again only to have the deal she found fall apart or the hotel be closed. I don't blame her. I was geting very pissed too. Almost to the point of saying the hell with it and pulling the plug on the whole thing.

We have plenty of work here still but now that Ike is pushing in toward Texas, they mey break some of us loose and send us that way. Wow! Going full circle. I started this adventure in Texas and could end up right back there again in the next few weeks.

There is a small part of me that is a little disapointed that I will not get to experience a hurricane first hand. ( at least so far, could still happen) I've been in Typhoons in the far east during Vietnam, once while on a ship. Hoooo boy, that was a hell of a ride! Surfing 25 foot high waves, one after another for hours on end. I think I prefer a land lubber's vantage point.

After midnight here in the Big Easy, time to hit the hay.

Later,
Dana

At last I can work!

I finally finished all the briefings this afternoon and can start inspecting. I will start tomorrow.

The Hotel / Housing saga continues. Thought we had another good deal but when my room mate went by, he called and told me that he wouldn't keep a horse there it was such a dump and the lady at the front desk was a bitch. Keep looking I guess. This housing situation is becoming the biggest problem of all. I've been here two nights and have been in two different hotels and we are looking for a third. I just need someplace inexpensive to hunker down and be able to get some work done instead of having to move every day.

Currently I'm rooming with a guy from South Carolina that has some experience. That's a good thing, he can mentor me on this process and I can help him with computer issues.

I've noticed that most of the inspectors are very friendly and you can strike up a relationship pretty fast. I've had two "spur of the moment" room mates so far. Sort of "need / got a room?" Bang! Done, split the cost for another night.
Later,
Dana

Welcome to the "Big Easy"

Here we all are in the beautiful city of New Orleans, Louisiana. And I do mean all! It seems that there are hundreds of PaRR inspectors here. The Radison, where the field office is located is a constant buzz of activity. From 8:00 AM well into the evening, there is something going on.

Due to the shear numbers of inspectors here, everything takes a very long time to get through. There are limited support personnel to service us and if there is anything I would fault PaRR for , it's this. I spent almost 5 hours waiting in 90+ heat to get a technical problem handled just today.

Finding a room is a constant challenge. Today, my wife managed to book a great deal on a double room for a week online. Problem was...when my room mate got down there (I was still in the f'ing line) the place was closed and had been for a week or more. Damn, back to searching. Finally took one for $100+ per night plus $15 per night parking. Plus the origional room mate bailed out on me and I had to find another. Given the crowded conditions, that was not really a problem. Found one in the tech support trailer before I left there.

I'm finally ready to get at it and do some inspections tomorrow.

Oh! I almost forgot the continuing saga of Alamo Rent a Car. They were closed yesterday so I could not turn the car. Managed to get by there today and they were very nice and understanding given I was turning in a car from Dallas, TX. They could have charged me $199.00 for the "drop off" fee for turning in a car at a different place but they were very nice about it and waived the charge. The rental for the exact same car was less here too. Texas has a 47% tax on rentals. Ouch!
Thats about it for today.
Later,
Dana

UPDATE 9/6/08, 10:45 pm

Don't blink, you will miss something! Within the space of 10 minuets, we went from "just hang out, nothing much happening today" to everybody get to New Orleans as soon as possible. So in about one hour, I packed up, checked out of motel and hit the road south. After a six hour drive, I got signed in and issued my equipment. I was too tired to sit through another two hour briefing so we grabbed a quick bite and headed downtown to a hotel that another inspector Kevin had found. Nice deal! Over $100 per night, no parking (had to pay $15 at a nearby lot for the night.)and NO HOT WATER OR PHONE SERVICE! I will be asking the manager for a discount in the morning .

It's almost impossible to get a hotel room here. All the residents that were evacuated are now coming back to no power in their homes so they are filling up the hotels. We only took this place for one night to buy some time, and so we did not have to sleep in our cars. Tomorrow should be fun .
I still have not handled the rental car situation so that needs to be dealt with and we need to find a cheaper room.

It's been a long day and I'm pooped. Time to turn in.
Later,
Dana.

Update 9/6/08 8:30 AM

Still here in Bossier City, LA May be moving south soon, lots of help needed that I hear.

My latest challenge is with my rental car from Alamo. I picked it up in DFW on Monday and it times out today at 1:00 PM. Of course, I'm 230 miles away from there so cannot turn it in there.
Here's where it gets crazy. The closest Alamo is in Tyler, TX about an hour and a half away. I'm not supposed to leave the area. I tried to set up a return over here but no other place to do that. If I extend the contract, they charge $10.99 per day over and above the rental rate and the card I used to rent the car does not have enough available credit for another week plus the penalty. Alamo will not let me just use another card. Their "rules" don't allow that. I MUST turn the car in and close the contract and start over in order to switch cards. How stupid is that? I'm over here trying to help people and Alamo will not give me a break and work with me on this. I did get one c/s agent to help somewhat and cut me some slack by waiving up to $500 in transportation charges back to DFW if I turned the car in somewhere else. Problem is that there IS nowhere else I can easily get to to do this.

So now I'm stuck with no workable options. Trying to call Alamo customer service now.
Stay Tuned for the next installment of this soap opera!
Dana

9/5/08 Update

1:50 PM CDT
Still here in Bossier City, outside Shreveport Louisiana. Just finished a training cycle to do Registration Intake in the shelters. It seems that all the shelters in the north are closed or closing down and the people are going back home. I was sitting by a guy that was making phone call after phone call, trying to find shelters that were still open so we could be dispatched there.
Looks like we will be relocating again to southern Louisiana where the shelters are still open. Still no official word on that yet though so we wait some more.
This is a very expensive proposition for FEMA to have all these bodies here waiting. I've heard from one source that it cost 14 million dollars to field all these people and put them on standby.

Here is how we spend most of the day.

Hanging out, waiting for the word or training in the lobby of the Holiday Inn. We've gotten very good at this pastime. It's either here where there is someone to talk to or back in the Hotel room "countin flowers on the wall", "smokin cigarettes and watchin Captain Kangaroo" as the old song goes. We have been doing this for 5 days now. Hope we get going soon!
Later,
Dana
P.S. Feel free to comment or ask questions.

Update 9/4/08 7:30 PM CDT

Well.....here I sit, Still! PaRR has been calling in a few experienced inspectors to do registration at the shelters. Not being one of them, I continue to "coast" here in Shreveport, LA. The latest word is that they are having some kind of problem getting together official badges for all the new people that have not been badged yet. This includes me. They said something about issuing some sort of "certificate". Not sure how that meets the "photo ID" requirement. Bottom line seems to be is that they called in a ton of people in anticipation of a big storm only to have it fizzle and not be as big as first predicted. Now that we are here, they are not sure how to utilize us. If i don't get deployed, I'll be taking a loss over all. All the numbers are not in yet, I'm still tracking the expenses and some are unknown as yet. Counting the expenses for lodging, car rental and food added to the loss of income from work at home, it might be a loser financially. I'll need to take a look when the dust settles and make a decision about doing it again.

Meanwhile, I got to explore Bossier City, a suburb of Shreveport, a little bit today. It's pretty much like anywhere else I've been. One thing is different, there are lots of casinos here. Not my thing since I lived in Reno and Lake Tahoe for many years. Pretty bored with that scene and no spare money to waste on gambling. Been watching a lot of TV since there is not much else to do. The Weather Channel is a popular one. LOL

Tomorrow is a new day, maybe I'll get sent out. Here's hoping.
Later,
Dana

9/4/08 UPDATE

9:21 AM
Got in about 10:30 PM last night. Easy drive, nice road all the way, little traffic and only a light mist rain for part of the drive.
Checked into another Motel 6 in Bossier City, LA. Fairly cheap and clean. No amenities to speak of but the price is right! Once we get settled in, I will try and hook up with another inspector and share a room in a little bit nicer place. I did that in Dallas and it worked out well. This time, that inspector got sent to Baton Rouge.

Unfortunately, the air card I use for my internet is not getting a very good signal here at this location and checking my emails etc. is painful. Another good reason to relocate.

PaRR communicates to its field force via "broadcast voice mail" . Several times a day, each inspector checks their mailbox for updates. If there is a direct message for a particular inspector, PaRR has an automated system to call them directly.

Many of the Dallas standby team was dispatched to here for "registration intake" duty and others were sent to Baton Rouge to do inspections. So far, for me, and I assume, the others in the Shreveport crew, we are on hold while PaRR finds all its equipment that was shipped by FedEx yesterday and sets up a place for us to work. I just keep checking the voice mail every so often. Guess I'll head out and find some coffee and a bite to eat.

Stay Tuned
Dana

UPDATE 9/3/08, 5:45 pm

In spite of rumors to the contrary, it looks like I'll be here for a while. Just got a call from PaRR to hot foot it to Shreveport, LA tonight to start Registration Intake there tomorrow morning.
Shreveport is about 200 miles east on I-20. 4-3 hours, depending on traffic.

Madly making calls now to make new hotel reservations, map the route, pack etc.

Gotta run now,
Dana

Hurry Up and Wait!

Nothing much to report, still sitting on my butt in Dallas. It looks like FEMA was not taking any chances this time and loaded in a lot of resources in the form of personnel. Most of use are now sitting around cooling our heels in various Hotels around the area.

They have launched a few (about 100) experienced inspectors to Louisiana but the rest of us are still hanging loose. It appears that most of the damage was east of Texas and not as bad as originally though.

The inspections are actually not done by FEMA directly but by Contractors. There are two Disaster Inspection contractors, PaRR and Parsons-Brinkerhoff and both companies are manning up this Gustav storm. There in lies the tail I think. There are issues with FEMA co-ordinating who is going to be doing which area. There is some political infighting I think, these are lucrative contracts for both companies and they are fighting over the areas. This is also a very expensive operation for the contractors and ultimately FEMA and the tax payer.
It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars a day to have all of us standing by and not really producing anything. It also costs the inspectors since we are "sub-contractors" and responsible for our own expenses like rental car, lodging and food. At this point, I'm "upside down" with more money paid out than taken in. Not good! If they cut us loose today or tomorrow, I loose money on this whole thing and will need to take a long look at doing this again.

It might pay off in the long run though. I've met many people here, both men and women, that do this as a full time career. There is substantial money to be made in a fairly short time. The down side is the waiting game, living out of a suitcase, being away from home and family and the out of pocket expenses until you are actually deployed to actually do inspections.
As a "newbie" at this, my chances of getting sent out this time are slim. If I do not get sent out, I take a loss and have to do it again, hoping to get out in the field and get some experience.

There are a number of aspects to this game to consider. The pay potential is great IF you go out. It is conceivable that you could make $10,000 to $20,000 or more in a few weeks. This could buy some "coasting time" back at home between deployments. Given that FEMA deals with fire, floor, storms, earthquakes and any other disaster, it is possible to work 3-4 deployments per year and make 6 figures. Not too bad for a few months work.

Stay Tuned, more later.

News from Dallas

Well, made it to Dallas around noon today. Great flight on American Airlines out of Burbank, CA.
The plane left on time and landed in Dallas on time. Picked up my rental car and headed out to the FEMA field office down in Desoto, TX. There were tons of people there waiting to check in. I think FEMA is not taking any chances this time and is putting lots of resources in place well in advance of the need. Someone said they thought there were 300 inspectors here!

Did not have time to attend the "Orientation" briefing today. I will do that in the morning.
We still do not know what is going on or when or if we will be deployed. Rumor has it that the storm petered out pretty fast when it hit land and did not do all that much damage. We could get sent home earlier than anticipated. I've been watching the news but they tend to really hype things up to get more ratings and watchers so I don't really know what to expect. Guess I'll find out tomorrow.
TTFN from Texas
Dana

It's Official, going to Texas!

UPDATE:
I finally got the call about 11:30 this morning PDT. I'm officially deployed to hurricane Gustav as a FEMA Disaster Inspector. I leave at 7 AM in the morning for Dallas. All packed and ready to go. Motel booked, vehicle booked, flight booked, boarding pass in hand, banking done, bills paid.

Nothing left to do but wait now. I'm a bit excited! I didn't sleep all that well last night waiting to hear the final word. Been a scramble today getting my local jobs covered by others.

Looks like New Orleans will get their butt kicked again from what I'm seeing on the weather maps. Heavy storm surge looks like it will pound southern Louisiana in addition to the high winds. Currently, Gustav is a Cat-3 to 4 with hurricane force winds out to 65 miles from the center and tropical storm force wind out to 220 miles. It's moving north west at about 18 mph but should slow as it approaches land. It is about 200 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi now.
Dana

Gustov Hits the South

Hello Everyone!
The big news today is hurricane Gustov that is coming in out of the gulf somewhere in the LA and TX coast area. I'm waiting with baited breath too. You see, I'm a FEMA Disaster Inspector and I've been alerted via email to get ready to deploy. Not sure yet where or IF I'm going. Waiting for the call today. It will be either Texas or Alabama if I'm deployed per what I've been told so far.

I'm madly creating lists of things I'll need to take for a potential 30 day deployment. Think about it. What would you bring along if YOU were going into a disaster area for 30 days? Will there be rooms to rent, cars available for rent, phone service, internet, even food and drink? It will be an adventure for sure!

We are "independent contractors" so we must foot the bill for food, lodging and car rental while we are there. Essentially, all living expenses. An all this must be done with only a few days notice. Of course, we are paid well for doing this, the potential income is pretty substantial but the hardships are there too. And then there is the help flow aspect of the whole process. I will be helping a lot of people get their life back together if they are impacted by the storm damage. This is important and rewarding work in itself aside from the money. I know that FEMA got a black eye on Katrina but this time they have gotten their sh** together and are manning up way in advance of the storm. Things should go better this time.

I've been told that I will be flying into Dallas/Fort Worth area and then staging at a suburb called Desoto, TX until deployed. After that, who knows. If I have Internet service, I will be able to blog this whole experiance here as it unfolds. I will be taking my computer and broadband access card along to keep my life on track as much as possible. I pretty much run my life on the "Net" so I'm hoping that can continue. If not, drop back 5 yards and punt!

Stay Tuned to this channel, I'll be blogging about this adventure as much as possible right here on "Thoughts from A Boomer"

"Doing Your Duty", Jury Service

Yesterday I had to report to the Los Angeles Superior Court to be a part of the "jury pool". Talk about "hurry up and wait", this was the epitome of that concept.

Instructions on the paperwork say "Must arrive by 7:30 AM and enter through such and such door only". Well, at 7:30 AM, they opened that door only to tell up to go around the side to another door where we got to wait some more.
Once in the "Jury Assembly room", we wait a while longer while they get it together and wait for stragglers. (the last finally showed up at 8:30 AM!) The clerk runs through all the info about what is going to happen, how to fill out the form, (which was supposed to be done already) and talks about reasons that might be valid for excusing from service or postponing it. Blah Blah Blah.....

Finally, at about 10:00 AM we get called up to the court room for MORE instructions and more "weeding out". Remember, I've been here since 7:30 AM!

First, we get to meet the lawyers and the principals in the upcoming trial and listen to what is essentially their opening arguments so we can get a feel for the trial issues.

Then the Judge explains his estimate of how long this particular trial will take.
He estimates this case will take 22 trial days! Counting the various holidays and other commitments he has, this case will run all the way into October. Holy Crap! I can't be off work for this long. I will be pushing a shopping cart by the middle of September!

The Judge explains his process for culling out those with "extreme financial hardship" claims and proceeds to do so. He also explains that he is one of the few that allows this during his selection process. Others do not do this and if he excuses someone today, it's a crap shoot if they might get worse from another Judge and trial since they do not allow for financial hardship excuses.

Long story short - I am able to get excused and, after lunch, return to the "holding pen" for another assignment. Here I sit for another two hours or so and finally, at around 4:00 PM, we all get released. Yeah, that's the end of it. No more requirement to serve for another year.

Later, Dana

I'm Baaaaak!

Wow! been gone from here for a while. Lot's of stuff been going on.
The Title of this whole Blog is "Random Thoughts from a Baby Boomer" and Ive been thinking about things from that viewpoint for a while now.
I'm now 63 years old and have had a fairly eventful but normal life up to this point. Planning on a bit more for sure!

As you may know by reading previous posts, I'm in the process of dealing with Prostate Cancer.
Until it entered my universe, I had little knowledge about it. As it turns out, it's pretty prevalent in men my age. It's been said the "more men, at age 80, will die WITH Prostate Cancer than from it". I guess my lack of knowledge was mainly due to the "threat potential" (or lack of it in my mind) of the disease. That is not to say that PC is not a threat, it is and can kill you though a process called metastasis. The Cancer can spread from the prostate, via the lymphatic system, to other parts of your body like the bones or brain. Part of the "staging"process in the cancer treatment cycle is to determine if it has gone extra-capsular. (moved out of the actual prostate gland) There is a term "clear margins" that applies to the post operation biopsy of tissue removed during the operation.
There were a number of post operation procedures on the table. Primary was anti-androgen treatment with a hormone suppressor called Leupride. Its job is to suppress the hormone Testosterone which is thought to "feed"the cancer. The regimen is one year on Leupride with shots given every three months. I'm on # 3 now. We started before the operation.
There are a number of potential side effects of Leupride; Impotense, weight gain, muscle loss, something called gynocomastia (man tits) and loss of libido or sex drive.
I've not experienced all of them but some are a bit of a bother. The loss of libido and impotence sort of go together. Wouldn't do much good to have a strong libido and and nothing to work with. LOL Oh! another one is HOT FLASHES! Boy, those are interesting. Out of the clear blue you start to sweat. I bit annoying sometimes. Thankfully, those have subsided.
On the up side, the PSA (prostate specific antigen, a marker for this type of cancer) is down to almost undetectable with normal blood testing. The idea is to have it stay in that range AFTER the Leupron has been withdrawn and has vacated my body. If so, Cancer Free! WOOT! time will tell.
Another of the recommended treatments on the table was pelvic radiation. A course of one treatment a day, five days a week for seven weeks. "Just to be sure" I opted to do the Leupron thing and see how that goes. I'm not big on radiation. Too many additional side effects and risks for my tastes.

One of the side effects that does bug me is the weight gain (about 20 lbs) and the loss of strength. In combination, it does impact my day. I got locked out of a house I was inspecting the other day and had to climb over a back fence to get back in because the Realtor had left and wasn't expected back for an hour or so. (the house was vacant) Oh Great! Now I have to sit here doing nothing for an hour or more! Then I remembered that the door to the back yard was open. I proceeded to TRY to climb the fence. It was comical. I'm not a little guy at 6 foot 2 inches and 260 pounds. Trying to get that over a 5 foot high iron gate was a struggle. I would have normally just grabbed the top and hoisted myself up and swung over. Not this time. I tried but couldn't even pull my self up far enough to swing a leg over the adjacent and lower block wall! I started laughing and that didn't help at all. I finally made it over and finished the inspection by the time everyone got back. Ahhh Well. This will pass.
Later All