What a Day/Month

So I've officially been on the road for 1 month today working the Hurricane restoration efforts from Gustav and Ike in Louisiana and Texas. Like I wrote in my previous thread about this, I've been working 7 days a week, 16 hours a day, so needless to say, I'm drained.

Anyway, my crews and I left Texas this morning and started our long travel back to Philly (~1800 miles). About 400 miles into the trip, my company pick-up truck started acting very erratically........ And as of now, I'm sitting in a hotel room, stranded in Southern Mississippi, with my truck in a Ford dealership (I drive an F-150). The fuel filter and fuel pump is failing, and I can't accelerate past like 40 MPH right now, and it will only continually get worse as I keep driving on it. So the part is arriving tomorrow morning and I should be ready to get on the road again around 10:30AM they're estimating.

It just pisses me off, because I was so excited to be getting on the road, getting home, and seeing my fiance and puppy after a month hiatus... I'm probably just going to drive for 20+ straight hours tomorrow and get home ASAP. Hopefully they don't find anything else wrong with my truck and I can get on the road.

Oh, and to top it off, they didn't have any cars/trucks for me to drive around for the night, so I've been walking everywhere - About 0.5 miles to book a hotel with all my luggage and the laptop computer I'm typing on right now. On the way, I stopped at a gas station that had a Papa John's attached to it, picked up a medium pepperoni pizza and a 12 pack of Miller Chill (never had it before, and it's decent), and I'm just sitting in my room, getting my fat on, watching ESPN...

Good stuff! What a fucking trip...

It's tragic that this has happened to you, since I know what it's like to be seperated from your signifigant other for that long, and it sucks. However, I have to say, that's why you get the big bucks. With rare exceptions, to make good money you really just have to work harder. I know you know, but just in case some people don't :P.

Sounds like a well deserved hotel room, medium pizza (Papa John's is bomb), and 12 pack of beer. Even though it disrupted your travel home, it's just a little rest/perk you needed.

I may have missed it, but what company do you work for that had you head down to help the relief effort? That's pretty badass.

I work for a utility contracting company. Our company went down through Mutual Aid to assist in rebuilding the power line damage caused by the hurricanes. Gustav wasn't that bad, but since Ike hit a major metropolitan city (4th largest in the USA), there was a catastrophic amount of outages (over 9 million outages). Just imagine living without power in a state that has 90+ degree temperature during September... It's pretty rough. Then again, like WKFF, I did get paid a shit load of money...

Yep, but despite how much you and others like you are paid, you do a good enough job to keep things running and are worth more than your cost. Go free market! :P

I work for a utility contracting company. Our company went down through Mutual Aid to assist in rebuilding the power line damage caused by the hurricanes. Gustav wasn't that bad, but since Ike hit a major metropolitan city (4th largest in the USA), there was a catastrophic amount of outages (over 9 million outages). Just imagine living without power in a state that has 90+ degree temperature during September... It's pretty rough. Then again, like WKFF, I did get paid a shit load of money...

Hmm, yeah sounds like Florida.

And sucks to hear about the downers.. you'll be fine though dude.

Just imagine living without power in a state that has 90+ degree temperature during September...

In Arizona it's 90+ in the winter... We had power outages when I lived with my parents, sometimes they would last 2-3 days.. It was basically hell, quiet literally. We got real good at chess/checkers back then.

I'd rather have 90 winters than -20 winters. That way you only need one set of clothes.

I'd rather have 90 winters than -20 winters. That way you only need one set of clothes.

That's why I moved out here. Az ftw.

Sorry to hear about the delay but kudos on the work ethic, man. Very few people would be able to deal with a schedule like that and I'm sure you earned every cent you made down there.

Woe is the life of a volunteer, though mine are of a different nature. Not nearly enough people do volunteer work, however, and you have my respect.