Stay in New Orleans

Stay in New Orleans

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On January 17, I went by Task Force a hair pass 5AM and got an assignment about 9AM. Myself and two other workers were driven by van to Clear Water Pool and Spa Company leaving at 9:30AM for a 10AM appointment. It was only about 4 miles away and in Metarie (towards the airport). We got there at 9:45AM but they recorded 9:55AM. Our job was to help unload a 7 foot by 7 foot (and four foot deep) spa off the trailer and into a customer's covered porch.
This might have been easy but there wasn't simple clearance between the fence and side of the house (about five feet) and under the eaves (which were only 6.5 feet high). We had to lean the spa against the fence at an angle as we moved it along the side of the house. Then the back yard was pretty narrow so there other problems there along with putting the spa on brick on sand which settled down once you put weight on it making sliding a real pain as the spa weighed about 800 pounds.
The guy who worked with us was very nice and bought us all drinks (carbonated) on the way back. We got back to Clear Water right at 2PM, so the woman wrote 4 hours on our time sheet (no lunch of course). Work seems to be in short supply in New Orleans so virtually all day laborer stuff is done for minimum wage, $5.15 an hour. By getting there at 5AM I am now getting out pretty regular, but a lot of people come in later and leave earlier and don't get out at all. Things should pick up Friday and for the next few weeks with Superbowl and Mardi Gras.
As we left Task Force, they gave us each a token for the bus home. It took about a mile walking (half at each end) and three miles riding to get back to Task Force. I got back right at 3PM. One worker said he lost his token and walked home, but I wondered if he was saving his token and hoping we would cover him. After all, the token is worth $1.25 and that is almost 5% of what we made that day.
Once I got back to my car, there were several hours of light out so I went out taking the pictures here on this page. They are shown in the order you would see them if you started walking along St. Charles Ave. from Newcombe College to neighboring Tulane University and then on to Loyola University. Then you cut through Loyola University by their library ( previously mentioned) out the back of Loyola and then through Tulane to their library. That completes most of the loop and puts you back to where I normally park my car in the neighborhood behind Newcombe College.
If you let your mouse pause over each picture (not clicking) your browser will probably show you the caption for each picture so that you can see what it is. Audubon seems to have been a big person in New Orleans as there is a private neighborhood between Newcombe College and Tulane University named after him as well as a park opposite Tulane University. Tulane University is also very pretty, but they seem to really like huge trees which makes it hard to get nice pictures (you can't see the buildings for all the trees).
Loyola University seems to have more of an eye to setting up some impressive views (great for brochures at least). There were really impressive views of the chapel which is right off their main entrance. Behing the central building at the entrance and off to the right is their library. Tulane's library is also hard to see much of with all those huge trees (which I really love even though they don't take great pictures). However, the entire area around there is quite beautiful, don't you think?
On Friday, January 18, Noveau and myself were sent out at about 7:45AM for a 'general cleaning' job with Boudreaux Builders (Noveau had gone out with me to install the spa on the 17th; he had lost his token). Samuel was driving the van again (had driven us on the 17th) and we again got lost, this time because the residential street we were looking for, Phosphor, didn't go through to the main street Menarie. We got to the address and it was a new house being built on an older lot by Boudreaux Builders. We arrived at 8:15AM rather than the requested 8AM, and no one was there.
Samuel called in and said we should wait and that people should be there soon. About 9:15AM the contractor arrived and said he had left at 8:10AM. Drats. Anyway, he set us to cleaning with almost no instruction and left. We managed to find a broom, shovel, and wheel barrow and set to it. About 1PM he came by and was favorably impressed with our work (he had asked for good workers who could work without supervision). He left about 1:30PM and left us instructions for additional cleaning and a completed time sheet for 8AM to 3:30PM (no time deducted for lunch, but we only took 15 minutes for lunch) which was most generous.
He also gave us a return for another house in the neighborhood for Monday, the 21st. We finished up at 2:45PM and left though I was a little inclined to just keep cleaning until the time he provided. Samuel had given us each a token and we rode about 1.4 miles on the bus and walked about a mile (mostly from the bus stop back to Task Force). The buses in New Orleans do seem to be well utilized.... That evening I went to a training for All Pro Championship temps (via Task Force). We will be running boutiques in hotels selling NFL merchandise before the Superbowl. It is $6 an hour and could be regular work.