The Road Goes Ever On and On

Apparently, some more explanation is needed on the title of the blog, "hotter than new love". Down here, in sou-east Kentucky, we had some days that topped out near 100 degrees. And, the specific job we were working on is an addition to a house. Now, the air conditioner for the existing house is blowing out hot air directly into the addition, making it a cool 115 degrees in there. And my face would literally rain sweat through my black white sox hat. I was framing up the new walls for the bathroom and for the closet in the new addition, cutting 2x4's to length and hammering them into a new wall. Now our boss and hero, Ross would often exclaim, when it got to be at the hottest point of the day, "it's hotter than new love in here". And indeed it was, very much so, as the wavy sweat marks on the faithful hat can prove. And you know what's hotter than new love, this blog son, that's what.

We had orientation this week at a summer camp which was complete with meetings, prayer, getting to meet all new volunteers and learn all the history we could ever desire about the region and the organization. We also learned the correct pronunciation of Appalachia (apple - at- cha). For me, the best part was the people, by far. We met some people from 3 other volunteer houses and they were some of the greatest people I've meet in a good long time. We swam in the lake, did the rope swing, had a rousing game of ultimate, ate old beef jerky that was donated to the camp and shared many laughs.

I also met 2 plumbers from New York who were volunteering for the week on the job I usually work on. They were quite large and in charge as it were. With deep Italian accents and would often say "forget about it"...you know what I'm talking about. Every day they'd be like, "you coming with us today?!" to which I'd reply, "I have to have orientation". They'd then answer, "I'll give you an orientation, forget about it".

The week was topped off with a cookout with much of the full time employees and almost all the volunteers from our organization....the sky was amazing on the ride home, and I think we only heard the song 'Delila' about 300 times, so not bad. Tomorrow's back to work, hot days, siding to be done, should be easy, forget about it.

Cheers.

phrase of the week: "I heard you guys were from New Jersey..." ---reply: "NEVER HAPPENED"