Rain, rain go away

Yesterday the rain hit just as we were taking this picture, 2:00pm. It shortened our work day, but more importantly made our plans to swim less fun. We hurriedly laid the last 2 pieces of luan, screwed them down and cleaned up. Then, more prepared than Tuesday, we headed to the public beach on Dauphin Island. Sure it was raining, but wouldn't the Gulf be warmer? So we changed and headed down to the shore; Daniel decided to stay at the shelter and watch us. The rest of us approached and timidly entered. We shreiked a bit, but once were in up to our necks, we adjusted! We only stayed in for about 40 minutes before heading back to St. Paul's.

This morning (Thursday), we drove to meet Jerry at the LDR equipment headquarters. It was raining so we were doubtful we'd be tarping roofs on 3 different houses. While waiting for the LDR staff to find something for us, we toured Jerry's RV. Then, it was off to the Steele house in Irvington (between Mobile and Bayou La Batre). It took some time to get all the supplies to sand and paint their walls (with polyuerethane), but soon enough we had one team upstairs sanding bead board and one team downstairs painting.

It was so awesome to meet the family (we didn't get to meet Miss Fae at the other house). Miss Julie, who grew up in Omaha, homeschooled her four youngest while we worked. In the afternoon Mr. Tom came home to work on the house too; the kids also pitched right in! Mr. Tom teased us all about being from Nebraska and taught me some Southern manners (so I wouldn't teach his children bad examples... "It's 'yes sir'". Logan bonded with the oldest son thanks to World of Warcraft. And the three young girls bonded with Tyanne and Sarah, talking about boys and the like.

We said good-bye around 5:00 and headed back to shower. The evening ended at The Original Oyster House. We all tried new Southern foods like oysters on the half shell, crawfish, cheesy grits, etc. We had so much fun but ended with good-byes. We hung around to hug Jerry, then off to buy groceries for the return trip. Now I'm ready for bed...