after the blitz

During the week of May 27 - June 3, we brought several of the 14 houses to completion. Truthfully, we far exceeded the condition of the 4 houses that we built the week after Thanksgiving of 2005. However, there is still a bit of work to do. Now that we don't have the 300+ volunteers, nor do we have any teams of AmeriCorps NCCC, that's a lot of work left for the three full-time staff. Heck, it's lonely out there.

That means this week I've been caulking and caulking, while my co-workers are putting up trim. Tomorrow, I get to paint and then I can paint some more (clearly, I'm taking one for the team). Once I'm done with the painting (say, 2008) I can start the beloved closet shelves. Ask any AmeriCorps NCCC team that's worked with us, and I'm certain they'll tell you how much they love cutting and installing wire closet shelves.

Seriously, we hope to be done by the end of this month. That's good because while attending the Beat the Heat Week Blitz post-mortem yesterday, I learned that in fact we aren't building 40 houses this year, we're shooting to build 52. So, 20 down and 32 to go! To add to the challenge, the next blitz (who knows how many houses this one will be, maybe we'll do all 32 at once and sleep the rest of the year) will start in September. I ran the numbers, and by my calculations, that leaves us about ten weeks until I'm once again over my head. That is, if I'm still here. That's not a forecast or warning. It is merely recognizing that it has almost been a year since I began my grand experiment. I will also acknowledge that 'almost' is relative, and in this case indicates that I've passed the 50% mark of my one-year leave of absence.

Finally, this article is worth a read if you believe that the U.S. should take part in helping to live up to the Millennium Development Goals.