So, back in Louisiana, wonderful. Seemed like it would be the same ole same ole, but when I showed up to the command center it was… deserted. The parking lot was half empty and the guard shacks were gone. They combined anyone working not in a hot zone that was a responder from our teams, FRAT, RAT, QRF, Hot Shot, into a generic “response” team.

So, my first day was stand down, I got to review all the Standard Operating Procedures, for the first time. Only took three trips to realize I hadn’t done it. And tehn had a meeting. After the meeting, a safety meeting with the whole team, we went to a bar to watch the second half of the Saints game. I knew it would be crazy because on more than half the cars and houses down here you have either LSU Football or Saints Football paraphernalia on the side. So my coordinator paid for a round and some wings and we watched the locals scream at the one 49ers fan in the bar. I’m surprised he didn’t leave.

The next day, Rob Crotty returned and I was put on a mission to watch sand get… cleaned. Yeah, they take oiled sand off of Grand Isle, a cool community that got hit hard by oil, and clean it. They put it through a giant machine that washes it with 120-degree water and then they dump it in piles on the beach. Yeah, real scientific. Anyway, I did that for three days, one where the machines were down, and here I am, waiting for tomorrow’s assignment.