Text From Chad

First, this has been their sleeping arrangements:

• Wednesday Night – Before the hurricane hit, they stayed south of Dallas waiting to see where they were going. At first, he was being sent to New Iberia, LA (which is where my sister lives), then they changed it to Houston so they staged south of Dallas waiting to see where they would be needed.
• Thursday Night – After the storm hit on Wednesday night, they knew they’d be going somewhere in southwest Louisiana but it was way too early to know who went where so they sent them to Metairie, LA to spend the night.
• Friday Night – They sent them to Sulphur, LA, just west of Lake Charles. They talked about putting them up in some kind of “camp” but that never happened so a whole bunch of folks, including Chad’s group, slept in their trucks in the parking lot.
• Saturday Night – They got rooms for them in Covington, LA – about 3-1/2 hours from where they were working in Sulphur. Chad said he thought that room was bad . . til Sunday night.
• Sunday Night – Thank goodness he didn’t tell me that night but they stayed in Baton Rouge, about two and a half hours from where they were working. He said that hotel was just awful. They slept in their clothes and he kept saying how awful it was.
• Monday Night – Finally, they got rooms in Lake Charles. It’s at a really nice hotel but it doesn’t have power, nor does it have hot water. There are generators to run the air conditioners and dehumidifiers. They lost at least some of their roof during the storm and water came in but that may have damaged just the upper floors. Chad said they have laundry facilities and they provided dinner and it was good. He said it was clean and even with just a cold shower, it wasn’t bad – I suppose after the last two hotels and being close to work, he’s really happy. They’re supposed to be able to stay there as long as they’re in the Lake Charles area. I hope! It’s in an area that’s about as safe as it gets there.

But, the funny thing was that he sent me this text last night:

He said as he was walking in, someone from the local power company said “Hi, Chad!” He looked over, they made eye contact and Chad said “Hi”. He had no idea who it was. Both of them were wearing masks. He said “They had to know me or they wouldn’t have recognized me with my mask on.” I asked if he had on a name tag and he said no.

I told him that I did post on Facebook that he was there and if anyone saw him to tell him hi. Oh, great, mom! He hates it when I post about him on the blog.

So, it’s a mystery – someone saw him, recognized him and said hello. I told him if anyone posts on Facebook “Hey, my husband saw Chad and said hello!”, I’ll let him know.