84 Lumber, Pass Christian, Five Doors and Chloe

Chuck S. writes:

There are three major sources of lumber along U.S. 49 (the major north-south corridor in Gulfport). There's Home Depot up near Interstate 10. There's Lowe's a bit closer to the Gulf. But for my money, the most convenient place for lumber is 84 Lumber, next to Lowe's. Lowe's is always crowded, and the lumber pickup is self-service that you have to cart out to your vehicle. But at 84 -- where the contractors go -- you walk up to the service desk, tell the man what lumber you need, then drive around back and pull inside, right next to the stacks of lumber, where the nice 84 man helps you load up. You can get in and out in a fraction of the time of finding your way around one of the big home improvement warehouses. 84 here is pretty much limited to wood (plus a few small hardware items such as nails and screws and small tools). But if wood is what you want -- and we've had to fetch everything from trim molding to 1x6 boards to sheets of plywood -- 84 is the quickest stop. Tell 'em Alvin sent ya.

We took a couple of hours before work today to tour the hurricane-devastated Gulf Coast from Gulfport to Pass Christian via U.S. 90. Most of the rubble is long gone. But so are virtually all of the buildings that stood within a half-mile of the Gulf of Mexico. The winds and storm surge wiped everything -- except the live oaks -- away. The live oaks -- so named because they are evergreens and thus keep their foliage even in winter (including now) while other trees look dead -- can live for hundreds of years. Along long stretches of U.S. 90 here, near where the eye of Hurricane Katrina made landfall, the only thing standing are the live oaks, giving the appearance that they are the lone inhabitants of a coastal picnic. They witnessed and withstood and horror -- and today, they live.

Back at Stella's, we undertook our fourth day of labors: Painting, hanging closet doors, installing trim and so forth. This afternoon, our site coordinator delivered five interior doors we ordered. Alas, Stella's house was constructed before an 84-inch height for an interior door became the industry standard. A couple of her doorways are too short for such doors. And so, alas, some of our workers are spending time trimming the pre-made doors to fit.

A story about this mission trip appeared in The Gleaner today. Ronnie Eblen joked that everyone on the trip was quoted except his wife, Chloe.

"That," Chloe said defiantly, "is because I was working!"

Indeed she was.