In which I’ve been busy, but not too busy to blog — except I couldn’t ’cause the wireless is crap.

Our home sweet hotel seems to have a limited number of AP’s, so I haven’t been able to get on the Internet since I rebooted Saturday night after installing a Delorme mapping program. This makes me sad. I hate being denied the Internet.

Our sweet suite is still sweet. I live with two men, so I clean it twice day but it’s so small I don’t even notice I’m doing it. I spend most of my time hanging out here with the door open to the little yard area, computing and printing and talking on the phone. It’s way laid back and fun; it’s just like an office job except I’m drinking a mudslide! (Oh, and not getting paid for it. Yet. But whatever.)

Saturday Bread and BoSe went along on a roof sale with our team leader guy, GR. I stayed here and did office stuff. They came back all juiced because while they were there estimating the roof and meeting with the client, the guy across the street came over and asked to have his roof done, too.

State Farm estimates that the hail storms in April were the most damaging in U.S. history. The local building supplier estimates that 300,000 homes were damaged and they have a gigantic warehouse lot stuffed full of roofing supplies to meet the demand. My guys drove by there the other day and told me that same company is in the process of ‘dozing another lot to store even more materials. (Apparently big supply companies have spotters & estimators on their staffs, people who go out after weather events and determine how much of which type of materials will be needed to meet the construction demand. Who knew?)

This all means that they’ll be selling roofs until the cows come home, basically.

I did my first estimate data entry project yesterday. It took me two hours and I made a couple of mistakes. In my own defense, the damn shed had a gambrel roof and the scope notes they gave me didn’t have all the necessary measurements! But still. Something of a steep learning curve on this software – it took half an hour to figure out which heading “R&R vinyl dryer vents” was under. HVAC? Appliances? Siding?

After accidentally deleting my template, I got it rebuilt and I think after learning most of the line item codes I’ll be cranking out estimates by the pound.

THERE IS A BUCA DI BEPPO HERE!!! Saturday night, we rounded up Truck and Bowling Jesus and PK and went there for dinner. It was expensive, but oh so very worth it. We drank 3 litres of the house red wine, we had garlic bread and calamari and bruschetta appetizers. We ordered and shared pork, eggplant parmesan, manicotti, mashed potatoes, and green beans for dinner. We laughed and talked and all the guys fell in love with the waitress. It was delicious and so much fun. I love that restaurant.

Sunday and today I’m office maven. I’ve designed and printed business cards. I’ve edited marketing copy and printed 200 flyers (Bread, BoSe, Truck, and Bowling Jesus are all out canvassing right now.) I made them appointment sheets, too, and made sure they had all the appropriate tools and paperwork on the off chance that they actually sell a roof by accident while they’re postering. They all think I’m a genius.

I’m the only person from the office planet here so they all pop in and out all day. It’s pretty fun, actually. They’re all using my business card template now.

Anyway. Today’s Monday. The hotel’s wireless is still down so I called T Mobile for a free day pass. I have to remember to cancel it before this time tomorrow or they’ll charge me $40 for the month. Hopefully the hotel’s geek will show the fuck up and install those APs ASAP ’cause I’m fuckin’ dying here.

The night before last there was a big storm. Briefly the wind blew so hard that a table, two chairs, and an ashtray all ended up in the hotel’s pool. They took the furniture out, but the pool’s closed until they can get it cleaned out. Which means no swimming for the Mushlette today.

Today I had breakfast at a Waffle House. Yum. Also the TV just told me to expect 60 MPH winds and dime-sized hail in downtown Indianapolis within the next five mintes. I called the boys and encouraged them to park their rig under something so the windows don’t break if the hail actually hits. Here in Greenwood, though (a suburb SE of Indy), the day’s still lovely.