[TheForge] Re: [kl] Chuck Robinison

[Chuck Robinson]

Hey Mark,
Thanks for thinking about us.
I'm reminded these days of the Chinese curse
"May you live in interesting times".
The last month or so has been exceedingly interesting.

Compared to a lot of other folks down here, we weathered Katrina pretty 
well. We had (5)  95' pine trees down on our buildings. and 11 more down on 
our property.
The damage to the Gulf Coast is staggering.

Our little town of 13,000 mushroomed to 33,000 in 3 days.
The government, and large relief organizations, bureaucratic inefficiency 
would be humorous if it wasn't so seriously impacting peoples lives.
The spontaneous help and generosity from friends, neighbors, church groups 
and complete strangers made
surviving the first few days bearable..

My son Charlie roared in  as soon as the road from Houston was open and 
brought us emergency supplies.
About a week later Robert Vardaman a blacksmith friend from Hattiesburg MS. 
showed up, out of the blue, with a truck load of supplies a generator and 
gas to run it .

My friend Martial Car and his family lost every thing except the 2 Cars they
drove to the Stennis Space center shelter, and the clothes on their backs.
When we hunted them down a few days after the storm, he  joked that the
clothes he rummaged from a pile of donated clothing in the parking lot were
better than the ones he lost in the storm.


My FEMA inspector is an interior decorator, who informed me that if my
insurance didn't cover roof repair, FEMA would only pay to patch the tree 
damage to my roof.
 I had to show him the pine cone imbedded in the camellia branch and explain
that about 800 of them had bombarded my roof.
The tractor/ front end loader/fork lift, "The Kabota that could" was heavily 
damaged by a tree that fell on it.
I got it running and used it to haul about 350 tons of trees off trees off 
ours, our neighbors, and several friends properties.
Naturally both my insurance company and FEMA say it's not covered.
Of the 125 members of the Gulf Coast Blacksmith's Assn. we have only been 
able to contact 11 of them so far to see if they are OK.
May you all NOT live in interesting times!
Chuck


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark A. Pesetsky" <pesetsky at Princeton.EDU>
To: <theforge at mailman.qth.net>; "Knife List" <knife-list at kepler-eng.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2005 6:51 AM
Subject: [kl] Chuck Robinison


> Any word from Chuck since the hurricane? Been thinking about him/Praying
> that he is ok...
>
> Thanks
> Mark
>
>