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Thursday, September 7, 2017

Pregnant and on the road

....for work that is.  Thanks to Hurricane Harvey kicking the crap out of the Gulf parts of TX I am currently hanging out in Houston, TX.  I'm not doing inspections (thank God), I'm working at one of our MCC's or Mobile Claim Centers.  We have 3 huge luxury busses that are outfitted with all kidns of awesome technology, grills, coffee makers, awnings etc that are driven cross country for events like this and set up to help our customers.  We file claims, answer questions, cook food give out drinks, charge phones, direct people to where they should be if its not with us (FEMA for example) or anything else we can do to make this really trying time slightly less awful.

The real fun for me is that the bus is staffed by volunteers from all over the company and country.  You get a chance to meet coworkers that you'd never interact with on a normal basis.  For example this time one of our execs volunteered, in his real job he's an attorney and in charge of claim litigation out of AZ, but for the last 6 days he's been cooking hot dogs and greeting our customers as they walk into the bus area.  We have people from our antique auto department, contents valuation and even direct services (they deal with internal customers and policy info).  This event we have also started to have therapy dogs come up to the bus for people to pet and help them process all the emotions that go into this ordeal.  It's been amazing to see the impact it has on some customers (and on the workers too, we get as much out of the dogs being there as anyone). 

Now normally I'm used to working 12 hour days and just rolling with it.  However, being 22-23 weeks pregnant has made this a different situation.  For one thing edema has kicked it, my ankles start the day normal sized but the combo of being *this* pregnant, 100 degree heat, standing and walking all day and just bad luck all combine to make them the same size of my calves by about noon.  I'm also not used to people fussing over me...like at all.  I'm an adjuster and used to hauling my ladder around, climbing roofs, wading through flood muck and just taking it all in stride.  I've never had so many people tell me to take a break, go sit in the bus with the AC, put my feet up, force Gatorade on me/tell me to drink more water and make sure I've eaten in my life.  Its all done in a nice way, and from a good place and I truly appreciate it, but its definitely a change!   One big perk though is that when we move to Houston tomorrow the rest of the bus crew is all staying in "Farmers Village" or as I like to call it "tent city".  Which we set up because we have a ton of people in an area where there aren't a lot of hotel rooms, they basically set up army style barracks and its like low level glamping (with cold showers) from what I can tell.  Thanks to the tiny terrorist (my current fav nickname for the baby) I get an actual hotel room and that is one perk I have no interest in turning down! 

This is likely my last deployment before I (hopefully soon) find a new job within the company and I'm really enjoying it!  Getting to work the bus is something I wanted to do before I roll off CRT and it's been as much fun and just as fulfilling as I imagined!


Our group in front of the Mobile Claim Center
 

This is legit the size of the mosquitos.  I've been spraying myself with 40% deet every few hours when I'm working to try and avoid bites.  There haven't been any zika cases from local mosquitos in Corpus Christi or in Houston but I figured better to be safe than sorry.

We did get to see some beautiful sunrises on the way to work in the morning.
This is a house in Rockport TX, the wood shakes are literally blown upright by the wind but didn't break off (my guess is due to the humidity?)

The hurricane bent these trees in half but they didn't break.
The car made my belly look bigger than normal and I thought it was HILARIOUS.  I wonder if this is what it'll look like in a few months?

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