Bob Lombardi saying hello from Lawn-Guy-Land

[Bob Lombardi]

Hey All!
I have actually been on here for a little while now, but never posted my history (as if anyone cares!) So for your reading pleasure, I invite you to read a bit about me and what the hell I've been doin' for 20 years...
I don't want to make this sound like a Star Wars trilogy or anything remotely close to that, so I will give you the beginning in the beginning and not at the middle where most of your beginnings begin. By the time I finish, you will be looking for the beginning of the end which I promise you is opposite the beginning of the beginning. Yes...I am sober. LOL. The beginning for me kind of started in 85 when my stepfather died. Miserable prick he was. May he rest in peace, amen. When he died, my mother couldn't live in the house where she last saw him alive, so she moved to Ft. Pierce. I stayed in the house with a couple of friends until I was graduated. I probably should have moved with her, but being on your own at 17 seemed like a good idea at the time. Unfortunately I had way too many parties, that is, I had 1 never ending party. After graduation, my father, who lived in New York at the time, invited me on a cruise as a graduation gift. I left my roommates to take care of the house. Big mistake. I don't think I can ever move back to PSL as a result. They trashed the house. Someone called the owner, the owner changed the locks and pressed charges. I had to leave, and I couldn't get any of my personal belongings. Fortunately, some how my stereo, speakers and gazillion albums were rescued. Well, the day I came back from the cruise, I took my car to pick up my last paycheck from PSL towing (is it still there?) and took 95 North.
Okay, in case you weren't paying attention, this is my middle which is the beginning for most...
New York, 1986. Wow. Dad said he'd put me through college. Believe it or not, I was a straight A student and graduated with a 3.8 - nah! I picked the classes at St. Johns that I was going to take. My father took one look at the tuition bill and almost shit himself. Needless to say, I didn't go to St. johns. I started working for AT&T around that time. I went out with a couple of girlies, but nuttin' special. One night I was at a disco with friends (I can't dance to save my life) and one of my friends said that so and so liked me. Well, they told so and so that I said the same thing. BLAMMO - we both got shot in the ass by cupids arrow. Now the problem. She didn't speak a word of english. Some how we managed to communicate and go out alot. After a month or so, I realized that I didn't quite seal the deal; if you knoiw what I mean That's when I knew I was gonna marry this woman. We got married in April of 1988 in NewYork. In 1990, my first daughter was born. She is such a brilliant young lady and a true joy to my life. She is in 11th grade now. She is already picking medical colleges to attend. Of course, right now she can be the biggest bitch in the world too. In 91, I began working for New York Telephone (which changed to Bell Atlantic, then Nynex, and now finally Verizon.) In 92, my second daughter was born. She is the warmest, sweetest girl you could ever know. She is in 9th grade and wants to go to the Fashion Institute of Technology. She is a natural when it comes to drawing, painting, sketching, etc. In 96 I bought my house on Long Island. The house is now worth half a million dollars and I probably pay more in taxes a year than many people earn That's one of the reasons I might get the hell outta here when the kids go to college. The other is I HATE THE FRIGGIN COLD! Oh, did I tell you about my wife. She is awesome. My closest friends think she should be a saint because she tolerates me (hell, she may even love me!) She is a native of Guatemala; a very beautiful and rustic country in Central America. I am not too proud to say that I would not be the man I am today without her.
Okay, now as promised, is the beginning of the end which is opposite the beginning of the beginning of my boring, pathetic life...

So here I am on Long Island. I have my family, huge house, an 02 Sebring Convertible (what? Can't a man go through a midlife crisis without your constant scrutiny?), an 05 Pacifica AWD, a Toy Poodle (Scrappy), A Golden Retriever (Scooby), 2 pain in the ass cats that always seem to puke up hairballs in my friggin bedroom, 2 pc's and this laptop. Oh, the laptop...Verizon is putting me through college. I am going to start my 6th semester soon. I'll have a degree in telecommunications after 8 semesters. Verizon pays for my tuition, day at school (as if I were at work), laptop, books, and even the damn calculator. Hows that for benefits? BTW, 5 semesters down, all A's! Hoo-Yah!
So this is the end. Oh wait, I'm still alive. This is the perpetual end.

I hope you've enjoyed my bio. If not, sorry.

Also, if there is such a thing as 6 degrees of seperation, does anyone know anyone who knows anyone who knows anyone who knows anyone who knows Connie Zerbe?

Holla at yo boy,
[e-mail]
Bob Lombardi

[Clark]

Kick ass Bio Bob, had me rolling

[Clark]

Name/AKAs Age Birth Date Phone City, State Possible Relatives
1. ZERBEMOORE, CORNELIA
Associated names:
MOORE, CONNIE Z
MOORE, CORNELIA Z
MOORE, CORNOLIA Z
ZERBE, CONNIE
ZERBE, CORNELIA 37 Available Available BONITA SPRINGS, FL
DANDRIDGE, TN
NAPLES, FL ZERBEMOORE, CORNELIA (age 37)
ZERBE, ELLEN E (age 80)
MOORE, GARY L (age 37)

see all relatives...


ran her name thru the search engine.. based on the results, I'd say she is or was married to a guy named Gary L. Moore.

[Bob Lombardi]

You rock! I am actually going to pay for a 1 day unlimited pass to use the search engine to it's potential. When I do, I will post advanced notice to this site and anyone can email me names of those they want to find. I am going to shoot you a karma point if this site lets me. Thanks again bro!

-Bob

[Bob Lombardi]

Hey, just an update that I thought you all might find interesting. A lot of my friends and family like to discuss what I saw and did. For me, it was just my 'call to duty'. I was one of the first responders to the WTC on September 11. It was the most rigorous work I have ever done. Me and my crew worked 18 hours a day plus 1 hour travel from and to the city every day. Doing the math, I had 4 hours a day to sleep and shower. I have hundreds of pictures that the press could never have because they were not allowed into the crime scene as I was. Here are a couple with me in. I have one really good one that a friend took that I will scan and submit as well. Also, just a little note about the friend that took the picture. I met him at the WTC, never knew him before. He is a Verizon employee too. Anyway, we got to talking. We learned that his daughter and my daughter were really good friends from school and that he lives a couple blocks from me! What a small world. Now my daughter and his daughter are the best of friends.


I was really tired in this shot. I think at this point I had already been working 18 hour shifts for more than a week. That was the ruins of building 7 (or was it 4?) behind me and the Verizon building to the left.


Here, I was taking a break with a couple of co-workers. The black tank to the left was being used to suck out all of the oil and water from the sub-basements. The antenna from the WTC speared through the sidewalk and ruptured the oil tanks and water mains.

[Clark]

WOW, that pile of rubble is HUGE

I never would have thought you would have worked the WTC after 911

Thanks for the picture and the effort.

[Lisa]

Bob, that is amazing. It really is a small world isn't it..

All I can say is 'thank you' for being there for our Country.

Awesome!

[Bob Lombardi]

Thanks for the thanks, but it is not deserved. It wasn't like I was a fireman or police officer. They are the ones that deserve the praise. I just did my part in restoring the telephone lines and equipment.

[James]

Either way Bob you deserve a "thank you" Millions of people use those lines and you were one of the people to help bring back the communication.

Those really are great pictures

[cindy]

Bob,
I would also like to tell you how impressed I am with your working the WTC site. I cannot imagine how emotional it must have been to work the site--let alone the physical demands. I visited the site this past June and was not prepared for how emotional that experience was. You do deserve a huge thank you for your work there.

[Bob Lombardi]

Hi Cindy, and thank you for the nice words. I, too, went back to the WTC site this past November. It was the first time that I had been back. It was surreal. I stood on the corner where I spent most of my shifts following September 11. I looked out at pit that once housed the towers. What an eerie feeling. When you were there, did you go into that overpass that crossed West Street and overlooked the pit? That wasn't always there. It really disoriented me a bit. The foot of that overpass is where the antenna pierced the sidewalk. Things have really changed downtown, that's for sure.
I guess that I would be somewhat remiss if I did not tell the whole story of the events of September 11th. I recall that it was business as usual at the phone company. My partner and I were doing work in the Long Island City office. Long Island City is as close to the city as you can get without being there. When we came out of the office to get some parts, someone told us that an airplane had hit one of the towers. Foolish as we were, we thought it would be cool to go up on the roof of our building and see what kind of damage the plane did. We thought it was a little Cessna or the likes. As we were entering the building, we heard the loudest friggin roar in the sky that I had ever heard. Not thinking too much about it, we took the elevator up to the roof. When I got there, there were already a couple of people watching the events. I saw fire coming from both buildings and thought that the plane had clipped one building and hit the other. When someone told me what had actually happened, my knees buckled. As I stood there in disbelief, now realizing that this what a terror attack, the first tower collapsed. I told my partner to get the hell out of there and I ran downstairs to call my wife. I was in a phone building and there were no lines! In retrospect, the central office that I was working in must have gotten overloaded because it was the next closest one to the WTC to handle the call burden. Eventually, I got through to my oblivious wife. Her and one of my neighbors were at my house. When I told them what happened, they monitored what was going on on TV. It seemed to take forever to get home. All of the emergency response facilities were on lock-down, and you couldn't drive anywhere near them. The following day, I was assigned to Manhattan. The first few days there were hell. There was so much dust and debris that it was nearly impossible to breath. After a couple of days, they finally provided respirators. Funny, now they want us to go for testing because the dust was toxic. That same dust I was breathing for a few days when I first got there. I have refused the testing because my company will actually use the results against whomever was tested. Let me elaborate. If they do not find anything wrong with you at the time of testing and then 20 years from now they do, they will likely tell you that the cause of it is not WTC related because you already tested clean 20 years previous. I feel fine though. Cough, cough.
When I was working there immediately following the attack, I never had time to see the news. When my stint was over, friends and family all were telling me about what they had seen on TV and asked me how it really was. All I can say is that it was a thousand times worse than any of the footage I ever saw. On September 12th, they were pulling out bodies left and right. After a couple of days, however, the body bags were getting smaller and fewer. Eventually, there were no more body bags. That is an image that just stays in my head. I can tell you more about it, but it is nothing you would want to hear. Below is a photo taken from the footbridge and another from the entrance of the PATH train.

[Lisa]

Wow, amazing. I can't imagine being there like that Bob. I just can't even imagine it.

[Bob Lombardi]

Hey all! Here's one of the better shots from ground zero. We actually had this one framed, so my daughter scanned it for me.

This is me and a coworker taken towards the end of September, 2001.