Workin' for the weekend...
Another lovely weekend full of fun in the sun. Okay, not so much "fun" as "back-breaking, wasp-stinging work". But it was fun, nonetheless. Sort of. Kind of. Kinda sort of.
My friend Judah had decided to tear out the wooden deck in his back yard. It had been there when they bought the house a year ago, and probably should have come out then, as Judah fell through a rotten spot the day after they closed... Well, they'd finally set a weekend to have it done and asked all the friends to come over and help, payment for services rendered to be made in the acceptable currency of beer and pizza.
Hey, Marius, as a side note, we were just blocks from your apartment. I'd have called you for the extra set of hands, but knowing your wan complexion, and the fact that we were working outside, you'd have probably burst into flames. And I (still) don't have your correct phone number....
The work day should go quick, judging from the amount of people who were to show, but as Burns said, the best laid schemes of mice and men.... The cancellations started piling up, and those of us that showed knew we were in for a bit of work. We understood that others had issues pop up which they could not avoid, and hold no ill will, but we knew it was also going to mean a few more hours of work.
They day started out about 3 degrees cooler than the surface of the sun, and we were all soaked in sweat in no time. At least it was a good sweat, earned in the forges of hard work.... Okay, we were sweaty, stinky pigs, no matter how prettily you phrase it.
Of all the different plans for removal, the "chainsaw the puppy into manageable little bits" idea seemed to be the best. Iain brought his newly acquired toy and was anxious to use it, so we let him have at it. I discovered him to truly have brass...uh... fortitudes... when he sawed through a hornets nest under the decking, and kept working without so much as a flinch, as seemingly hundreds of wasps poured out of the cut and swarmed menacingly. I backed up hurriedly and still got stung, as Iain continued to cut away at the wood. The wasp cloud dissipated as Iain got to the end of the deck and shut off the chainsaw. "Wow, you're ballsy!" "What do you mean?" "You hit that wasps nest and just kept working." "What wasps nest?" Okay. Not courageous. Clueless. He didn't even see them swarm out. Why, then, was *I* the one to get stung??? Sheesh!
We'd gotten half the deck removed, and decided to wait for Jim to show up with the trailer before we continued. The other half of the deck was now under piled, rotten wood, which needed to be hauled to the dump, and out of the way. It was decided that a little yard maintenance was in order while we waited. Iain broke out the brand new weedeater, while Judah fired up the lawnmower. That was the plan, anyway. Burns in action, again. The lawnmower would not start, and the pull cord on the weedeater came out, but wouldn't go back in..... The girls were sent on a supply run, to pick up a new air filter for the mower, return the weedeater, and pick up some miscellaneous supplies.
Jim had shown up by this point, and we loaded the trailer to full, and he and I headed to the dump. For the first of four trips. Sort of... We drove all the way out to the dump, waited in line for 20 minutes, got up to the gate and were told that we needed a recent tax bill to be allowed to drop off. Trip number one a complete waste of time. We left, with trailer still full, and went to Jim's hosue to get his tax bill. We'd arrived back at the dump for trip two, amidst nearby lightning strikes, but no line, presented the tax bill, and were told to proceded to dock 6 to dump. Unloading is certainly easier than loading, but still took a while, and it was now only about 2 degrees cooler than the sun... Underneath the rotten decking, Jim had a small amount of yard debris that he'd cleared from his house, and the attendant, politely, yet somewhat incoherantly, informed us that we couldn't dump. He told us to take it over to the yard refuse area. No problem. Until we discovered that there was no way to get there from where we were..... We had to leave the dump completely, get back out on the road, drive two blocks down, and go in the front gate all over again, for trip number three... Okay, technically, this was tip number two, but we'd left and came back, so, to us, it was number three....
We arrived back at Judah's just in time to reload the trailer and head back to the dump. While we were gone, Judah and Iain had managed to remove most of the rest of the deck, as well as cut the grass with the now functioning lawnmower and new, new weedeater. We'd used Jim's tax bill already, and you are, apparently, only allowed to dump once a year (tough luck for renters, eh?), so had to use Judah's for the 2nd/4th trip. They couldn't find his tax bill, but did find the "proposed tax bill" and called the dump and they said that'd be okay, as long as the owner of the home was present, and had a valid Driver's License with matching address... We took Judah's better half with us, and headed out.
This trip was pretty uneventful, as we'd arrived, had no line to speak of, and moved right to the dock, without any fuss. While Jim and I are chucking wood (go ahead, say it, you know you want to), Amanda spots a mini-van next to us, throwing out perfectly good plywood. The man had purchased it for last years hurricanes, and had since installed rolling shutters. Both Amanda and Jim had projects that required plywood, so we decided to take them off his hands for the low, low price of free. Wait....wasn't the object to go to the dump to get rid of stuff? C'est la vie. We unloaded his van, reloaded the trailer and headed for Judah's.
By this time, I was a very stinky beyotch. We all were. But the work was done, and it was shower and beer time. Okay, not at the same time... You'll get your beer all watery! The beer was cold, and tasted devine. The pizza was cold, and tasted devine. The shower, after the 7 of us finally all got bathed (again, not at the same time), was cold and equally devine.
We settled in for an evening of libations, good company, and pre-season football. The Bucs lost, but the beer was still cold, so all was good. The original thought was that we'd head across the street to Busch Gardens after finishing the work, but it took longer than planned, and everyone was too tired, so we just hung out instead. The folks started dropping off, one by one, 'til I was the last one left awake. Well, being that I was sleeping on the couch, and had to wait for everyone to go to bed before I could, I had little choice in the matter. But that's okay, as I'm usually the last one up, anyway....
Since we were slugs the night before, we were going to get up the next morning and do something. The sunlight came only to discover we were still quite slug-like, so breakfast was about all we could manage. As long as Denny was cookin', that is. The service was horrible, the food okay, but the company grand.
A two hour road trip later, and I am safely back home. It was a fun weekend, with tasks successfully accomplished. A job well done. All right, I'm feeling motivated. I'm going back to bed.....
My friend Judah had decided to tear out the wooden deck in his back yard. It had been there when they bought the house a year ago, and probably should have come out then, as Judah fell through a rotten spot the day after they closed... Well, they'd finally set a weekend to have it done and asked all the friends to come over and help, payment for services rendered to be made in the acceptable currency of beer and pizza.
Hey, Marius, as a side note, we were just blocks from your apartment. I'd have called you for the extra set of hands, but knowing your wan complexion, and the fact that we were working outside, you'd have probably burst into flames. And I (still) don't have your correct phone number....
The work day should go quick, judging from the amount of people who were to show, but as Burns said, the best laid schemes of mice and men.... The cancellations started piling up, and those of us that showed knew we were in for a bit of work. We understood that others had issues pop up which they could not avoid, and hold no ill will, but we knew it was also going to mean a few more hours of work.
They day started out about 3 degrees cooler than the surface of the sun, and we were all soaked in sweat in no time. At least it was a good sweat, earned in the forges of hard work.... Okay, we were sweaty, stinky pigs, no matter how prettily you phrase it.
Of all the different plans for removal, the "chainsaw the puppy into manageable little bits" idea seemed to be the best. Iain brought his newly acquired toy and was anxious to use it, so we let him have at it. I discovered him to truly have brass...uh... fortitudes... when he sawed through a hornets nest under the decking, and kept working without so much as a flinch, as seemingly hundreds of wasps poured out of the cut and swarmed menacingly. I backed up hurriedly and still got stung, as Iain continued to cut away at the wood. The wasp cloud dissipated as Iain got to the end of the deck and shut off the chainsaw. "Wow, you're ballsy!" "What do you mean?" "You hit that wasps nest and just kept working." "What wasps nest?" Okay. Not courageous. Clueless. He didn't even see them swarm out. Why, then, was *I* the one to get stung??? Sheesh!
We'd gotten half the deck removed, and decided to wait for Jim to show up with the trailer before we continued. The other half of the deck was now under piled, rotten wood, which needed to be hauled to the dump, and out of the way. It was decided that a little yard maintenance was in order while we waited. Iain broke out the brand new weedeater, while Judah fired up the lawnmower. That was the plan, anyway. Burns in action, again. The lawnmower would not start, and the pull cord on the weedeater came out, but wouldn't go back in..... The girls were sent on a supply run, to pick up a new air filter for the mower, return the weedeater, and pick up some miscellaneous supplies.
Jim had shown up by this point, and we loaded the trailer to full, and he and I headed to the dump. For the first of four trips. Sort of... We drove all the way out to the dump, waited in line for 20 minutes, got up to the gate and were told that we needed a recent tax bill to be allowed to drop off. Trip number one a complete waste of time. We left, with trailer still full, and went to Jim's hosue to get his tax bill. We'd arrived back at the dump for trip two, amidst nearby lightning strikes, but no line, presented the tax bill, and were told to proceded to dock 6 to dump. Unloading is certainly easier than loading, but still took a while, and it was now only about 2 degrees cooler than the sun... Underneath the rotten decking, Jim had a small amount of yard debris that he'd cleared from his house, and the attendant, politely, yet somewhat incoherantly, informed us that we couldn't dump. He told us to take it over to the yard refuse area. No problem. Until we discovered that there was no way to get there from where we were..... We had to leave the dump completely, get back out on the road, drive two blocks down, and go in the front gate all over again, for trip number three... Okay, technically, this was tip number two, but we'd left and came back, so, to us, it was number three....
We arrived back at Judah's just in time to reload the trailer and head back to the dump. While we were gone, Judah and Iain had managed to remove most of the rest of the deck, as well as cut the grass with the now functioning lawnmower and new, new weedeater. We'd used Jim's tax bill already, and you are, apparently, only allowed to dump once a year (tough luck for renters, eh?), so had to use Judah's for the 2nd/4th trip. They couldn't find his tax bill, but did find the "proposed tax bill" and called the dump and they said that'd be okay, as long as the owner of the home was present, and had a valid Driver's License with matching address... We took Judah's better half with us, and headed out.
This trip was pretty uneventful, as we'd arrived, had no line to speak of, and moved right to the dock, without any fuss. While Jim and I are chucking wood (go ahead, say it, you know you want to), Amanda spots a mini-van next to us, throwing out perfectly good plywood. The man had purchased it for last years hurricanes, and had since installed rolling shutters. Both Amanda and Jim had projects that required plywood, so we decided to take them off his hands for the low, low price of free. Wait....wasn't the object to go to the dump to get rid of stuff? C'est la vie. We unloaded his van, reloaded the trailer and headed for Judah's.
By this time, I was a very stinky beyotch. We all were. But the work was done, and it was shower and beer time. Okay, not at the same time... You'll get your beer all watery! The beer was cold, and tasted devine. The pizza was cold, and tasted devine. The shower, after the 7 of us finally all got bathed (again, not at the same time), was cold and equally devine.
We settled in for an evening of libations, good company, and pre-season football. The Bucs lost, but the beer was still cold, so all was good. The original thought was that we'd head across the street to Busch Gardens after finishing the work, but it took longer than planned, and everyone was too tired, so we just hung out instead. The folks started dropping off, one by one, 'til I was the last one left awake. Well, being that I was sleeping on the couch, and had to wait for everyone to go to bed before I could, I had little choice in the matter. But that's okay, as I'm usually the last one up, anyway....
Since we were slugs the night before, we were going to get up the next morning and do something. The sunlight came only to discover we were still quite slug-like, so breakfast was about all we could manage. As long as Denny was cookin', that is. The service was horrible, the food okay, but the company grand.
A two hour road trip later, and I am safely back home. It was a fun weekend, with tasks successfully accomplished. A job well done. All right, I'm feeling motivated. I'm going back to bed.....
posted by Turtle at 2:43 PM
1 Comments:
Oh Tortuga, they make many unguents and balms of arcane and fragrant unctions that can keep e'en the most flammible of us pallid folk from combusting in the great heat of the day. Should ever an event of such a kind arise again, pray do not hesitate to call. All I did yesterday was clean the living room and sit upon my keister. Oh yeah, and watch the Bucs get their asses handed to them. :-(
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