Kind of a knuckle down and get to it day – working with a friend and crawling around an “attic” and underneath a house – at days end I must have looked like Swamp Thing, expected women to grab their children and run, but there’s a satisfaction in accomplishing what you set out to do.
More so if you encounter challenges along the way, and it’s almost a law when working on a house, especially older ones, there’s going to be some challenges that may make you ponder the nature of your existence.
But I’m a believer that when it comes to construction there isn’t much that can’t be done if you think it through – if the Egyptians could build the pyramids modern man should be able to handle anything related to a house.
My friend has a stiff knee, can’t bend it all at, but a hard worker. When he’s lining up a job such as today’s he’ll notify me a few a days in advance so I can finish up whatever I may be working on and join him – works out well for both of us.
It’s a pleasure to work with someone who isn’t afraid to work, doesn’t always look for the easiest thing to do, doesn’t work at a snails pace or looking to take a lot of breaks.
Reputations are built on that, and word of mouth the best advertising a person can have.
I don’t eat lunch when working, and neither does my friend. But we’ll stop along the way somewhere and break out the thermos for a cup.
Today my friend went philosophical on me during “lunch”- he began talking about the tradeoff in the kind of work we do, how when you’re young you start strong, become stronger, peak, and then begin to decline – all the while the work slowly breaking your body down until you reach a stage where you just can’t go anymore – a bad back, joint problems, maybe a missing finger or two, and with a chuckle, maybe a permanent afro from being bitten by electricity too many times.
I haven’t thought about such things much but I can see his point, I also think the same can be said about a lot of the kind of work people do.
Just about everything in life is a tradeoff of some sort, so my concern isn’t about a bad back or missing fingers ( I figure I’ve got ten of them anyway) it’s about being self reliant, standing on my own two feet and providing.
And if that’s what it takes, what the end result will be, not a problem, because even when your old and can’t go anymore word of mouth will still be the best “advertising”.
It will be enough if someone says there is man who wasn’t afraid to work. If those who depended on me didn’t do without.
Work…it’s what men do, it’s what we were born to.