Back during the Summer, we paved on the hottest day of the year, with the Heat Index being sued in copyright court by Satan. Somewhere in the middle of the afternoon, I drank my last bottle of water, but luckily my supervisor showed up with a cooler. I took a long cold shower after I … Read more
I have a chainsaw. Cody has a tractor with various attachments, and Brian has a need for money. Doug is there, too, and Doug mostly wants some dead pine trees in his sister’s yard down in a reasonable fashion so they won’t come crashing down on Sis’s well or shed, or even her house. I’m … Read more
One of the weird things about working construction is you run into the same people over and over. There’s a guy on the dirt crew I’ve worked with, off and on, since 1995, I’ve known him from three different companies, and he’s like a fixture of some sort. He was once a superintendent, in charge … Read more
A little before seven in the morning I’m going to work. State Route 76 winds its way through a lot of farmland because there isn’t anything else out there. Heading north out of Quitman, I go over the tracks, and past Troupville Road, and there’s a car behind a truck, and that’s where I am. … Read more
Rarely do I ever get a call from a contractor of a previous project, unless we’re going to work together soon, and the guys I worked with in Fargo ought not be in the state for a very long time. Someone in their front office thought it was a good idea to invade south Georgia … Read more
When I started in the Transportation Construction business in 1992, crane operators were small-time gods. They were one of the few men who could sit at the controls of a machine all day, if they chose to, and not work like the other guys who could run other machines. Anyone could run a backhoe, an … Read more
Back a while, Keith suggested I try a Fiskar’s Machete, and quite frankly, I have no interest in machetes. However, very rarely does anyone suggest a brush-clearing tool unless they’ve actually used one. Moreover, Keith had a narrative as to where and how he used said tool, so I was intrigued. It’s a forty buck … Read more
It’s hard to believe a year has gone by, but a hell of a lot has gone on in that year, more than I thought would, more than I thought possible, and one of the Great Truths come to visit is sometimes, life is very personal, and sometimes, it isn’t. I had a good month, … Read more
Mom made chili one night last week and the next day a bottle of Drano appeared on the counter. Post hoc ergo propter hoc, so I wait to see if the Drano works, and it does not. Mom tells me the sink is draining slow, and so it is. I’ve the skills of a drunken … Read more
It’s the last day, hopefully, on the project, and at this point, everyone is sick to death of being here. Honestly, the best contractor I’ve worked with would have had this thing knocked out in three months, and it’s been six months so far. There’s a lot of RMP but not many MPH. Everyone is … Read more