workin'

Yesterday I worked for the City of Tallahassee through a labor pool. Twelve of us went out on that job. We removed the dome covering a municipal swimming pool.

You know the type of dome I mean: canvas, held aloft by air being constantly pumped in. No supporting struts.

For the first hour or so the job was relatively easy. Tape down plastic with duct tape, remove a number of bolts which hold the doors to the dome, use pry bars to remove the 2x4's that hold the dome to a slot in the concrete. Turn off the air pump and wait for the dome to deflate. Smoke break!

Then it got interesting.

We had to fold up the deflated dome and roll it into a relatively compact package so it could be removed from the premises. Sounds like a fairly reasonable job, right?

Wrong. The interior of the dome has to be kept as clean as possible (i.e. it has to be on the inside of the folded result), so rather than folding it from one side to the other, we had to stand on one side and pull the tarp (after all, it is essentially a giant tarp) and fold it, accordion-like, with the outside staying outside. That's why there were so many of us on this job.

As I said, there were 12 of us from the labor pool. There were also at least 8 guys from the City. Thus, there were 20 people pulling with all their might to get this thing folded. And it did take all of our might.

Once it was folded we had to roll it up. They had laid out a long band of seat-belt material underneath the folded tarp. While about ten people rolled it hands-on, the other ten formed a tug-of-war line pulling on the strap.

To make an already long story a bit shorter, we (fine specimens of humanity that we are) managed to get the whole job done in four hours. It normally takes eight hours, so the boss signed our job ticket for eight hours. We may have been paid diddly on a hourly basis, but we got an entire day's pay for a half day's work.

Today I worked for a friend who has a "handyman" business. He doesn't like the term "handyman", and I can see why. He prefers the term "maintenance specialist". He hangs doors, he paints, he installs plumbing fixtures, fixes flashing on roofs and around chimneys, power washes house exteriors, and a host of other things. Most of his work involves making apartments and houses presentable (and usable) so they can be rented out again.

The thing is, he really hates to paint. I happen to like painting. He tells me that I'm slow but I do a good job. He also doesn't like getting into attics or under houses: he's claustrophobic. I'm a bit claustrophobic too, but I like attics and don't mind getting under a house. It won't be a 40-hour per week gig, but he pays eight bucks an hour cash. Plus the place he likes to go for lunch has good food at a good price.

He has a job coming up that involves painting the exterior of a house. He dreads that job, so he says he'll give it to me. I'll get the lump sum for the job and can do it at my own pace. Hallelujah!