Day 8: Donut Day

I got the lecture today. No, it wasn't a bad lecture. Just kinda...unusual. I was assisting Lawrence with lifting one of the grids, and he said, "Careful, I don't want you to hurt yourself and ruin the rest of your life. You need to use your back... You going to college this fall?"
I said, "Uh, yeah."
"Good," he replied. "Cause you need to go to college and get an education. Don't waste your time here. Don't get into this kind of job. Go and make something of yourself. That's the best advice I can give you."
"Well, thank you," I said. "I plan on it."

It was nice of him to say that. Means he really cares about helping other people make something of themselves. He knows the value of avoiding a bad injury and a bad career. Maybe he made the mistake of staying in construction his whole life, but he obviously doesn't want anybody with a mind to make the same mistake. I thought it was pretty cool of him.

Anyway, it wasn't really donut day...kinda. We had a safety meeting this morning at 7am, and there had to have been, like, at least 200 dozen donuts. We scarfed them down and saved two boxes for lunch and stuff. Those donuts were weird though, cause Brad and I both got heartburn from them...yes, that's right, from a freaking donut.

Bas-sic-cally...my feet are throbbing from today. 10 hours of work is so long, and Brad and I were walking back and forth ALL day. He and I were fastening support plates to the ceiling grids, preparing them to be connected to the ceiling, of all places. Up and down and up and down...then lifting them onto wheels, then rolling them over to the guys who were lifting them up to the ceiling and bolting them to it. 10 hours of that went relatively quickly--seemed a lot quicker than the last few work days, cleaning materials at the pass-thru's.

Quinn and Griffin spent the day with Renae, cleaning the grids for us to prepare to be assembled on the ceiling. Brad and I were both grateful to be doing something closer to real work, only because it made the hours crawl along a bit faster. Cleaning materials is so mind-numbing is so mind-numbing is so mind-numbing....

While Brad and I worked on the grids, suffering from heartburn, Brady and Skye were at another pass-thru, cleaning pedestals and tubes, and other crap that just continues to appear in front you, and multiplies when you blink. Blah blah blah, you get the point. I don't need to ramble any longer about how monotonous it is to clean materials.

Anyway, as Brad and I got progressively more and more tired, we got progressively more and more giggly. Well, actually it was more Brad than it was me. He laughed at everything, and I felt great cause they were my jokes and silly remarks that he was cracking up about. But I won't really attribute it to my hilarity, seeing as we were both tired and had reached terminal laugh-point a good 12 hours earlier than normal. It usually comes around at like, 1am, but for us, who were exhausted, we found ourselves laughing at the dumbest things even before lunch at noon.

While Brad and I were assembling "y-wings" (one of the types of support plates that we fastened to the grids...Brad named each type after the manner of Star Wars, cause we're geeks)...while we were assembling some "y-wings," Brad totally clocked himself with a wrench he was trying to loosen a lug nut with. The reaction was immediate, and the humor was intensified by the fact that it happened at the same time that Quinn, Griffin, and Renae had come over to get a drink at the water fountain a mere 15 feet away. They also happened to be watching us at that exact moment, and I was pleased to not only have someone to laugh at, but also have someone to laugh with. I did feel awful for Brad though...after my initial chuckle at his facial expression, I asked him if he was okay. If he did say he was, then I didn't hear it. I decided just to laugh with the rest of them, since he seemed to not be able to respond quite yet.

The remainder of the day was virtually eventless, besides the fact that Ron was very pleased that we were able to assemble a whole ten grids of the ceiling today--completely shattering the average of like, five or so. At that rate...well, we might be done with the ceiling in like, a few months. Yeah, it's not comforting, but at least we picked up the pace. Hopefully we'll be working with the ceiling team again tomorrow. It was pretty darn fun. Ron laughed at our jokes and seemed to really like me and Brad. He's a way cool guy.

Oh, and we found out today, that Reagan and Whitlie, because they can't find another job this summer, are both applying to work at Brycon! Exciting! Not only are they girls, but they're our friends, and they're super fun. We're all excited, and they might even start on Friday, we're thinking. That's when Jeff starts, so it'll be a really fun day.

Cheers to Brycon! And here's to donuts and Ron, the funniest guy on the ceiling crew!


Quote of the Day:

(15 minutes after Brad's accident, we were still struggling with the "y-wings," getting the lug nuts to turn on them.)

Brad : These stupid lug nuts!
Grant: Yeah, these lug nuts definitely aren't "luck" nuts. In fact, they're not the only unlucky nuts...