Almost rage-quit my life today on several occasions. It was the theme of the day, in fact.
The theme for yesterday was “I’m in everyone’s way.”
Starting with a morning stop at one of my favorite bakeries for a coffee and doughnut. As I was approaching the door a guy on crutches was also approaching, so I held the door for him and followed him inside.
“Oh you go on ahead” he said, waving me in front of him.
Normally I will have none of this and insist that the other person remain ahead of me in line, but since he was on crutches, I didn’t want him to feel pressure from behind while he was trying to sort out what he wanted- so in this instance I obliged and approached the counter. As I was taking 3 seconds to decide between a cinnamon twist or a glazed pretzel, someone that worked there and knew the crutches guy came over the top, and took his order before I was able to get mine out to the nice lady that I was conducting business with.
Crutches guy knew EXACTLY what he wanted, and suddenly the back pressure was on me. I shot from the hip- cinnamon twist- and rushed to the counter with the guy right on my heels. Hovering, tapping his crutch while I fumbled around with my credit card.
Finally paid and got out of his way for about 5 seconds before we replayed the entire game again at the coffee station- him waiting for me to take forever ripping open 4 vacuum sealed non dairy creamer packets because it was either that or the carton of half and half, and I am not into that.
From there it was into traffic, and every time the road went from two lanes to one lane, someone who really wished they had passed me beforehand was up my ass. Traumatized a bit by the bakery experience, I even gave them a bonus +5 mph over the speed limit.
From there it was the job site from hell, working with (patient and saintly, thank god) mechanical installers and carpenters- abandoned completely by the architect, designer, and contractor- having to fumble around in the dark on our own, trying to cram pipes and vents inside walls that are already occupied by pocket doors and recessed cabinets and wall sconce electrical boxes.
By the miracle of teamwork, Excedrin Tension Headache, and 10 hours at least of just staring and talking and running plans A through F by one another to see how we could all fit our systems in the wall while meeting code, the designer’s print, the customer’s desires, and the contractor’s time expectations simultaneously.
All day, every single pipe I wanted to install was in someone’s way. Anywhere I set my tools and table up was in someone’s way. Anywhere I was standing in this tiny condo with 6 dudes packed inside doing different things, I was in someone’s way.
I swear, construction work is either sublime or extremely uncomfortable and aggravating- and the difference between the two is how many people you’re stuck working around. And on construction sites that number is ALWAYS high. Unless you’re willing to get unorthodox.
12:00 to 1:00 is when everyone takes lunch, and it’s my favorite time to finally be able to think and get a little forward progress without threat of interruption or sudden blockage. Weekends are the absolute best time to work on construction sites. It’s always almost no one, maybe another worker with the same idea and his nose down. Sometimes the homeowner likes to come and fart around on the weekend, and if that’s the case it’s ruined- but if you can get the whole job site to yourself for a full 8 hour day, I swear it’s better than sex.
Ok maybe not quite. Not that I would know- I haven’t laid with a woman in the biblical sense for years at this point. I don’t really like talking about sex here, in general- despite being very comfortable with it as a concept. As a man in his 40s I just can’t imagine having anything to say on the subject that anyone would want to hear.
Today’s theme was “two steps back- debate rage quitting- three steps forward into exhaustion” in which I attempted to fix a single crooked pipe at the bottom of a bunch of work I threw together just to see how the mechanical team could fit a hood vent run in the exact same tiny space. Once I straightened it- no easy task- it threw everything else I had put together off. Instead of cutting it all out and starting from scratch, I went to work on it in full sunk cost fallacy mode, slapping band aid on top of band aid on top of band aid. The entire first half of the day I spent just rigging what I had already installed perfectly into the most bare minimum of code standards, just to get by.
I stayed late just to meet the weak half-day goals I set for myself first thing this morning, and left the day feeling relief that most of the daunting work is done, but so exhausted from the effort that I can’t decide if it was even worth it.
Nihilism is after me tonight.
Send meaning. SOS.
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