As a result of my construction job, I\nhave more physical strength at the age of 55 than ever before in my\nlife. At times I am frankly astonished how it keeps building. Where\nonce I couldn’t lift a piece of scaffolding over my head, then one\nmorning I can. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Up on the ladder, scaffolding and roof,\nthe acrophobia comes and goes, but it seems to be slowly dissipating\nand what used to make me nervous, doesn’t so much anymore. It’s all\nFreudian anyway, right? \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The various subcontractors who flow\nthrough the job, plumbers, roofers, concrete man, windows, etc, are\ntruly fascinating characters who defy stereotyping. They are rich for\nsome kind of literary treatment, but probably not by me. We simply\nneed more writing about these people, in all genres. When’s the last\ntime you read a poem or heard a song about a plumber?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I continue to learn the work jargon and\nhave become semi-fluent. New word\u2014screeding\u2014as in screeding sand\nor concrete. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This job almost makes me want to go\nfull Thoreau, except slightly larger than 12 by 12 in cabin size. If\nI ever could obtain the property I would give it a go, with some\nsubstantial oversight from my boss, who continues to be a master\nteacher of the construction (and gathering lobster mushrooms!) trade.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I can’t wait for the bonfire of scrap\nwood we’ll set off this winter. It will burn into the night atop a\nmountain, a signal to someone or some entity. We’ll warm the French\nbrandy in the coals and chase it with cold crackling Hamm’s. We’ll\ntalk to elk and tell scary stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being a good construction worker means\ndemonstrating acute awareness of everything around you so that you\nperform a task correctly the first time, and also so you don’t die or\nget injured. Teaching was never like that. I wish I’d had some\nconstruction job experience before or during my long teaching career.\nI could have applied these lessons to the classroom and been a much\nbetter teacher. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of my favorite aspects of the job\ncontinues to be that I get to piss outside and eat blackberries at\nthe same time while ospreys circle overhead. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Swearing more profanely on a physically\ngrueling construction task always makes for better task completion. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I like working to the sounds of classic\nsoul music better than any other genre, although old country music is\na close second. \n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a result of my construction job, I have more physical strength at the age of 55 than ever before in my life. At times I am frankly astonished how it keeps building. Where once I couldn’t lift a piece of scaffolding over my head, then one morning I can. Up on the ladder, scaffolding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5347"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5350,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5347\/revisions\/5350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}