Across the pavement a small snow eddy swirled it’s circular dance in the predawn morning as Junior Doowop drove his trusty old Ford to the new jobsite.
Having received a summons from an old boss that he was needed to help him make schedule on time, DooWop had little chance for second thought as the boss had done him right on more than one occasion and figured he owed him knowing the boss would never have called unless the need was genuine.
So with his plastic Fluke box acting as a lunchpail Junior Doowop parked and reentered the wonderful world of metalworkers.
This first building of many for the new sportscenter measured 395 by 405 feet with a second level mezzanine being constructed which was why he was there, to help set the trusses to ready for the sheetmetal and the pour.
It was interesting to see the block team working their walls as they were set up a couple yards apart, 8 deep each standing before their own concrete block pyramid with one runner scurrying about keeping them supplied with mortar.
Welder’s sparks from a different team in back of them coupled with the temporary lighting provided a surrealistic backdrop as DooWop wished he bought a camera,
Thinking perhaps some guys on that builder’s forum might have found it interesting.
94969.1 The Breaktime Index
Replies
What happened next, rez? BTW, is rez short for reservation, like it is for the home of the Dine (Navajo). Norm
well,
Seeing DooWop was a new face in the crowd the white hats had to check him out, security concerns and all that, so of course the boss, deciding to mix pleasure with business, had to tell them Junior was just out of prison having served 15 years for murdering a guy in a knifefight at a bar.
Junior's' boss could always spin a pretty good yarn so he had them believing it and had got some of the block guys in on it where they were planning to expand the whole charade by telling the whitehats they were concerned working around a murderer like that.
The boss let it carry overnight till the next day when he decided to tell them it was a gag lest the top man of the whole production somehow got wind and it created problems.
DooWop thought it was kind of funny watching the group of whitehats standing afar off looking his way. He was ready to ad lib if the opportunity were to arise.
In hindsight he was kind of glad it didn't.
94969.1 The Breaktime Index
Edited 12/16/2008 8:41 pm ET by rez
I'm standing by for the next exciting chapter, rez! Norm
Funny. I came here specifically to dig this up and nudge Rez.
I'm bringing sexy back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sbqIyeed4g&feature=related
Is Rez doowop?Inquiring minds want to know...
That's the impression I get.
I'm bringing sexy back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sbqIyeed4g&feature=related
My question is "Was it really a gag?"
Inquiring white hat minds want to know.See my work at TedsCarpentry.comBuy Cheap Tools! BuildersTools.net
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well,
The scurry of Lulls and Pettibones added to the din of gas driven welders and propane heaters as the exhaust from such added to the enveloping fog one could continually see hovering in the heart of the building,
the 36inch-wide always turning fans at each peak end of the building doing little to rectify the situation.
The plastic drooped openings of the now roofed first floor hallways attempted to retain some heat for the miscellaneous plumbing and labor crews
as well as succeeding in the containment of the various off gassing products in use within the areas
so when the boss who had a visit to the ER earlier that week with a smashed finger from being pushed to complete did a return engagement the night before from a neck and back problem,
fellow laborers complaining of coughing dark hockers coupled with sore throats,
and the underboss saying he awoke at 4am unable to move his legs, Junior Doowop began to question the validity of working in such an environment.
Doowop was daydreaming of the adrenalin rushed pleasurable feeling found when cutting into old growth fir as the odor of resin rises in the air when the beeping sound of a passing scissorlift shocked him back to reality.
Only a few more days. One can do anything if only for a few days and then the end shall come.
Somehow the early morning snow eddies on the highway weren't noticed anymore.
The novelty of metal working was wearing off.
94969.19 In the beginning there was Breaktime...
Edited 12/20/2008 5:36 pm ET by rez
It wasn't the egg nog -- then it was the fumes !!
Get the he## out of there man before you do permanent damage.
You got me entranced.
Will he ever again smell the fresh cut fir?
Will he ever really see the snowdrifts again??
Is he wearing a dust mask??? :=|
See my work at TedsCarpentry.comBuy Cheap Tools! BuildersTools.net
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Edited 12/20/2008 4:31 pm by Ted W.
well,
Doowop noticed one enterprising youth manning a block saw wearing some sort of illfitting dust mask apparatus that looked better than nothing at best
as he viewed the billowing clouds of concrete dust which emitted from the blade
and seemed to layer with little movement in the surrounding air even there outside the building
where the Carharted row of block layers had set up their scaffolding for the decorative block wall now in production.
10 men laying and two feeding shovelfuls of mortar from a scaffold tray dumped via a bucketed backhoe.
Junior held his breathe as he headed towards the mandoor entry, wading thru the dust cloud and maze, seeking firm footing on the rough tundra of frozen dozer tread and tire marks
bunched amid the fresh dug footers the white hats had missed during the initial dig and were now playing catch-up ball over.
He wondered at the leaning out one and a quarter inch variance from the building's base of the block wall up to the ceiling of the first floor 10 foot up
as it wasn't parallel with the vertical metal beams.
Was it part of the design to have the metal beams leaning in perhaps as the beams being secured totally in concrete at the base by design
needed a one and onehalf inch space between the curb angles surrounding the beam on the second floor
in order to provide for movement in the event of a future swaying occurrence?
Lil' Junior Doowop knew not for it was not his business he thought as he saddled up to the job box
setting down his lunchpail and placing a hardhat on his fool head.
be picking a black booger
94969.19 In the beginning there was Breaktime...
Sweet are the uses of adversity, which, like a toad, though ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in its head.
William Shakespeare
Greatest English dramatist & poet (1564 - 1616)
Edited 12/25/2008 8:58 pm ET by rez
OK, ease off the Keystone Light long enough to give us another chapter.
jt8
A year from now you may wish you had started today. -- Karen Lamb
well,
It was a joyous day when Lil' Junior Doowop received the phone call that told him his services weren't at the moment needed any longer.
The boss, never one to be letting moss grow under his tires, always had projects in the wings and some seemingly always at center stage.
The wings normally had a tendency to prove attractive by their sheer originality
be it in better climatic involvements or the silliness of foul weather importunities.
However, either had the general leaning to rotgut labor which hopefully, as it has been said, can keep the body and soul young.
Doowop sure hoped that expression wasn't one he had just made up and instead held some truth
for that same Arctic tundra of rough frozen tire ruts and overall uneven terrain which made manhandlingroof decking in freezing cold and rain an obstacle to be overcome
also had a way of making muscles, tendons and ligaments that normally find themselves dormant suddenly be drawn out into life
which has certain consequences upon wakening the next day, especially when one finds himself up and repeating the same
again, and again, and again.
94969.19 In the beginning there was Breaktime...
Edited 12/26/2008 1:32 pm ET by rez
Junior Doowop received a message that a phonecall had been made and message left meaning Junior was expected to call back.
Knowing it was that boss wanting him to return to the metalworking, Junior pondered a bit before deciding not to return the call.
Already involved in a bath renovation in an unoccupied heated house at his own hours that paid better didn't make the thinking last too long.
If he were to call again it would mean he really needs the assist and Junior thought he'd cross that road when and if he came to it.
In the meantime there was an easy, peaceful feeling...