Manual Labor
Man, I've been as busy as a one-armed wallpaper hanger with the hives of late, getting the flatland house ready to sell.
It's kinda funny that you finally get around to doing all those little things you should have done long ago. The only difference is that the priorities have changed.
I've developed a daily schedule now. Rise early. Work outside in the early morning. Work inside during the late morning and early afternoon. Visit the city dump. Visit Lowes Home Improvement Center. Shop at one or more grocery stores on the way home. Cook dinner. Fall into bed. I'm retired? Right.
The carpet cleaners came yesterday. They were a man, his wife and their teenage son. And, they had no aversion to work, let me tell you. Despite air conditioning in the house, they were sweating when they got done with cleaning something over 1500 square feet of carpeting in just 3+ hours. When they finished, we were talking and the subject of vacations somehow came up. Seems they have not taken an extended, week-long vacation in the last 17 years. Why not? They just never seem to be able to schedule a week off. Nice, hard-working folks from Altoona, PA.
While I'm on the subject of hard work, I passed by a man yesterday breaking up concrete curbing ... with a sledge hammer. Whack. Lift. Swing. Whack. Someone using a sledge hammer is unusual enought these days, but the really amazing thing was that no one else was standing around, leaning on a shovel, watching him work. Just a man and his sledge hammer. Whack. And, judging by his appearance, this man was not fluent in the Spanish language of Latin America.
It's good to know that some Americans still put in an honest days work.
And, it's kinda hard to outsource carpet cleaning and construction work to China or India, isn't it?
It's kinda funny that you finally get around to doing all those little things you should have done long ago. The only difference is that the priorities have changed.
I've developed a daily schedule now. Rise early. Work outside in the early morning. Work inside during the late morning and early afternoon. Visit the city dump. Visit Lowes Home Improvement Center. Shop at one or more grocery stores on the way home. Cook dinner. Fall into bed. I'm retired? Right.
The carpet cleaners came yesterday. They were a man, his wife and their teenage son. And, they had no aversion to work, let me tell you. Despite air conditioning in the house, they were sweating when they got done with cleaning something over 1500 square feet of carpeting in just 3+ hours. When they finished, we were talking and the subject of vacations somehow came up. Seems they have not taken an extended, week-long vacation in the last 17 years. Why not? They just never seem to be able to schedule a week off. Nice, hard-working folks from Altoona, PA.
While I'm on the subject of hard work, I passed by a man yesterday breaking up concrete curbing ... with a sledge hammer. Whack. Lift. Swing. Whack. Someone using a sledge hammer is unusual enought these days, but the really amazing thing was that no one else was standing around, leaning on a shovel, watching him work. Just a man and his sledge hammer. Whack. And, judging by his appearance, this man was not fluent in the Spanish language of Latin America.
It's good to know that some Americans still put in an honest days work.
And, it's kinda hard to outsource carpet cleaning and construction work to China or India, isn't it?
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