Anxiety

Talk about having an anxiety attack! My older sister called and asked me if I'd heard from my brother today. I told her no. It is not unusual that I do not hear from him. However, he is almost without fail, online every night. I had noticed he wasn't online tonight, but I didn't think too much of it. I tried to call him, but got no answer. He will almost always answer me, or call right back. So... I am getting a little anxious. My brother had a minor heart attack about a year ago, so it is not beyond possible that he could have another one. I decided to call his friend Annette and see if she'd heard from him. Well, she hadn't. Great, now I can't breathe. My DH said he would drive me over there, so I got my keys to my brother's place and off we went. I hate things like this because I have a very active imagination..... sheesh.

So we get there, and notice the dogs are oustide and not a light on anywhere. Not a good sign. I unlocked the back door. I was very careful to call out to him because he has a gun, and he won't hesitate to shoot someone breaking in to his house. As I went in, I was flipping on lights and calling his name. No answer. Damn it...now I am getting really scared. I got to his bedroom and saw what appeared to be someone on the bed. I called his name again and flipped on the light, and lo and behold! He's alive, and freaked out by the lights and people standing in his door! Apparently he changed shifts at work and didn't tell me. He usually tells me. Well don't I feel foolish.... Actually, I am glad he is alive, and that he did not shoot my ass. I scared the poor guy to death, but it sure wasn't any fun for me either. It sucks getting older, and worrying about something serious happening to someone you used to assume was out having fun with friends. Well, not this time. Yay!!

Job update

We have all but one small pour done on the big job. We are in negotiations about that last pour since it was mislabeled on the plans, and we did not bid it. Until we get confirmation that we will be paid for it, we are considering our part done. At least the placing and stamping part.

We spent the better part of last week pressure washing, scoring joints and sealing on two big sections. There is over 14,000 square feet of imprint on this job. It had to be scored on 4 foot centers each way. Baby, that's a lot of scoring, I don't care who you are. DH has a nifty saw called a slab crab that is self propelled. It rolls merrily along scoring the concrete without much work on the human's part. You just have to make sure it stays on the line and watch it go. It's sorta like a roomba for sawing! ;)

Once the slab crab has crawled over the slab, you have to go behind and score the low places it missed. This has to be done by hand with a diamond blade on a grinder. Let me tell you right now that this is NO FUN. After spending entire days squeezing the trigger of the pressure washer, my hands did NOT want to hold the grinder. It is really hard because it has such high RPM's that it tries to twist itself out of your grip. If you have carpal tunnel syndrome, this can be sheer agony. It is like someone is driving hot icepicks into your wrist and hand. OUCH! Once all the lines are scored, then they have to be painted so that they look like real mortar joints. Fortunately my little monkeys can do that reasonably well, so I didn't have to have a huge knee from crawling around on the concrete.

Anyway, enough whining. Here are some pictures of the job. The part that looks black has had sealer applied. This is going to be a very cool thing when it's finished. It will look great until the first time a car drives over the white sidewalk and leaves tread marks. The architect did not specify sealer, so after a few days/weeks the white concrete will be dirty gray. Oh well.... :)

Here is what the contrast will look like with the white concrete sidewalks They are not colored, but actually made with white concrete - white sand, cement, and rocks. It costs a fortune. The white diamond shape at the bottom of the photo will be filled in with polished granite. This is one of several things that I don't believe were well thought out. Polished granite is slicker than greased owl guts and some idiot *will* slip and fall on it when it's wet. Oh well, whatcha gonna do? At least it will look stunning :)

Here are some of the lines that were scored and then painted. I am sure there are miles of them. I will let someone else figure out just how many, as mathematics are not my strong suit :)This is the bollard brigade. I know each one of them intimately, and hate them all. What a fricking pain in the ass they were. I shall not miss them. I will not be happy when we start getting calls to repair the concrete when people hit them. It will not be cheap!Here is my DH sealing the concrete. This is really hard on his back. Walking backwards, bent over at the waist is bad juju for someone who has sciatica. Everything has to have two coats. Bummer man!

This has got to be THE most brilliant thing I have ever seen! NOT!!! There is a scant inch and a half cover over this pipe. In some spots, it is much less. I can guarantee that it will crack the concrete. I would be willing to bet $5000 that it does. I do not gamble lightly. I never make a bet I can't win. I wonder which trade will end up being hijacked over this. I promise you that it won't be us. We had no choice. We were not responsible for grade or base prep, so it's all on someone else. Isn't that just unbelievable? I can't even imagine anyone thinking it was ok. Oh well :-)

Hand update

It hurts worse. I am not a happy girl.

Politically incorrect...

These are pictures of the inside of one of the porta johns currently at the jobsite we are working on. I find it interesting that different jobs tend to have much different graffiti in the porta johns. I highly suspect that it has a lot to do with which trades are working on that job. On some sites, there is a lot of hand drawn porn. Some of it is remarkably accurate *snort*. You'd think an artist would have better places to leave his art.... Some tend to take issue with the superintendant on the job, and tell everyone that his parents were never married, etc. This job seems to have a few resident philosophers. It's kind of interesting actually. There is none of the usual stuff.

WARNING: If you find racial slurs offensive, stop here. Do not look at the pictures. Also note, I did not write any of the graffiti, nor do I endorse any of it. I merely took some pictures. You may need to click on the pictures to be able to read the writing. Enjoy...or not...

Owwww!!

I think as I am getting older, I am becoming way more accident prone. I am constantly smashing, dislocating, hyperextending, twisting or otherwise maiming myself. Monday was a not so good day for me. I came home from feeding (after having a pretty normal "good" day - I should have known....) and of course my darling doggers were waiting to mob me and get their evening skritches. Monkey was on one side, and Blondie on the other. They are usually pretty careful around me because I tend to squall bloody murder if they hurt my knee. On Monday, they were just sooo excited. Monk performed the Atomic But Bump (TM) on Blondie and she moved, and her foot was right where I was going to step. So, instead of stepping on her foot, I tried to step around her. Well, that was a miserable failure, and I managed to fall. Not a big deal, I fall all the time. Unfortunately, I stupidly tried to catch myself on my hand. It made a nice icky noise and I felt something give. It hurt like hell too. DH came to pick me up (isn't he sweet?) cause I was sitting there bawling because it hurt. He got me up and I went in and put an ice pack on it. Just what I needed to go along with my arthritis and carpal tunnel. YAY! NOT!

I figured it wasn't that big a deal. Everything hurts when you do it, and it would be better by the morning. Well, it wasn't. DH has broken both of his thumbs, and he looked at mine and said I should go have it looked at. Well hell :( Ok. So I did. They xrayed it and poked and pulled and flipped my fingers and pulled my arm and flexed my elbow. There was no visible fracture on the xray. The Doc said I had to come back, because he is worried that the swelling might be hiding a fracture in my thumb or wrist. Great huh?

They gave me this torture device they called a splint. I am not the best patient in the world. I don't like being restricted much, and this splint is driving me insane. I can't move my thumb. It is sticking out in the way of doing anything constructive, which is pissing me off. The worst part is I have to wear it for at least a week until they redo the xrays. HARUMPH. We poured 7 times in 5 days last week, and my hands are both very unhappy. They are swollen and they hurt, and now this. The Doc said I had a "remarkable amount" of arthritis for someone my age. He asked if I had had surgery on my hands. ??? Uh no. I told him that I had worked on a horse farm, and now finished concrete, and I'd had a lot of injuries. He just shook his head. Wonder what that meant? Oh well.

I have been too busy to update much here. I do have some pictures of the big job. We have actually finished parts of it - done, finito, sealed and we don't care who walks on it now! YAY! When I remember where I stashed my camera, I will try to get caught up. I have no idea where it actually is. I must think about it.....