Thursday, February 23, 2006

Construction Girls, like any apprentice, sometimes get stuck with what can only be described as grunt work. If you are observant, however, lessons will still sneak up on you.

Yesterday I worked at a house that is still recovering from a major fire. What wasn't burned was water logged. Some of the dried out possesions had been heaped in the large furnace room along with various scraps from the rebuilding. A mountain of...stuff needed to be sorted into keep & toss, the toss pile needing to be compressed. It is interesting sorting through a strangers belongings. Some things were obvious keepers and some made you wonder what they were thinking. Some was clearly trash.

After sorting a heap of garbage about the size of a VW, the tiles on the floor needed scraped up since half of them were loosened already by the water damage. That was actually fun, permitted destruction - a chance to get out some frustrations. But the mountain of trash had to be moved from one side of the room to the other. The subsequent sweeping created a fine cloud of dust. I was happy I had put on gloves. I wished I had put on a mask, but kept thinking I wouldn't be in the dust for long.

That was a dirty day. I came home and showered and scoured. I was grateful I had thought to protect my hands, making them better for touching skin later. I thought I had scrubbed off all the dirt, until I blew my nose and realized I missed a spot. (Sorry, I know that was gross.)

So here's the lesson.
Construction Girls - and guys too - should always use protection.

No comments: