Thursday, February 18, 2010

Back On The Chain Gang

Yea! Today was my second day back at work! I'm feeling much better after a visit to an ENT I know yesterday morning. I helped build his house several years ago so if I ever have sinus problems he always works me in quickly. Apparently it is burning the wood stove that has got my sinuses in an uproar. I have a real problem with any type of smoke. I won't describe what the doc said was going on but it is gross! I wasn't planning on working at all this week (after what Daddy Rabbit said) but he called me after I got out of the doc's and said if I felt like it I could come in and do some painting on the inside. I'm glad I'm feeling better but it took a fairly serious dose of meds to get me here. I got THREE shots in the...um...hiney and am having to gargle with some of the nastiest tasting crap you can imagine. My butt was so sore yesterday. I joked to the guys that I had not been subjected to that many pricks since I worked with those plumbers over at the health clinic.
It's been such fun to be back with my fellas. I told them today I hadn't laughed that much in weeks! I think this is going to be a very good job and I might even get to weld the tilt-up panels in place after they are set. In an effort to keep as many of our guys working as possible, we are doing a lot of the work we would normally sub out. Now, of course we can't do the electrical or plumbing and such but we can do a whole lot of the steel work and stuff like that.

I hope I didn't sound like a bitch in that last post and I know all of my readers have plenty good sense enough to know a lot what I told ya'll. I didn't want it to sound as though I think you are stupid, it's just I've seen non-construction people do some crazy stuff around our sites so you have to watch out. I once saw half a dozen people drive under a crawler crane as it was being disassembled by two other cranes. Now, you can imagine, this crane is so big it takes two other cranes to take it apart and the operators standing up there waving and screaming for people to turn around and they'd drive right under 'em. It was on a Sunday and we had closed this side street off with physical barricades and the people would still get out of their cars and move them and drive through. And they could see the cranes easily from 1/2 mile away.
Just today at our safety meeting, the assistant superintendent was talking about a man with one of our excavating subs who was killed last week. He had been with them for about 23 years but he wasn't paying attention or something and a dump truck backed over him. I don't have to tell you that being run over by any piece of heavy equipment is a bad way to go. That's why I stress the safety and what you must understand if the companies say you can't go on the site. The best way to salvage off of job sites is to know someone connected but you can still occasionally pick up some stuff by just asking.

*The Pretenders

4 comments:

HermitJim said...

Glad you are getting the sinus back under some control...and that you are getting to work some.

Being in good company is always a boost towards good health, I think!

Attilla The Mum said...

So glad you're feeling better and back to work. I know that awful feeling when you've got projects to complete and funds dwindling.

I really appreciated the post on how to go about asking for materials from a construction site (and how to keep from blundering about like an idiot on said site)!

countrypeapie said...

Hey, I don't know if this would make much difference for you, but we keep a steamer on our wood stove. It keeps the air from getting so dry. Still, sometimes my eyes and nose burn if too much smoke escapes from the stove while the door is open. Glad you're feeling well enough to work. Don't let those meds get the best of your attention!

MamaHen said...

Hey Jim! thanks! yeah, being around friends again helps you feel better in many ways.

Hey Attila! thanks and you're welcome!

Hey Pea! I don't really think it's the humidity level. I measure the humidity in this house and it rarely goes below 50%. I think I just have some allergy to smoke and i have been home so much this winter working outside while I have a fire going and the smoke blows around on me etc.