Monday, September 12, 2011

Cracker Box Palace


Well, today has just been a real Monday all around; very frustrating.  I was having so much trouble with Blogger I wasn't sure I was going to get anything posted or not.  But I persisted.  I trudged on for you, my dear readers!  Ha!  I know this blog has really had ya'll on the edge of your seats lately, ya know?
Anyway, these I-beams and tube steel are what I've been working on lately.  How did I get those heavy pieces of steel up there, you ask??  Well, us construction workers are not as dumb as people think!  We have levitation abilities!  No, not really; not anything that exciting.  There was simply decking over the openings when I was working there.  They wrecked the decking today to make the area ready for the elevator men.


 Just thought I'd give ya'll a few different views of the job site.  So far, they have made just over 200 concrete pours on this job.  I have no idea of the yardage.


This is (will be) the courtyard area.  Right now it's a staging area.  If you enlarge the area you should be able to see a lot of the sorted rebar and some finished column reinforcement waiting to be set.
I know sometimes I probably sound like a broken record talking about being safe with projects and stuff and maybe even kind of an alarmist type but this is what I know.  This you see is serious.  We are not playing around and this, in this photo, is one reason why it irks the hell out of me to see these jackleg bloggers giving people dishonest views of concrete and building.  Now, I know ya'll aren't building anything like this.  I know that pouring a patio slab or some other similar DIY project is rarely ever going to end in any serious injury but you have to be careful.  Accidents do happen.  And any structural concrete needs steel reinforcement.
 

I was trying to get both cranes in the shot but it's kinda hard when you are up close.  My stamina is improving and I've been working in the shade the past few days with this welding, so that has helped.  It's not near as hot as it was but even a cool day gets warm if you are welding in the open.  That comes later!  Ugh!
I tell ya, I sure didn't want to come back last night.  I hated to leave home but I keep telling myself it will be good.  I will be able to finish the house and it will look so good and be even more enjoyable to live there.  Well, bedtime comes early these days!  See ya'll!

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I did a lot of building in my day, everything from home additions to nuclear powered fast attack submarines and even stretch limos for a while. Most of my professional career was in one sort of industrial area or another including 16 years as a Master Automotive Technician not to mention 3 years in USAF ICBM launch complexes and 9 years in Special Operations. Every one of those jobs involved equipment that was just waiting to bite you when you got a little sloppy. There's no such thing as being too safe!

Ed said...

I agree with both you and chip above, there is no such thing as being too safe. We went from over a dozen lost time injuries a year when I started here to a streak 50 days short of two years without one before we unfortunately ended it earlier this year. Now we are back up to about 180 days or so. The sad part was all those injuries that we prevented were stupid simple things that should have been done but weren't. No telling how many people walked out of here with permanent effects from injuries that didn't have to happen.

HermitJim said...

I couldn't agree more! Safety should be a way of life, as it translates very well from industry to home!

Thanks for the pictures and the update!

MamaHen said...

Thanks Guys! You're right; you can never be too safe really; stuff can happen before you even realize what's going on.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Annie, telling folks to be careful and be safe never gets old as Chip, Ed and HermitJim said - they just got to say it before me :-) Thanks for showing us the photos of just HOW large this project is.

R.Powers said...

Be.Safe.Girl.

MamaHen said...

Hey Bea! you're welcome! it kinda seems these photos still don't quite show it all. :)

Hey FC! I will. I promise. :)