Good Ol' Boys

I know I have pissed and moaned about this job and working out of town, and it has been rough sometimes, but all in all we have a great time.  I love working with my fellers.  On this day I was taking some photos, during a down time, of the crane hooks for some art work I want to do and I guess Bama (the operator) thought he would help me out, as they are all prone to do, so he lowered it down to the deck so I could get some close up shots.  You don't really realize how big those things are until they are next to a man.  Well, Steve and Nick saw it as their prime opportunity to cut up and do some camera hogging! We play a little when we can and have a good time raggin' the living hell out of each other but we are like family really.  Well, family you get to choose because you enjoy being with each other.  There are a number of us staying down here and we get together about once a week to go eat after work.  I tell ya, I could call about any one of these guys if I ever needed anything and they would be there to help.  The work is harder on me than it used to be but I miss my boys a lot when I'm not working and I will be sad when this job is over because of that.  The work is so hard sometimes so you got to play a little when you can, ya know?

Edit:!  I meant to tell ya'll this kinda funny related story last night but forgot.  So, we are obviously working on the very top floor of the building and we had gone up one morning to get started.  It was a little cool, and I was going to be welding, so I had thrown a heavy denim shirt on over my Hi-Viz t-shirt.  We normally have to wear a vest if we do that but they can't seem to find me one that won't instantly combust when I start welding and ain't doing that.  So anyway, Nick calls for a lift from the crane and Bama says he ain't movin' because he can't see everyone well enough.  Two of us have our shirts covered up.  Funny how crane operators made thousands of safe lifts for decades without these shirts, but I digress.  So, Nick, in his loudest voice, yells over to me, "Hey Annie, take your shirt off!!!!!"  Now, there were about 20 Mexican rodbusters up there with us and many of them claim not to speak English but I'll be damned if they didn't ALL understand that phrase.  Every one of them stopped what he was doing and turned around to look at me.  At first I didn't know what was going on (I wasn't close enough to hear his conversation with Bama) but  then he laughed and explained, "Bama won't move until he can see you".  So, with great flourish I flung off my over shirt, cussing the whole time of course!