Blue Collar Beat Down!

One of the positives of being a teacher is having the time to do your own home improvements. One of the negatives of being a teacher is the limited funds that require you to do your own home improvements. I have dedicated this week to putting in a new wood floor. It has been a punisher and unfortunately I am going to have to dedicate at least another week to it.

Demo-ing the tile was the worst. I ran the jack hammer for most of 14 hours that day.

That is a real man's work. Rocky and I once had a job where we ran jack-hammers for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. We would do it from 6am to 6pm for two weeks and then switch from 6pm to 6am. It doesn't get much more miserable. Guys would quit that job after only a few hours. I was proud that we lasted half the summer. Anytime I think my job stinks I remember back to that job and I am instantly grateful for a classroom of even the most rambunctious teenagers. That's enough of my uphill in the snow both ways story.

Midway through the week I took a break to go mountain biking. There are two really fast sections of the trail that I ride on a regular basis. When I ride them I often think "Man, I hope I never wreck here!" I never had until this week. It was ugly.

My head took most of the impact. I put 10 cracks like these through my helmet. Helmets are a pretty incredible thing. My riding buddy, Jon, saw it and thought I was knocked out. I wasn't. I just didn't feel like getting up yet. My neck was sore and my bell was rung but I still have my 36 year streak of never having been knocked unconscious.

When I opened my eyes the first thing I saw was blood. That is always unsettling. Fortunately they were just minor scrapes positioned in the right spot. (I asked Sara if my nose was swollen, she said "No it's always that big.")

My knee was missing a decent chunk of skin, but my ribs hurt more than anything. I didn't realize I landed in poison oak until the welts started showing up on me a few days later. The roll through the poison oak was just insult to injury.

I felt pretty good to walk away from it with only scrapes and bruises. None of the injuries were bad enough to get me out of doing the floor just bad enough to make doing the floor more miserable.

I put in 5 solid work days, all 12 hours plus. By the 6th day I was starting to become a lot less productive and didn't last more than about 5 hours. Between the bike wreck, my aching back and hitting my hand with the hammer enough times to rewrite the book on Mormon curse words I was beat down to say the least. The phrase overworked and underpaid comes to mind. At least I have something to show for my hard work. Here are a few before and after photos.

Front room before.

Front room after. Notice the pony wall I took out.

Kitchen before.

Kitchen after.

Family room before.

Family room during.

For my next week of work I am going to talk to my boss about getting some better hours.

P.S. Thanks to my good friend Aaron for his generous time helping.