Moving the Spirit
Do you remember Fridays? They used to be such happy days. They were the end of the week and the beginning of our weekly breaks. They signified that we had done the hard work of the week and were now deserving of some rest and relaxation. It was such a universal phenomenon that there is now an 870 store chain called Thank God It’s Friday, where people can gather to celebrate the end of the week. When I was young, Saturday night was the big going out to party night, but as America shifted gradually from the six-day workweek to the dive-day 40-hour workweek, the partying also shifted by a day back to Friday nights. I recall being stationed in Tokyo in 1989 for several months and noting that what was already a Friday night phenomenon in the U.S. was still a Saturday night affair in Tokyo since most Japanese companies had not shifted away from Saturday as a work day. It was particularly funny to me because Japanese norms suggested that everyone had to be at their desk at the starting bell for each of the six working days of the week, but what happened after that was broadly suspect. It was not unusual and generally tolerated that working men would put their heads down on their desks during the day and nap to their hearts content. It was OK to do so since their loyalty (at that time there was more or less lifetime corporate employment) extended to the hours they dedicated to being at the job more than to their specific productivity. The Japanese collective psychology was that the nail that stands out gets hammered down and better to part of a modestly taxing collective effort than to be a loner exhibiting exemplary effort.
On this Friday morning I have effectively four crews working on the house and they are each worth describing. The first, as you might expect, that is first among the equals, is Handy Brad. He is doing the exacting work of laying down flashing so he can start tiling like a banshee. Brad gets here by 8:00 and generally tires out by 3:00. He is reliable and steady (not fast, but steady) and works with great precision and care. He is an exacting detail guy who gets a chip on his shoulder if you try to rush him. He is feeling a bit rushed right now as I am starting to see the finish line on this deck. The second team is headed by Dave, who’s primary mission right now is to stay out of Handy Brad’s way. He’s my “get her done” guy who is right now working on finalizing the fascia and getting the densdeck gypsum up under the deck to get it fully fire-rated. Dave starts at 9:00 and works until 3:00 and has become the generalist that does electrical, plumbing, rough carpentry and anything needed. He works hard and fast and has low tolerance for pickiness. Rich floats between the two trying to be of help where he can and picking up odd jobs from me that he can get paid offline for. He works when he wants to and starts at 8:00 or thereabouts and ends whenever no one is watching. He is often called away by life requirements of his children, spouse, sobriety or national sporting event. Reliability is less his calling whereas flexibility and affability is his long suit.
Today I also have Joventino, my gardener here for the first time in months. He has been off in Mexico for stomach surgery of some sort. Joventino is a workhorse. He arrives at 7:00 and works until 5:00 six or seven days a week. He can work any 1980’s Japanese under the table with ease. He is uncomplaining and will tackle any task I am able to communicate to him. He only speaks Spanish and while he has been in this country for many years, his work schedule and temperament has not lent itself to his learning more than a word or two of English. From what I can tell, the English words he knows are mulch and weeds. The rest is great practice for my Spanish language skills. Today he is moving three cubic yards of mulch and one and a half cubic yards of pebble river rock stone. It would be better to do that after the deck work is done, but as I explained to the deck crew, they can either have Joventino break his back on the pebbles or they can do it. They all voted to let Joventino do it. While brown Joventino technically charges me less than any of the white deck crew, I secretly pay him more and let him go earlier than he would otherwise stay. I have great respect for his uncomplaining work ethic and earnestness and find that I want to reward that.
The last of the crews that are here today just arrived at 9:30. This is the crew of English-speaking Mexicans led by Dario. Their job is to put fabricated metal caps on the parapets of the roof for the purpose of minimizing the risk that any water will penetrate the parapets and find its way through the structure into the house. After waiting for a while for Dario and his crew to resolve a supposed COVID outbreak (quite believable since I see they are uncharacteristically careful about all wearing their masks), I finally got him scheduled for last Thursday and Friday. When he did not arrive on Thursday I called and was told I had been mistaken and they were due on Friday and Saturday. One point for Dario since I could not prove otherwise. On Friday, when he did not arrive, I called and was told that he was fabricating the metal in his shop and would be onsite the next day to install. Dario scores another point. 0-2. On Saturday, when he did not show up I called and he said he was delayed for some unintelligible reason and would install on Sunday. Point to me, 1-2. When Dario did not show on Sunday I was unable to reach him until Monday. He explained that he “had” to go fishing and had limited cell service to check on his guys. So while the cats away the big mice will play and the smaller mice will stray. 2-2. Dario asked for a redo of the Friday/Saturday schedule. I was about to call Dario’s boss but called Dario directly this morning and was told he was minutes away. He asked if he could put his trailer with his metal-bending equipment on the driveway so it was clear that none of this fabrication had happened in any shop and would all be performed onsite. I think that makes this game called in Dario’s favor on account of extreme creativity of excuses. We’ll see who wins when the job gets finished tomorrow (I hope).
My neighbor Winston lives in constant awe lately of how many and how varied workers vehicles are parked at my house every day. I almost hate to tell him that once the deck, parapet caps, laundry room and front door are finished, I am going out of the home improvement business at least for a while. The parapets should be done tomorrow. Joventino wont be back until next month. The laundry room gets put in on the 18th and by then the front door should be fully installed and maybe even painted. The spirit has certainly moved me to improve my primary residence over the past year. But now I am moving the spirit to the back burner so I can enjoy the fruits of my labors and take some trips without worrying about what project is going unfinished.