03/27/2018
Story time! This happened back in January. Was THE hardest job I ever took on. By the end, I could barely type. My fingertips felt like they were going to blister.
It was raining that day and was around 40 degrees outside. The fella wanted me to dig a trench through his backyard. The trench needed to be "about knee deep", so the edges would come up to my knees if I stepped in it. At the end of the trench was essentially a crater that needed to be dug.
To start with, to deal with the rain, I put trash bags over both my feet, then put some shoes on over them. This made absolutely no difference whatsoever in keeping my feet dry. It was like wearing gloves.... then jumping in the ocean.
I was also being reallllll careful with my lower back. I know from experience thats the first thing to get worn out and slow you down if you're not careful. So I was thinking about shoveling properly the whole time, with good form. I would end up being out there for 6 hours doing this!
A serious problem was rocks. I kept hitting so damn many of them, I thought I was excavating a lost city of Rome... which is kind of appropriate because like Sisyphus, I'd dig a section of trench only to have it flooded by mud as soon as I tried stepping out of it. Thankfully the guy had a pick-axe, so I used that quite a bit to get through the rocks.
Now there was one HUGEEEE rock, and it was like... directly in the way of where the trench needed to be dug. So I left it there and dug passed it. When the guy came to check up on the work, I pointed it out and asked what he wanted me to do. He said to dig it out.
"But it weighs 200 pounds! (And I'm serious it freaking did)"
- "Welp, do your best."....... okay! I got dead lifting skills! ... but then there's the mud to factor in.. I try to pick up on it, and I sink and slip and slide. So I tried pushing it, that didn't work. I got the pick axe and tried to pry it out a little. Okay you know what?....... ('-' ) ( '-') ....... BY THE POWER OF GRAYSKULL!
I hooked my arms around it and put absolutely everything I had into it. 150 pound person got a 200 pound rock out of the mud at ankle-depth and carried it out of the way! Pics are posted below.
Then I went back to digging the trench and by this point, I'm having to be careful about my fingers. It's been raining this whole time... and it seriously feels like the skin is coming off. I managed to get the trenches dug though!
Next, there's this really tall metal... wall. Though it's more like a sheet I guess... it's only a few millimeters thick, and it comes up to chest level. Just behind that is a dirt wall, and the space between them is only a few inches. There's leaves in there and I need to get them out.
I'm not even sure how I can describe this... I sort of got up on top of the metal sheet, balancing like f*ing Spider Man, then turned upside down, then did this Dhaslim from Street Fighter 2 thing, where I used yoga powers to wedge myself down to the bottom, grab some leaves.... then come back up to the top. Put a handful of leaves somewhere. Then do that again. Then again. Then again... until all the leaves were out.
And at this point I started to hit a wall. Both literally and figuratively. I got there at 9:30am. It was now almost 2pm. So far I've had to keep moving to stay warm... it's almost impossible to stay dry. But I'm starting to slow down now and the cold is catching up with me.
At one point, I needed to call the guy (he had left) to ask how he wanted something done. There were these huge.... um... rubber things? With some kind of fabric stuff on one side of them... he wanted those stuffed down in the area between the metal and the earth, but he wanted them cut or something... so I needed to be told that again for clarity. I knocked on the door of the house and his wife answers. I need to go inside to call because I don't want my phone to get wet, and also I'm starting to freeze. She lets me in and because I'm covered with mud, I tell her I'll just lay on the welcome mat. I had called the fella and he said he'd call me back in a minute, so I'm laying there on the welcome mat. And my body is .... really, really becoming satisfied with laying there. So much so that it takes some serious determination to get up after the guy had called me back and explained what he wanted.
So back out I go.
My hands at this point are no longer functioning properly. I was getting some sharp wrist pains on that trench, but kept going... now my grip is so exhausted I can barely hold the knife to cut this rubber stuff. Towards the end I'm putting 110% of literally everything I've got into trying to cut through it. Then I stuff it in between the metal and earth.
Next he wanted rocks wheel-barreled over there, and I was supposed to stuff the rocks between the earth and the rubber thing.
And that's when I just started to totally give out... it was nearly 3pm now and I was just not able to keep moving. I *REALLY* tried.... I shoveled rocks into the wheel barrel... then tried to push that thing across the job site... then... I just couldn't. I knew there was no way I could keep this up.
Headed back to my car, turned the heater on first of all... then called him and let him know I couldn't finish, and asked if I could come back tomorrow. I was trying to get my shoes untied because they were filled with water... but my hands almost couldn't un-tie them.
Came home... was so caked with mud that I just went into the shower without taking my clothes or shoes off. Needed to get the mud off them too. I don't think I've ever welcomed hot water that much before in my life.
My finger tips remained stinging the rest of that evening, and I had work again the next day.
I hoped I would be feeling good when I go to work tomorrow. I would say "good enough", but for me, I don't play that game. If I can walk, I can work. I don't call in sick unless I'm seriously about to die. Anyway the next day of work went alright, mostly because it was a regular cleaning job and not more of this kind of digging. :P
Here's some pics.
