Working Hard to Make a Living

That’s what I look like after a hard day of slogging through dust and Yuma grit picking up trash or after the end of a long shift of sweeping sheetrock dust and dirt out of the building.

Marc and I have been going like mad dogs since arriving back in Yuma to get the facility ready for its “Sneak Peek”, occurring today. He’s making great progress but several major problems still exist needing to be solved.

I’ll continue to work part time the entire time I am here, especially as we move into the finalizing of the building and all that will need correcting from the sub-contractors, called the punch. I will oversee that—noting the flaws, communicating it to the appropriate sub, and then monitoring to make sure it gets corrected. Half of the building is now at paint stage while the other half is still in frame stage. It’s a huge building; a labyrinth running in all directions. I constantly get turned around when I step into and then back out of a unit. At any given time, there are about 50 guys working in all trades which Marc continually supervises and oversees. He doesn’t get much rest.

Our trip out from WI was uneventful excepting we were both sick. Marc caught a cold on his flight which I was able to fight off for a week before succumbing to it as well. It still hasn’t left me either. We left early on a Tuesday morning, crossing the Mississippi River into MN and then into IA before calling it a day near Des Moines. We had high winds the first three days and some low temps but didn’t quite lose our water as they dipped to 25 degrees at 7000 ft. elevation in northern New Mexico at the Maxwell Wildlife Refuge, one of our freebie camps we had all to ourselves. We spotted Autumn all along the way. Having Marc along made the travel much easier and pleasant and even the cats were as good as they could be given they hate traveling. I must say however; my heart just no longer resides along America’s highways—at least not ones I’ve traversed so many times. It’s become just one big bore to me and something I wish I didn’t have to do. As BB King sings…The thrill is gone. It’s gone away for good.