Well happy HOT ASS FRIDAY MAN!!
I hope you've had a productive day friend!... Mine was kinda sorta productive... I mean I did roll out of bed about 830am... no alarm... I know.. I can feel the eye roll's bro! .. took a shower and went grocery shopping... had a beverage, made some burgers, confetti corn, broccoli salad sumptn, and now.. sitting here talking to you :)
This past Wednesday I, for the first time ever, brought myself to almost a legit heat stroke... I know... totally lame man, you should take better care of yourself... but, I did have a lot of water?! hahah
My task was to dig 4 holes, put a 2" diameter X 10' tall piece of conduit, in the ground and fill each with 100lbs of concrete, then backfill them with the leftover dirt.. all so my client could enjoy some of the country style lights at night.
Before I could go buy all this shit, I had to develop a game plan...
So... like any natural born designer, out in the field, with no pen or paper... I took a picture of the concrete patio, then screen shotted it with my phone, then proceeded to draw different scenarios of what and how...
This was stupid helpful!
Purple = posts
Black = pool and fence line
Blue = footprint of the house
Red = country lights
Oh yeah.. i forgot to mention...
My lame ass thought tackling such a chore at 1pm, north of 105 degrees, and work until the holes were dug, filled, and done.
Shit man, that first hole and dug and poured with concrete only took 30 minutes start to finish.. (yes... i was tracking with my stop watch).
I didn't bring my wheelbarrow so I used a 5 gallon bucket and filled it with the dirt and poured it on a yard/leaf blanket in the grass.
Once the hole was done, I'd go back to the blanket here and fill up the bucket all the way, then repeat as necessary.
First hole, slam dunk!
Second hole... well shit.. .concrete, plumbing pipe, plumbing pipe, now dirt, and shit now rock.
This one took me 50min to pull off...
I was in good spirits... drinking an ass ton of water, hustling it.. meanwhile that blue ass pool kept taunting me... "don't fall in".. " fall in"... "lord it'd be a mess if you dropped a 5 gal bucket of dirt in there... shit, don't get me started on a 50lb bag on concrete in there"...
Yeah. The pool was literally taunting me.
Damn bro.. by the time I got to the third hole I could feel it. Suddenly I had a bad pulse in my head. the squatting up and down from dig to pout, to dig to pour, cradling the 50lb bag of concrete to control the pour into the hole... water filled bucket, pour, let rest, dig the other hole, backfill the dry hole now... rake the gravel.
Holy crap man I was gassed...
I almost took a picture of my other area, but that'a looked weird to do, the angle would'a sucked... but in short, I was SOAKED to the bone...
Now I need to start resting. I found a spot on the other side of the house that funneled in a breeze which cooled me off, ish...
clock's ticking asshole!... time to get back after it!
So.. I'd drudge on.
As soon as I started burring hole three I suddenly had the urge to hurl.
well this is weird??....
ok, just mind yourself, btw, don't slip into the pool bro. No one would see you.
Press on. Stop. shit. need a break.... oh... look at that... a blurry streamer...
am I really seeing this?... ok.
Man. don't hurl bro, almost done.
Finally!!
DDFD... well ish.
I then picked everything up.. cause a pro don't leave a mess!... shit it was hot.
As soon as I got inside to tell the client I was done, I could hear and feel my voice totally different. Like my throat was swollen... the cold AC air had a wicked bite to it that made me want to get out quickly.
She was super nice and I told her we'd square up when I had a clear head.
I poured myself into the truck and made my way.. driving west, at 5pm now and had a 35min drive home... That bitch of a Sun was digging right into me... it felt like it had something against me the whole day and the drive home.. what an asshole it was. HA!
By the time I made it home, i could hear a ringing in my ear, and I was clammy sweating... like pre flu sweats...
As soon as I got home I rolled out of the truck and waddled inside. I was still soaked. I couldn't drink anything on my way home cause I was gonna lose it.
I wandered inside and said, I'm gonna lay in the pool... as soon as I made it out the door my shoes and socks were off, pants off, shirt off, and rolled into the pool with my skippy's on.. dude it felt so good... but surprisingly it was cold.
Chas came out and was on high alert. She asked that i get out of the pool so she could run inside real quick. I was still good, just a bit slow on the talking.. Chas said your eye is F'ed up man.. I'm like what, "dude" you're cross eyed as hell!
[Side note... I was born cross eyed].. so when I'm tired, ripped, or sick, I'll look a little funny.
She said I was pale, still sweating in the pool, and said I sounded drunk.
Dude it was weird... like weird.
As soon as I was calm and now oddly cold.. it was time to get out.
I changed into loose shit and sat on the couch. Still couldn't drink anything.. but man I was cramping like a mo-fo!.. any small change in movement made a charlie horse bad... even down into my inner groin-hip-pelvis area.. was hella weird.
Eventually I leveled off. Chas suggested we buy some pizza cause i needed to carb up.
I had only had a wrap for breakfast and that was it... so eventually I felt good enough to eat and drink all my stuff... it was near 10pm probably, but i was almost back to normal... well ish. My caves were on fire and my head still hurt.
But HEY!
I did finish my task for the day, my mess was cleaned up, I moved 800lbs of concrete that day, not sure how much dirt, but about 20 or so 5 gallon buckets of dirt..
AND!!!
My watch said I had broken my step record... I achieved 137% of my goal... it was a solid 13,520 steps!
All that being said. I'm wicked sensitive to the heat at the moment.. want zero to do with it.. but I'm ok. :) and that's the good part :)
Thankfully the next day thankfully was a full day of inside handyman work, 5 jobs or so, followed by a listing appt with pizza and beer..
All in all, it was a unique experience.. given how much I've been outside and lived in AZ, I've never had that before... so it was... I guess... kinda-cool-ish-maybe?... not really?... don't be a dumbass again man?... yeah.. I'm gonna roll with that :) My precious bride is waiting for me to get off this storytelling so we can finally chill and get down on some grub. :) Forgive me... I did not proofread dis-bitch. Hungry and feel another headache coming along after recounting my special experience... hahaha This picture pretty much sums it up on how I felt... hell, this is probably how I looked when I got home.. hahaha :) Have a wonderful weekend! :) :)
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