Captain Kidd on Twitter
You really must click through, it is indescribable, to the uninitiated in the delicacies of industrial demolition work. During the Vancouver project we needed to bring down a "roll grinder room" a room within the larger paper mill building. The room was about 2-1/2 stories high and the "rafters" were huge 28" x 36" beams (whole slabs of squared off tree, actually). I told the men my plan of action, and asked them to get the equipment while I organized a crane, among other necessaries. I left them to clean up the area, and get ready for the demolition. As an aside, the paper mill was still operating, and one of the paper machines was a mere cinder block wall, and 10' away from our work area, so I had to be careful. The structure needed to be raised without breaching that cinder block wall, raising too much dust, or dropping one of the "rafters" on the machine, or the rewinder. By the time I returned, one of the men had become antsy, scaled the wall, and was sitting astride one of the "rafters" sawing through it with a chainsaw. Yes, he was standing out-side of the saw cut so once finished he was ground bound along with the "rafter." I am still not sure why I didn't infarct right then, but I held out. I finally threw a piece of wood, or perhaps concrete him, and hit him. While he dropped the chain saw, he had sagaciously tied it off to the, yes, out-side of the saw cut. I called him down. Then I released the men to work on another project while I spent an hour performing my best interpretation of R.Lee Ermey's role in Full Metal Jacket. I screamed streams of epithets, and curses which even impressed me. I evolved entire new curses and epithets. I was not sure whether I was so enervated because I had narrowly dodged spending the next 24 hours of my 13 hour per day, seven day per week, 365 day per year shift with State Fatality Investigators (really, not kidding one bit, I worked 15+ months on the project a minimum of 12, but more commonly 13 hours per day - ok, the first week we only worked five 10 hour days, we were waiting for equipment and supplies). Or whether it was not having the "rafter" collapse, punch a hole in the concrete floor, then rotate over collapsing the cinder block wall into both the rewinder, and the paper machine. My job would have been the least of my worries. Oh, and for any dear precious snowflakes who happened to stumble upon this story, I did not get to go home early, nor was I given a safe place to cry out my angst. I worked the remaining 9 hours of my shift, and tagged my day shift counterpart to finish the now nearly finished demo. Lather, rinse, repeat, every single day for more than 15 months. I slept well, banked a ton of cash, and worked hard. I was in hog heaven. You are released to go back to your college dorm room, and whinge about how your butt plug is too tight.
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