Ouch!

Ok. I am sitting here in my kitchen. It is 12:34 am. You might ask: What in the world are you doing up at this hour? I will tell you my friend. I just got a part-time job for a local sports team. I am on the crew that puts down the floor on top of the concrete, and prepares the arena for games, concerts, moto-cross, whatever the bigwigs schedule in the arena to make them richer than I am.

It is kind of cool really. I mean there is a very unique way that this whole thing is done. I am sure we look like a bunch of ants scurrying around from the top of the building. Everything is stored in its own place, and when needed it is rolled out onto the floor, and pieced together like a HUGE jigsaw puzzle. We have to put this subfloor down and assemble it so that the seats can roll out and away from the wall. Everyone is on hand to put down this subfloor in the proper order. The boss is running around yelling at everybody, and you are basically looking like a deer in the headlights. (First time anyway) As soon as the subfloor is done we split into two groups and head in opposite directions. One group to the seats coming from the wall, and the other to the giant pieces of the floor.

I was assigned to the giant pieces of the floor. Now these pieces are basically a 4x8 sheet of plywood (3/4 inch thick) with 2x4s attached to one side and the wood parquet attached to the other side. That is as technical as I am going to get. 1) Because I don't really understand what all makes up these big pieces, and 2) I signed a confidentiality agreement when I got the job. Now to the reason for the title. THESE PIECES OF THE FLOOR WEIGH 200 POUNDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't want you to think I lifted one of these myself, but I did take the end of several of these by myself. We were told to do it with a person on each corner, but sometimes there was no one to do it, and sometimes there were plenty of people to do it, but none of those lazy jokers would pick it up!

I think this will turn out to be a pretty good side job. I mean the money isn't great, but it is fun. It can be done fairly quickly, and then we get to go home. It also means that as long as I don't pull a muscle then I should be able to do it fairly regularly and get in pretty good shape. The wife and I have already decided that all the money will go into a savings account and that is what we will use when we move to help pay for closing costs. I picked a winner with that one! She is as smart as a whip!

I love my wife with all of my being. She is so much better at this marriage thing than I am. She is my saving grace! Without her I would be nothing!!!!!! I hope she understands that even if I don't tell her that often. I am going to start crying all over my keyboard if I don't watch out. I was thought I was destined to be single all my life, and proclaimed it with vigor. Now I am sitting here (now 1:05 am) in my married kitchen, in my married house looking at the flowers I bought for my wonderful wife this past weekend.

You may ask yourself: "Why is he awake at one o'clock in the morning and not in the bed asleep next to his lovely wife?" Well my friend, ask yourself that question no longer.