I slept terribly and woke up in a bad bad mood. Then I lost $50 in fees getting money from my US account, to give to the builder. Hidden “5.6% commission at the ATM.” I will file this under my “tuition” category in my budget. The price I am paying for learning what to do, what not to do. I guess that’s an expense that needs to be factored in when we embark on big stuff we know very little about. Which I seem to specialize in. So yes: the tuition category. As of 10 am, there was no excavator in sight. Nothing was moving and I was grumpy. But then Jorge mentioned that two piles had been delivered: one pile of sand and one pile of gravel. I immediately drove over there to admire these two little mountains which with the help of water (how are we getting water? I am still not sure) will become cement. I don’t know yet whether we are getting a mixing machine or whether this is happening by hand. I have a feeling I will know this shortly. Then I was told that the machine would arrive tomorrow at 2 (which could mean 3, or 4, or not at all), which is the time at which I teach a little kids painting workshop, darn it. So I will boogey right on over there afterward and see if I can catch a ride in the bucket, or at the very least smile a lot. Things were looking up. And a 4,:00 I got a call asking if I could meet the metal delivery truck and escort them to the site. HECK YES! At 4:02 I was out the door and had the guy follow me through under-the-bridge-and-over-three-rivers where he proceeded to unload 16 big bars of steel, 40 small rods of another metal – or maybe steel – and 2.5 kilos of wire. I think these are going to be for the ceiling. I’ll ask more tomorrow. Having unloaded, he left me alone over there until the little crew of three arrived (Jorge the contractor, Anselmo his main guy, and a young man whose name I don’t know yet). They decided to move the stuff to a different spot and because I want to get my hands in as much of the process as I can, I grabbed one end of a steel bar while Jorge looking surprised grabbed the other. Between the 4 of us, we moved all 16 pretty fast and I felt kind of like a badass even though I don’t think I could have done 2 more. I am told the blocks arrive tomorrow at 9 and then well, the excavator at 2. On the way back Jorge asked me what colors I was going to want my floors to be (we are doing tinted concrete and I get to choose the color for each room). I smiled and said I didn’t know yet but very possible turquoise in the bathroom. Patience, trust – and maybe muscles.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI'm white. Archives
August 2022
|