Wednesday, February 07, 2007

What Not to Do at 54

If you ever go for an X-ray... remember this.
I finish drywall, someone else usually hangs it. I'm 54. I used to hang drywall in full sheets. Now I hang drywall in small pieces.

Darrell (that's what we call him...) had an X-ray room to sheetrock at a doctor's office we are taping and texturing. He never hung lead lined sheetrock before, I did it a few times in my "manly youth". They put lead on the back of 5/8" sheetrock to keep the X-rays from sterilizing the patients in the waiting rooms and X-ray machine operators. It also keeps Superman from looking through the walls at the nurses, and keeps Kryptonite from harming the doctors. There's all kinds of tricky stuff you gotta know to shield the joints and screws and electrical boxes etc. NO X-rays can leak through the walls when you are done.

Anyway... lead lined sheetrock weighs about 300 pounds per sheet. Darrell had 13 sheets of it leaning against the wall for 3 weeks. It's the last room in the doctor's office. He told his boss he wasn't going to do it. No one else in his company had ever hung lead lined sheetrock before. He complained, he begged, he whined, he threatened to quit.
No one came to help. The sheetrock didn't come with instructions.

Knowledge is a terrible thing sometimes....

So... Thomas and I hung a few 12 packs shy of two tons of sheetrock this morning, then finished taping the other 8,000 sq ft. of offices after lunch.

I think tonight will be a 6 ibuprofen/3 beer night... or is that 3 ibuprofen and 6 beers....
No matter, both work.

That's the lead lined board on the right. That's us cutting a sheet with a reciprocating saw and a metal cutting blade... and no, Thomas is not a euchuch now, and he can still play piano...he moved in time.


This is Thomas putting a sheet in place. Years ago, he used to be a power lifter.
Deja vu all over again.
That is Darrell "helping".
Notice Darrell's three finger "ducking" technique to help push it in place. He's no idiot. If Thomas' knee gives out and that falls on him, he'll look like a cartoon character run over by an steam roller.



NO!!! DON'T LICK THE LEAD...
LOOK WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU!






3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That looks like totally insane work! YIKES!

No...don't think I'll lick the lead! LOL!

Anonymous said...

Daddyo...i think it's time to get a new job so you don't die or something. teehee. jk.

anyways! very nice. i'll make a note...

Note to self...don't lick lead or youll become like your dad.

lol...peace out
Kenzy

Jeffrey Holton said...

Alright, I'm listening to archives of your show right now.

On a whim, I thought I'd come see if you had any blogs. And here you are!

It's nice to know that there's some lead-lined silliness behind the seriousness.

Thank you for both. I sincerely mean that.

I'm listening to the first part of the 2006 series on converts thinking to myself, "Thank God that I don't suffer from these horrible symptoms they're describing all these converts go through. *I* don't suffer from all those pride symptoms now that they've been beat out of me after five years in Orthodoxy and now that I'm on Parish Council and teaching the high school Sunday School class. I thank GOD that He didn't make me like that man, a sin-- ...er...wait a second."