Pruning Steel: White Yard

If I were at home right now I would be pruning my parents’, friends’ and neighbors’ apple trees.  This is the one month every year that my forearms become freakishly strong from clipping each tree branch. It’s cold and monotonous but I can’t imagine a more serene work environment. Isolated up on ladder in a tree, engulfed by soft cadence of rain falling on the bill of my hat or the silence of yard muted by fallen snow, I take my time to size up and select what branches are meant to be kept and which are meant to be removed. It is both an exercise in logic and parsimony and an art of creating functional balance. Inevitably my mind becomes as quiet as the day and ultimately I leave behind trees that will bear the most and best possible fruit that they can produce.  The job of a fettler is a lot like that, in that my forearms became very strong. Forget about the other stuff.

Quiet end of the day.

For the first two weeks of the job (Yes I am going to continue winging, skip this paragraph if you want to get to the redeeming part.) The job was reminiscent of the point when you become numb to the pain of having a cavity drilled, not because of the Novocain but because you just give in and accept it. I kept at it because I knew it was only temporary. If all my work-while financial forecasts were correct, I would make enough money to walk out the door at 11 o’clock, Friday the 23^rd of December and leave that misery behind. My vision of that hot late morning was one where I walk out, carefree to a car that I paid off with the satisfaction of having a credit card paid off and money in the bank which to me really meant time that could be taken to have fun!

(Ra Ra! Part) The job is not all bad though. It does have a Mister Rogers/ How Things Work beauty to it. In the beginning it was an interesting education experience on how steel is galvanized. That lasted for a day and a half. There is the slightest sense of satisfaction that I have had a small part in making somebody’s gaudy gates really appealing or some piece of mining equipment that much more durable. Sometimes the headers carrying the shiny metal resemble a mobile that even Alexander Calder would be appreciate. But most of the time it’s just beams.  There is also some excitement when the steel is dipped into the molten zinc when it burst and bubbles and makes light poles turn into acoustic cannons or boiling hot water guns. That always good for a shot of adrenaline when I forgot my coffee in the morning. Aside from all this, I’ve said it before and I am going to say it again, right now:  IT PAYS!

The first two weeks I had to rent a car to get to work because it is a 25 minute drive from my house. But, you gotta spend money to make money. By the end of the third week, while spending every spare minute car searching, I finally gave up the chase and settled for a shit bucket with wheels. (Hopefully, I will get a post up about driving it.) A couple weeks later, I sent enough money state side to pay off the old credit pit. After weeks of austerity measures that would solve Greece’s debt disaster, I night I celebrated with a meal at Hungry Jacks (Burger King) and a six pack of delicious Little Creatures (Sierra Nevada.)

My new ride with a Christmas gift from the old boss man. Notice my sweet tow hitch!

At work the next day, I discovered a level of elation that a sleep deprived hangover could not dim. I was seeing the world through rosy colored glasses. Well they were still my same safety glasses but it was like they were really REALLY clean. I started to feel like a human and the guys around me became humans as well. This is going to seem like those stupid plots when the resolution comes far too simply and the satisfaction has no foundation. But I have to head out to our optional Christmas break practice. There is more to this satisfaction because the releasing of this burden has sparked every aspect of my life here.

The boys I grind with. Temps don't get the sweet high vis gear.

On deck is the post called “All Fun and Games.” I am looking forward to writing that one because I a getting tired of dwelling on the negative. With a couple more days off I would also like to get out a couple more about driving, baseball, and well, so many things that are more fun than work.