Under foot

Yesterday I went back yet again to the vacant office space to help strip it down for the use of a hypothetical future tenant. The last step in the process has been pulling up the rest of the floor tiles and throwing them away.

Scrappy do

Today I returned again to the renovated office space, this time to throw various pieces of scrap metal into a big blue dumpster, and to rip up floor tiles. Eventually, assuming the owner of the office space is able to find another tenant, they'll hire a contractor to replace all the aluminum girders, drywall, floor tiles, and ceiling tiles I've been throwing away. It's not quite paying people to dig holes and then fill them in again, but it's close.

Shaka, when the walls fell

Today I was back renovating an empty office, which mostly involved ripping down drywall and throwing it into a dumpster. You get a real sense of the transience of modern life when you spend a few days tearing apart the interior of a building and get to see just how flimsy it is.

The machine that goes "ping"

Today I helped to unload a heavy piece of medical equipment off of a truck and deliver it to a hospital. I think I'll add "medical technician" to my résumé.

Cuttin' the rug

I was back at renovating the office space yesterday, this time pulling up carpet. Given the near-certainty that someone would eventually be pulling the carpet up, you'd think the guys who laid it down in the first place wouldn't use quite so much glue. Apparently someone was a little too fond of his electric glue gun.

Office space

Today I cleaned up after some unused office space underwent renovation. It turns out that disposing of fluorescent lamps is pretty easy if you don't care about mercury contamination.

The last dangerous pods

I spent Monday at the moving company again, finishing the last of their wooden storage pods. Perhaps other branches of the company will have their own pods to build in the future. Who can say?

More pods

My facile use of electric screwdrivers and glue guns was apparently so impressive that the moving company asked me back on Friday to continue putting their wooden storage pods together. Sadly, there were no Martian heat guns in evidence.

Pods

Today's assignment as a day laborer was to travel to a moving company to help construct large wooden storage pods, using electric glue guns (a tool I was previously unaware of) and screwdrivers. Man, that glue gets everywhere.

Door

Spent Wednesday morning helping a guy install a sliding door in a house. The job only lasted three hours.

Left behind

Today I was sent out to an apartment complex to clean up an apartment whose tenants had departed (whether voluntarily or otherwise I never learned). Afterwards, I picked up litter around the complex, including the remnants of various types of fireworks.

Point State Park

Spent five hours last night working at Point State Park after the fireworks show, helping to pack up a cookout sponsored by a basic cable channel. Also got to see fireworks.

Glue gun

Spent the day yesterday helping a guy install a new floor in a house he was renovating. Got to use a glue gun for the first time.

Crunch time

Six months after being laid off from my job as a finance clerk, I still haven't been able to find another full-time job, and my unemployment benefits are about to run out. That means that I have to re-enter the hit-or-miss world of being a day laborer, taking whatever jobs are available (cleaning up construction sites, unloading trucks, washing dishes) for a pathetic $7.25 an hour.

So, the blogging is going to slow down for a while.