Roofing Is Really Tough, You Should Try It…
Greetings,
I’ve been your typical piece of fattening flesh on the North American continent since our last update. I’ve done things like hitting a bucket of balls on a rainy day, out of pure boredom started a new hobby called “urban hiking” and let me tell you, quite the wildlife you’ll see. Just stay away from the convenience store or you’ll be working on diabetes at the same time as cardio, not ideal. Suffice to say the “normal life” of rest and relaxation is too slow a roll so decided to crawl out of my comfort zone and help a friend with a residential metal roofing project…
Have you ever been roofing? Have you ever moved a 50lbs bag of of smoldering shingles under a summer sun? Have you ever helped someone work in the heat all day and move like 50 bags of synthetic tar smelling sacks!? The entire process is a pretty serious and heavy undertaking. It’s not like “Hey Joe, you did a horrific job on our roof and those 40 year shingles should last us 12 years, no big deal”. It’s a huge deal and having water drip into water basin in your bedroom is something that is NOT on a bucket list…
Anyways, whenever I have some work to do now and I’m feeling lazy, demotivated or just out of breath from all the cereal, sour keys, slush puppies, checkout counter salami and sugary treats I’ve been eating; ‘ll remember my time roofing. That stuff is hard and a friend of my friend is a pro roofer, should see that guy go it’s quite insane and made me realize just how ineffective I am as a construction worker. The show went on and suddenly I found myself at a greasy joint called Lou Lou’s that is famous around for chip stand styles…
Oh Lou Lou, you obese overlord who makes a poutine that looks lackluster but actually has a perfect ratio. She also sells hot dogs that actually aren’t that good, I felt like saying “Hey Lou Lou, I know we just met but this is crap.” This is in Aylmer, Quebec btw and across from Lou Lou’s there is this church that was burnt down, must have been glorious in its day. Today it just stands as a reminder of what it once once, actually I have no idea what it’s still doing there if they aren’t going to fix it but then again, I’m not an urban planner.
After visiting Lou Lou’s, I fell into a food induced coma on a filthy couch and when I woke up, sadly the roof wasn’t done yet. Suffice to say, I did more manual labor yesterday that I have in my entire life and I really liked (some) of it. It also teaches you a lot about the different parts of your life. It’s easy to try and race finishing x, y or z but when it comes to gigs like this aka big lasting jobs, it’s “one at a time” and it is “going to take as long as it takes”. This is a good reminder for anyone who has big things in their brains, it’s still one shingle at a time… If you want to be further along, should have started sooner!
Finished the day eating McDonald’s and other garbage food while watching movies that fall under the comedy category but in reality made no sense. It’s insane how easy it is to turn into a blob of uninspired synthetic sugar with diabetes on speed-dial in no time. In closing, if you ever think your job is tough just think of what you need to do change a roof and you’ll quickly realize how important putting things in perspective is.
The job took 11 hours and felt like 11 years to complete. Outside your comfort zone is where everything worthwhile waits…
Tips hat,
