A New Definition of Technological Frustration
May 2, 2014
Damn Right, All of Us are Higher Than a Kite!!
May 30, 2014
Now that spring time has totally kicked in I’m doing all sorts of side projects to catch up on the bills. This essay relates to one of them.
Word Count: 754
Job Bartering for
Fun and Profit
Outside of rural areas like the small town I live in, does the barter system of doing things even exist anymore? Due in no small part to the lightning quick advance of technology and society changing so much, the answer is probably “no” in most cases. I can pleasantly say that here in Silverton the answer is the exact opposite, an emphatic “yes”. I happen to be a classic example of the situation. Still trying to decide whether or not that’s a good or bad thing in my case.
About a month ago a good friend of mine signed a lease to open an art gallery at a building in town and asked me if I was interested in working off the debt I owed him. Stowing a bunch of my stuff in the basement of the building he’s currently residing in had become unmanageable. In other words, the bill for placing my odds and ends in his basement had gotten so big that paying him off and getting back to square #1 financially represented a bill bigger than the GDP of certain small third world countries. Well maybe not that substantial, but I do owe him my first-born son in certain dire scenarios.
Since I don’t anticipate that happening anytime within the near future (the first-born child thing), I decided to take him up on his work barter offer. Ostensibly because I had a little extra time on my hands. The madness of summer hadn’t totally kicked in around here yet, and taking advantage of some free time to pay off my debts seemed like a good thing. Plus I’m not currently making any money off my writing (although I go to bed every night wishing I could). Doing other stuff to address those persistent debts represents a most viable option.
The initial job my buddy wanted me to help him out with was an interior wall. Specifically he wanted to remove the old layer of plaster down to the brick, followed by cleaning it up, then painting a layer of water seal on it. Other than having to breathe a heavy dose of dust while removing the plaster (silicoses, what’s that?), the task was easy enough. At first he had me carefully chipping away at the plaster in an attempt to remove it. This plan of attack soon fell by the wayside when the two of us discovered that just whacking the wall with a hammer was a more effective removal method. Faster too. A lot more fun as well.
This proved to be a great job if you need to take out your frustrations concerning the unfairness of life. The harder and faster you hit the wall, the more plaster you removed. I’m still formulating a marketing plan to get yuppies with all sorts of pent up rage issues to pay me for the privilege of carrying out tasks such as this. Huck Finn and the white-wash fence scam ain’t got nothing on me.
Part of the removal job involved working off a set of scaffolding. Once again justifying my intention to never get involved in the pursuit of rock climbing. Even though I was only eight feet off the ground, at times it felt more like I was eight hundred feet off the ground. I’m don’t consider myself acrophobic, but working even the slightest bit above terra firma sometimes feels like I’m balancing precariously on the edge of eminent disaster.
Once the plaster was removed (damn, no more random pounding with a hammer?), scraping and brushing took place. Followed by slapping the water seal on the brick. This actually looked kind of nice when I was getting close to finishing the job too. I also continue to not be interested in taking on this task as a viable career option.
This was followed by various other incendiary tasks including the placement of drywall, anchoring that self-same drywall in place with screws, and moving one or two items from point A to point B, then back again. All the while I diligently keeping track of the hours I’ve worked and little by little the debt is starting to disappear.
Still haven’t reached that yet, but I’m getting closer and closer with each passing day. Should I be happy this is happening? You damn right I am. This isn’t the nastiest job I’ve ever had to do, but then again the task isn’t exactly more fun than most people have in a year either.
