[89] Screed City

[89]

02/01/2022 Tuesday. Ironing Board. Room 412. Holiday Inn. Hamburg, New York.

Guess who woke up at 230a on Monday night to a house that was 55F upstairs and 45F downstairs? Just joking, it was me. I had to go down in to the basement in my bathrobe and sit there waiting for the boiler to reset. Then I went back to sleep for a couple hours. Got up. Luckily the boiler was working. Otherwise, I mean, I don't know what I would have done. I got myself ready. Went out to Junior Mint. Started the car. Fed the goats. Went back inside. Starting taking stuff out. Thought I packed everything into the car. Made some coffee for the road and took off. I got about thirty miles away before I realized I forgot the guitar. I mean, in the end I don't know how much guitar playing I would be doing this week, but it's not like I have a choice. I got to the shop. Went inside. Signed some forms. Talked to the Big Boss. Jayboo. Conrad. Then I went outside. Loaded all my stuff into the van. Locked Junior Mint. Then I drove over to the storage unit. We loaded some scaffold into the back of the Box Truck. Conrad has a new baby so he didn't want to ride in a car with me. Jason drove the Box Truck. Conrad drove his Mini. We hauled ass to Buffalo. Or, Angola, New York. Which is past Buffalo. Five and a half hours drive from the shop. I was listening to the Yuck-Up radio station on the satellite radio. Then about fifteen minutes in the subscription ran out and they said I needed to call them to reinstate it. I didn't do this. I just listened to the radio for a while. Then I turned it off. Then I listened to some podcast thing. Then I listened to Hunger by Knut Hamsun book on tape. See if I could get any ideas about it. I mean, Dishwasher is the poor man's Hunger, I told Professor Curly. Then I laughed. Because Hunger is the poor man's Hunger. But since PC hasn't read the book the joke was lost on her. It's a good book. Too bad that asshole became a Nazi sympathizer in his later years. But Hunger was written in like 1899 so, it grandfathers in.

When I got to the school I was the first one there. I waited and waited and then I called Jayboo. It wasn't obvious where we were supposed to be. And the place has some very tight security. He was coming up fast, but it would be a while, because he was in the Box Truck. I needed gas so I went out looking. I couldn't find a gas station so I drove back. Afraid that I would run out of gas looking for gas. Which would have been too ironic at the moment. When I got back I took a different look around. Some guy came over and forced me to follow him as he drove over to the Middle School. Then Jayboo showed up. Found a good place to park. I drove over to find him. Eventually Conrad showed up. Then we all just kind of stood around wondering what to do. Jayboo called Kev, our site contact. He told us the entrance was the one by the giant American flag flapping in the breeze. We walked over and went inside.

The stage is a typical stage. 30 line sets. Hemp rope. Old school arbors. With guy wires. I mean, if we were just refurbishing the thing we could have done all the demolition from the ground. But the job is a redo. Meaning, we have to take the head blocks down. The loft blocks. We are keeping the drapes. So they need to be cleaned. Meaning we have been putting them into plastic bags. I mean, sorry for tense shifting, but this is both a memory of yesterday and an account of today. I mean, we stood there looking around. The stage was old-ish. I want to say the rigging is from the 80's? Then they replaced the curtians and arbors and rope locks and wire rope some time in the late 90's? I mean, whoever did the last job did an okay job. It could have used a little love and attention sometime in the last 20 years, but what can you do? I mean, it was no place for teenagers to be doing plays or whatever, but that is the nature of these school theaters. Some kid named RopeBoy was doing stuff there in '95. I know this because he wrote his name on the wall behind the arbors.

We had to wait to load in until the busses left the school. Which was at 3p. When that happened we drove the Box Truck over and unloaded the scaffold and other tools. Went inside. Started cutting shit down. Around 430 we took a break. Jayboo was thinking we should work longer. Conrad didn't really care. I had driven seven and a half hours to get there. Spent the early morning hours dealing with the boiler at Beaver Haus. And then worked proper for two hours. I was not really in the mood for a late night. I mean, I could have been convinced, but this is the thing, I mean, drive seven and a half hours and then work a full shift to demo a high school stage in Nazi-America-Upstate, New York? I mean, I should have gone outside and saluted the giant flag and prayed on it before I made my decision, but I didn't. I just wanted to go the hotel and regroup. Write a few things down and hit the sack. I mean, who knows? Maybe the next Kevin Bacon is sitting in class at Lake Shore High School, but I am sorry, he is just going to have to wait an extra day to start chewing the scenery. Not that me not wanting to work a full day after travelling a full day really changes anything, but, I mean, I guess that is what the stakes are.

We packed up and left. I drove to a gas station that Kev recommended. It was five minutes in the opposite direction from the hotel. Sadly. When I got to the lobby Jayboo was waiting for me. To make sure that I got checked in okay. I mean, Jayboo is a staunch conservative, so his ideas about things like "Personal Responsibility" and "Freedem" are a little hard to understand if you get into it with him. But he is also a little arrogant about it, so mostly he is just trolling when he says stupid shit. But he believes it regardless. I mean, I have more to say about that, but I won't because it is politics. But he was waiting for me because he is actually a very nice person who cares about things. I got my room key. Then we parted ways. He went to his room. I went up to mine. Did some stuff. Spent some time writing. Then I hit the sack. And was lights out almost until the alarm went off at 5a. I woke up early because I was having some awful dream about G being a teenager drinking Tequila. They said they had tried Tequila and it tasted like "Batteries." But they were really defiant about it. I mean, it was an anxiety dream about communication. Communication with a child. So I woke up worried. But, since I had slept so poorly and had driven so far and worked so long, I was very refreshed when I got up.

I made some coffee. Maiden voyage with the electric kettle. Can you still say that? Maiden Voyage? I popped the electric kettle's virginity. For Christ's sake. I mean, whether or not I can say it, it is just a poor choice of words. Lazy writing at the very least. I mean, if anything galls me about this idiotic idea of "Cancel Culture" it is holding onto stuff like this. Shit like this. That, I mean, who the fuck cares? If anything it teaches us not to sexualize children. Is that really so bad? I don't need to say Maiden Voyage. I mean, unless I am truly missing the actual understanding of that phrase, there is about exactly one million other things I could have said to make my point. And, I mean, I guess I just used that term in order to cram my feelings about it into this screed, but still, it just needs to be said. I mean, I can say whatever the fuck I want and nobody can stop me. But using the virginity of a female as a way to describe the first use of an electric kettle just because I can. I mean, sure, I won a small victory against the supposed "Thought Police" but did I? I mean, if anything all I did was expose myself as outdated and lazy. But the water came out hot and juicy. The kettle barely cried. There was very little blood.

I made some coffee. The coffee was good. I read some stuff. Checked some mail. Took a shower. Got dressed. Packed my lunch and water and my phoned charging cord. Made sure I had my wallet and left the hotel room. I went down to the breakfast nook. Jayboo and Conrad were already there. Conrad was really wolfing it down. Jayboo was drinking a glass of juice. I looked around. Nothing seemed worth eating. I mean, I didn't feel like having an entire day of clogged pipes. So I just kind of walked around frowning at things. Sausage, eggs, cereal, there was a pancake machine. Is a pancake machine. I mean, I wonder if we should get one of those for the Compound. Something to test the maple syrup with? I wonder if anyone would stop me if I just took it on the last day we were here. I mean, nobody knows who I am. The morning crew is different than the night crew. They would just think there was some pancake thief on the loose. I mean, I would have to do it in blackface. Because nobody up here think White people are capable of crimes. Or maybe that is it? Maybe I would just stun them with my White skin. They wouldn't even know what hit them. It would be a movie-style heist. Like those movies where cute White girls commit crimes because they are bored and everyone is rooting for them for whatever reason. I mean, I am joking of course. About stealing the pancake maker. But still, the racist Right want nothing more than for crime to escalate when a Dem is in the White House. That way they can use their fascist bullshit to scare old White people to vote for them. Meanwhile, god damnit! This bullshit politics moratorium!

Anyway. We all drove to the job site in our different cars and trucks. It occurred to me that I could have and should have rode with Jayboo to the job site, but it was too late. Tomorrow. Always tomorrow. The ride there was nice enough. There was weird traffic. People going to work and school, I guess. I don't know how anyone lives around here. It just offers so very little. And they are all Conservative. I mean, they all, all of them, and I know this is a generalization and it's not politics because it is people just living life, but they all believe that if you don't like where you live, just leave. Yet here we are. In some wasteland of America. With nothing to do. Nothing to strive for. No culture. No nothing. Just people getting up every day and going to work or school. Complaining that the Dems are destroying America. But they live in one of the biggest "Blue" states in the country. I mean, why not move? Why not get your ass down to Alambama or some shit? I mean, as somebody that has never had money, I have been able to go where the politics fit my soul. Why don't they do this? I mean, if it is so easy. Oh, right. Shit doesn't work that way. Just complain about it with like minded people and then when things don't go your way, storm the Capital and blame it on the Left. I mean, this isn't politics. It is facts. The second the words come out of your mouth that say "Love it, or Leave it." I mean, all that means is, if you don't like how shit is going, then change it. Or shut your mouth. I mean, I don't feel that way at all. People are born into all sorts of things that have nothing to do with them. And the only thing we can do about it collectively, is to help out the people in need and tax the shit out the people that have too much. I mean, aside from that, telling poor people to get a job or telling disenfranchised people to move somewhere better, I mean, that is as stupid as telling someone Black to be more White. I mean, it is racist at it's core. And it needs to stop.

But, I mean, I am only saying this because as we were working today Jayboo decided to troll me with his feelings about "Freedem." According to him nobody should have been compelled to take the vaccine. Not one. Not a single time. "The second the governement takes your freedom away, you will never ever get it back." Which, sure, I don't disagree with that. But, not a single vaxx, not one, not even the hint of one, went into someone's arm because of the government. There was, and still isn't a "Vaccine Mandate." There is a testing mandate. Sure. But so what? A mild inconvenience for the sake of the whole? The military, you say? Fuck off. And guess how Jayboo defended the idea of vaccinating children for school? He said "You don't have to go to that school. You can choose whatever school you want to send your kids to." One set of rules for the rich White, another set of rules for the poor Black. I mean, Love it or Leave it. I mean, I guess my point is, freedom, or even "Freedem" is so fucking relative that his argument, his real argument, his only argument, was "Why are you guys making fun of me for defending freedom?" And we were not making fun of him for defending freedom. We were merely pointing out that what he was terrified of was garbage. Should you be forced to get a vaccine? No. Are you getting forced to get a vaccine? No. If you don't get a vaccine will it affect your ability to work? It depends. Is his argument merely a hypothetical that is basically a lousy talking point that breaks down the second you think about it for one second? Yes. I mean, move to Wyoming if you don't like it here. Or Florida. I mean, the last time I checked we are still in the midst of a Global Pandemic. Two years in. Should we spend the next however many years wearing masks and closing schools and stopping work so that your feelings about "Freedem" don't get hurt? Or should we fucking work together for one lousy fucking second to believe hundreds of years of science and just be done with this bullshit? I mean, it is this bullshit thinking that is so very easy to lie yourself into thinking is logical that is keeping this shit going. I mean, I am pro-anti-mask at this point. The idiots won. There is no point. Let the wildfire burn itself out. If I feel like I need to wear a mask, I will.

I mean, we cut down most of the line sets today. There are about 12 more we need to do tomorrow. Then we have to take the loft blocks down. The head blocks. There is no crash rail. We need to take the floor blocks up. Their housing. There is no T-wall or J-wall. I think tomorrow we will have to erect some scaffold. To get up to the steel. Speaking of which. There was a moment today when nobody could identify the stage weights. There was some idea that they were half cast iron and half steel. They all looked like cast iron stage weights to me. Jayboo didn't believe it. Conrad, who showed up bleary eyed, had some wild theories. I mean, he has a tiny baby. I think he is going to spend his time here getting drunk and chain smoking cigarettes. I mean, he is on a little vacation, is all I am saying. Plus, he kind of has a little bit of a cognitive, um, Conrad is cuter than he is smart. But then Jayboo texted Scott about this. The stage weights. And Scott sent Jayboo a litany of how you distinguish the difference between cast iron and steel. And then I did a victory lap. But whatever. I didn't really know. I just knew. Which is about 90% of all stage rigging. A notion. I mean, that is decidedly not true. In fact there are some very simple guidelines that should be followed. Standards even. But the thing about it is, I mean, most of us are all just making the shit up as we go. But I am no longer in that crowd. I have to pull my shit together to get ready for this racist Albany job. But still, it was nice to be validated, even briefly, about my intuition about the stage weights. But none of that really matters. It just means we have more metal to get to the metal yard. In Buffalo. Which, they will give us money for that shit. I mean, ca-ching is all I can say. Red Lobster for dinner. All you can eat Alaskan crab legs or whatever. Surf and turf. And since the job site is so dusty, we won't know if we have allergies to shell fish or are just suffering from decades old dust infusion. And in the morning when we blow huge chunks of black shit out of our nostrils, we will know what it true.

Also! The joke was:

"What do you get when you add tuna fish to tuna fish?"

"Fournafish."

Sorry for any confusion.