Thanks Spaceman.
I knew someone would snap me out of my whiney sentimental state.
Thanks for the virtual ice water poured down the back of my shirt.
Uh... Tearcrete? Nope, haven't made that, but I will copy/paste one
of my ramblings I sent offlist to someone recently. It relates using
drops of another bodily fluid. Should I see if I can gross everyone
out?
Begin Flasback:
One summer as a teenager I was helping my Grandfather on his farm.
We were harvesting wheat. Of course, Grandpa got all the fun jobs,
and I was the lackey that climbed into the back of the truck and
shoveled the dusty grain in the hot sun. I was miserable. I was
hot, thristy, so dirty you could write messages on skin. My back was
aching. Foul words were creeping out of my mouth every time I
scooped a shovel toward the auger. I wanted to be anywhere but where
I was. The sweat was literally dripping off me. My glasses were
constantly catching drops and blurring my vision. My shirt was so
dirty it was useless to try to clean my glasses with it.
During a pause, I watched a drop of my sweat drip off my face down
onto the scoop shovel. It splashed down and evaporated in about 5
seconds. My mind flashed to a pancake griddle getting tested with
drops of water. The moment caught my attention for some reason. I
watched another drop of sweat splat onto the shovel. Then another.
And another. I started really looking closely at a drop of sweat on
the handle of the shovel. I looked at how it acted as a tiny
magnifiying glass. Some of my skin oil was floating on the surface.
I could see almost microscopic rainbows dancing on the surface of the
droplet. I was amazed that something so cool could exist in the
middle of such misery. In its own little way, that drop of sweat was
beautiful. A camera wouldn't have done it justice. It was something
someone needed to see for themselves.
Ever since that day whenever someone mentions, "pouring their sweat"
into a project I flash back to that day. That droplet had physical
beauty and symbolic beauty. I think a lot about it. Grandpa was in
his late 70's at that time. He didn't have the physical ability to
do a lot of the hard labor that was required to farm. He couldn't
stop though. It was in his blood. He cut back the number of acres
he tilled, but he always had a crop in the field right up until the
day he passed. My brother and I used to joke that the only reason he
kept on farming was so that he'd have an excuse to complain about the
weather. If I hadn't been there helping him that summer, I wonder if
he would have been able to continue tending the land that he loved.
That drop of sweat was my contribution to him.
You'd be amazed how a simple moment like that can change your
perspective on a lot of things. Years later on another hot day I was
pouring concrete down a hole next to the driveway. My daugher wanted
a basketball hoop. Like almost every project I've undertaken since
that day on Grandpa's farm, I flashed back to the drops of sweat on
the shovel. I got a big grin on my face and my daugher looked at me
with an expression, "oh shoot, Dad's going to do something wierd
again." heh heh heh. I actually wiped sweat off my forhead and
looked at my drenched hand. When I flung my hand toward the mixer,
some of the sweat went into the concrete. I made sure to mix it in.
Every time we used that goal I'd think about how my sweat helped make
it possible.
Most people think sweat is gross. Not me. It carries a symbolic
value I want to put into most projects.
End Flashback:
I bet Spaceman thinks I need to be dunked in a tub of ice water now!
hehehe
Spaceman wrote:
So, you want me to send you the manual for Lotus 123? It's
fascinating reading if you're into antique computer programs that
won't run under anything more modern than Doze'95. I think I have the
Dummy's Guide for Office '97 in the paper pile, too. Probably both a
little water damaged, though. : )
You won't find Ishmael or Be Here Now in the pile.
Does the salt in tears act anything like borax to help prevent mold
in pc? Tearcrete anyone?
Spaceman
slurryguy wrote:
Okay... I got that out of my system. I'll dry my tears and we can go
back to talking about papercrete.
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