Hard Work

I am an odd ball in that I have gone to college and done grad school but still love doing concrete work and being outside. I know that intelligence isn’t based solely on book learning but on a combination of variables. I have been blessed to have friends who are PhD’s and construction workers. I have learned so much from both of my different types of friends. God has given me a passion to be a life long learner. It requires both a willingness to read, study, be out with people observing and listening most of all to those who are older and wiser.

Yesterday I put on my concrete guy hat and did a driveway extension so my big van has a place to sleep at night. I had a close friend and partner in ministry help me. I know that Lupe hadn’t done very much concrete work but I was so impressed with his quickness to dive in and do an incredible job. I have been around many different types of people where some show a real openness to learning and making it happen and others act as if you are supposed to do their work for them and they should still get paid.

Any concrete type job usually requires some digging and earth moving. This isn’t the most cherished type of work but someone has to do it. So the challenge for us was the removal of a tree that was about 15 feet high and had some branches. It took us about an hour with removing most of the ground cover and exposing the root system. It was great to see everything fit in the truck. It is always amazing how something that took hours to do only takes minutes to throw away in the dump.

As we returned to the house I explained that I had to go to another church and get a collection of clothes and misc. things that would be used for our homeless Christmas Eve Service. I left and knew that I would be gone for about 3 hours. I went over the overall job with Lupe and said he could set it up or just dig it out. It took longer between getting the clothes, picking up a laptop and doing a couple of other errands. I was so jazzed to pull up and see the little job perfectly graded and the form boards actually all in place with stakes. I did a little bit of fine-tuning and made adjustments with the irrigation system.

I had found a short load concrete place that did yard pours. I needed 2 yards so it required me to haul a yard load and also the owner to bring a yard load. It was fun playing concrete guy with Lupe and his nephew. It took us about 30 minutes to pour out all of the concrete. The down side was that it was really cold and the sun was hiding from the concrete. It took over 5 hours for the concrete to get hard enough to be broomed. While I was playing in the ‘mud’ Lupe and Diego were laying out pavers to go from the back edge of the driveway to the gate and then to the garbage pad.

So the great news was that they did an incredible job of putting in the little pathway to the back. They finished about an hour before I was done. (Life isn’t always fair.) As I broomed the driveway extension I was really impressed with my friend’s help. They did an awesome professional job like they knew what they were doing. What struck me is that too many in today’s laid back culture would have stood around watching and would have expected me to do the work for them as they watched. So why is it the case that someone like Lupe dives in and tries and so many today would have been too lazy to lift a finger.

What a great Christmas gift to me! I love doing concrete work but especially with real helpers who made my job a piece of cake. As we had a pre-Christmas dinner last night the same thing jumped out. My daughter loves to cook, entertain and make everything just perfect. The reason she is this way shouldn’t be any surprise because her mom has trained her well. My Anne is the most amazing person because she is thoughtful, hard working and loves to help and bless others.

I reflect on my life growing up and had the same awesome role model in my mom. She was always quick to put others first and be the helper and always had a knack to pull others into helping.