Sunday, November 07, 2004
Mindless Manual Labor is Underrated
Lawrence and Peter had it right in
Office Space--working with your hands and getting out in the fresh air is the best way to work--which is part of the reasons I chose to pursue vet med; you have to use your brain, but there's still a lot of manual work involved, and if you work with big animals or wildlife, you get to spend time in the field.
Saturday morning, Linea and I worked at a
Habitat for Humanity site on Maple street, and I realized that after studying all week, it's nice to work without having to think. Someone tells me to dig, I dig. They say "hold this," I hold. They say "hammer this," I hammer. They say "move this," I move. I just do what they tell me, and for half a day a week, it's great.
They fed us promptly at 11:30, a home-cooked crock-pot meal. (Manual work also reminds you how good simple food and water can taste.)
Insulation,windows,and tar-papering of the roof were all completed by noon
Linea sledgehammers a bolt
I finish off the bolt with a ratchet
Digging up the dirt--talking about the blasto, histo, anthrax and listeria that may be hiding in the soil. . .
