Week-in-review

Sun, 17 Apr 2011 22:47:33 -0400

I get asked “So, what do you do?” exorbitantly often. It feels that way at least. It might not be more than average, but because my answer isn’t a simple “Oh I work here and do this 5 days a week” it feels like the question is thrown my way too often.

I am employed by PKF Industries - a landscape company, and people who know this love to ask “but what do you do for work in the winter? You can’t landscape.” You actually can landscape in the winter, if there’s no snow and the ground isn’t frozen you can plant to your heart’s content. Also, PKF Industries does hardscape as well as landscape and we dabble in any kind of construction. All of that can be done in the winter. I’ve explained this solution a myriad of times to different people and sometimes to the same people. It’s amazing how hard that concept is to get across. Apparently people think all landscapers party during the winter. Or plow snow. Other than that we cannot work.

Now PKF Industries doesn’t always have work. With the economy being the way it is, and my boss being terrible at bidding jobs, I’ll have chunks of time when I’m not working there. I do my own general contracting on the side when that happens. And even when I’m working for PKF Industries I am doing a wide variety of things, not just landscaping. This all brings us back to the question I threw out in the first place - “So, what do you do?”

My answer is simply “I’m a general contractor.” I’ve come to realize this is a terrible answer. When someone would answer that question with an “I work at Burger King,” The recipient of the answer has enough information that they’ll probably stop asking questions. They know how a Burger King operates and they don’t need to ask more questions. If someone is an accountant, they assume they push papers all day and scribble numbers. But General Contracting? They get a confused look. What does this mean? I don’t understand.

The term General contracting is in essence - general. It’s a wide field. Who even knows what contracting means? You contract diseases, right? What’s that have to do with a job?

At this point in a conversation I’m getting frustrated with the interrogation and the assumptions the asker is assuming, and they’re getting frustrated with me for not telling them what cookie cutter I fit in to.

I try to make it simpler “I perty much do any type of construction work.” They say “How broad! This cannot be accurate!” Actually it’s too narrow because construction doesn’t really cover demolition or the whole landscaping field. But it’s a simple enough answer that their frustration is assayed and they put me in the hammer swinging category of the aforementioned cutter of cookies.

Occasionally I’ll be spared more ignorant questions asked in a way like they know exactly what I do. But normally the questions continue. And they are always specific questions, which is hard to answer specifically when I’ve already mentioned I’m working as a general contractor.

Which brings us to the point of this writing. I’m gonna try to write what I do in a week. A summary of my generalness and how cohesive it isn’t. Just because I pushed a broom on Monday does not mean I’m not pouring concrete on Friday. So this was my week:

April 4-8

Monday - Yard cleanup. this can be categorized under landscaping. Basically I went through with a chainsaw, cut up debris, moved it away, raked, cleaned up. Made a yard look perty. Good spring time thing to do. In the afternoon I changed the engine oil and transmission fluid in the truck that moves freight for me (whole different story but I still think it fits under the term “general,” right?).

Tuesday, Wednesday - worked for the PA turnpike commission. They are busy tearing down rest stops, building new, nicer buildings, and reopening them for weary travelers. I am contracted through Allegheny Solid Surface Technologies to do a variety of things on these sites. Last year I did the punch out work for the Hickory Run rest stop plaza right before (and actually after) it opened to the public. Punch out work is very - come on, guess the word - general! But this day I installed countertops in the bathroom. These are Cambria stone countertops, they weight about 15 lbs a square foot. Each piece was between 200 and 400 lbs. Heavy suckers. If you ever stop by the rest stop in Bowmansville and use the restroom, admire my counters please.

Thursday - did maintenance. This is… general. Organized tools, sharpened dull things, fixed broken things - you get the idea. Also worked on changing the fuel filter on one of the work trucks. Never, ever try to change the fuel filter on an f-150. It is a mistake. It took me multiple hours to do, and countless amounts of annoyance. By the end I was covered in gasoline and I had lit the old fuel filter on fire to see if it would blow up. It didn’t unfortunately.

Friday - Finished the job I started on Monday. While it rained (that is for all you people who think that when it rains landscapers don’t work. You are the same people who don’t think we work during the winter. You know who you are, stop looking at me like that).

During the evenings of this lovely week, I came home and stripped wallpaper and the glue it was stuck with, off the walls in my parents home. Some evenings I got home too late to do this, but the days when I’d get home early enough, this was what I was doing.

So there ya have it - week one in Jesse’s general work week. Tune in next week for more of the General Contracting you don’t want to know about.

Ramble

Week-in-review