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We came, we sawzalled, we conquered
Mar. 12th, 2013 07:28 amThis second trip down for Hurricane Sandy recovery was harder than the first; this house was constructed with that accursed chicken wire and plaster instead of nice, agreeable drywall. I managed to avoid the brunt of it by doing haul-away duty for the first few hours; I’ll happily drag out 50-lb bins of tile and plaster over the hellish chickenwire stuff. After a few hours I took a turn at the walls, and it sucked mightily. But I got to use a Sawzall for the first time, that was fun. There was a hell of a lot of tile to smash, and we smashed till we couldn’t smash no more. Then it was time to get the tub out of the bathroom. I didn’t know they made bath tubs out of cast iron. I sure as hell do now. Took four of us to lever, heave, slide, and walk that thing out to the curb. And what do you do with an empty bathtub on the curb? Pose for Bathtub Mary pictures, of course!
Then it was lunchtime. One of the cool things about group ordeals like this is people get a little punch-drunk with exhaustion and start coming up with stuff like how can we make a device that enables women to write their names with their pee. And put a calligraphy nib on the end of it so you can look fancy. Switch it out with an atomizer tip so you can tag buildings with your spraypaint urine. And Elle Train drops the best joke of the weekend:
Q: What do you call ten-thousand lesbians with guns?
A: Militia Ethridge.
I’m still giggling over that. Also makes a great roller derby name.
We were finishing up lunch and this Hispanic guy rolls up and asks us if he could take the bathtub. There are trucks and vans full of these guys driving around the recovery areas, hauling away anything metal for scrap – radiators, gardening tools, filing cabinets, whatever - it’s pretty cool, an essential part of the recycling infrastructure. I only see the one guy so I’m wondering how he’s going to get the monstrous tub into his van all by himself, I’m debating giving him a hand when he wheels a dolly up and somehow gets this 300lb cast iron beast off the ground and into his van, and he’s gone. In like five minutes. It took four of us dudes to wrestle that bathtub out to the curb, and this one guy just pops the tub into his van and goes on his way. New respect for our Mexican recycling brothers, those guys do not fuck around.
Then it was lunchtime. One of the cool things about group ordeals like this is people get a little punch-drunk with exhaustion and start coming up with stuff like how can we make a device that enables women to write their names with their pee. And put a calligraphy nib on the end of it so you can look fancy. Switch it out with an atomizer tip so you can tag buildings with your spraypaint urine. And Elle Train drops the best joke of the weekend:
Q: What do you call ten-thousand lesbians with guns?
A: Militia Ethridge.
I’m still giggling over that. Also makes a great roller derby name.
We were finishing up lunch and this Hispanic guy rolls up and asks us if he could take the bathtub. There are trucks and vans full of these guys driving around the recovery areas, hauling away anything metal for scrap – radiators, gardening tools, filing cabinets, whatever - it’s pretty cool, an essential part of the recycling infrastructure. I only see the one guy so I’m wondering how he’s going to get the monstrous tub into his van all by himself, I’m debating giving him a hand when he wheels a dolly up and somehow gets this 300lb cast iron beast off the ground and into his van, and he’s gone. In like five minutes. It took four of us dudes to wrestle that bathtub out to the curb, and this one guy just pops the tub into his van and goes on his way. New respect for our Mexican recycling brothers, those guys do not fuck around.
