The Job

My Life Right Now:

• I am living in a suburb of Tucson, AZ called Oro Valley
• I am programming the radios on newly installed water meters
• the labor in my 10-12 hour workday ranges from pencil pushing to manual labor
• these manual activities include the likes of:
• digging with a shovel
• digging with a pick ax
• tunneling wire through burrows in dirt I make with the above tools
• un-stacking bricks
• re-stacking bricks

Here, Kady illustrates one avenue of our career:

Step 1) assess pits

Step 2) use shovel and pick ax to remove packed earth and tunnel wire under
concrete from water meter a to water meter b

Step 3) repack earth, program meter, replace lids

But mostly, I wear this:

Though I've upgraded to this hat, which is very popular with the installer crew:

Manual labor, which is synonymous with this vest, has some benefits. For example, the garbage man and I were immediate friends. I declined his burrito but accepted his ice cold water. We have an understanding.

But for some reason, it also makes me incredibly aggressive and combative. Today, we had our car parked on the left (driver's) side of the road on a very wide road.

See how wide?

As Kady performed her highly skill-involved programming activities, I sat in the passenger seat with the door open filling out paperwork. I am in and out and in and out of the car so the only logical thing to do is leave the car door open. A vehicle approaches and slows down to a crawl. honk... honk... honk.... honk...

I look around to make certain that we are not blocking any driveways. I ignore the vehicle and continue with my paperwork. As his vehicle craaaaaaawls around me, an elderly man rolls down his window and yells, "Shut your door!" to which I, without hesitation screamed, "Shut your face!"

Was it not apparent by the magnets labeling  my vehicle and the vest labeling my person that I was completely entitled to park anywhere I wanted? And I mean that. I WILL PARK MY CAR ON HIS FACE.

Sometimes we run into some challenges. Like the challenge this bottle of hobo vodka taunted me with today.

You just. don't mess. with this vest.