Archive for November, 2008
The Home Depot Workout
Thursday, November 6th, 2008It goes something like this…
Load 18 60-pound bags of ready to mix Quikrete plus several pieces of rebar onto one of those flatbed cart thingies (1100+ pounds). Push the darn thing all the way through the store and past several male employees who must think you’re doing a pretty good job because none of them offer any kind of assistance whatsoever. Checkout. The cashier offers no assistance to get the stuff loaded into my van. Load the van. Drive home and unload 5 bags at a time onto the handtruck and cart up the drive into the back yard.
Round two…
Go back to Home Depot for the remaining 12 60-pound bags of Quikrete (720 pounds) PLUS one very heavy and awkward 94-pound bag of Portland cement. With a few pounds less and my legs all warmed up, I fly to the opposite end of the store to the only open register to check out only to hear, “OMG, did you load this by yourself? Do you need help loading it into your vehicle? Are you sure? You might hurt yourself!”
Was I in the same store? Did I run into the only employee who payed attention to the training video? Too little too late. I was all warmed up and ready to continue my workout, so I declined any offer of assistance.
Day two…
Mix, pour, spread, tamp, and level 25 bags of Quikrete. This part of the job made the previous workout seem like a cakewalk. Surprisingly once Jen and I got going on the job, we finished it in just a few hours and had the tools cleaned and were in the house by 7:30pm.
Day three…
Removed the forms. Patted myself on the back for making the executive decision to staple 3mil plastic to the forms as they easily lifted away from the slab. Did some measuring for my ghetto deck and stairs I intend to build. Drove back to Home Depot.
All I can say is this… they must have an entirely different training program for the guys in lumber than they do for the guys in the garden department, because all I had to do was look female and helpless, and the guys did most of the work. They sorted through the lumber for me, picked out the best boards, and loaded them onto my cart. They answered all my questions, did price checks, and assisted me in finding the other items needed for my project. What can I say, it was a “lite” workout day! All Jen and I had to do was load and unload the van.
Oh yeah… for all you “green” people out there who frown upon people with gas guzzling vehicles… um… I loaded ten footers into my van and had a couple feet to spare with the doors closed. So you can just kiss my ass, ok? You try doing that in your little matchbox Yugo. There was a reason why I bought the beast. My Chevy Cavalier days are way over! I often joke that my next vehicle is going to be a Uhaul!
Next post: some pics of the project.
