ListWise

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Its Just Not Fair

Prior to me taking a new job last fall I’ve primarily worked in outside sales type jobs for the past 15 years. This is the type of job where you spend most of your day visiting clients at their place of business. What this means is, I never really worked in an office setting with the same people every day.

I don’t think it is any coincidence that in all of that time with my previous jobs I could count on one hand the number of times I got sick, and still have several fingers left over. I just never got sick. When I started this new job full-time last October I joked with one of the woman there how it felt like I was now working in a petri dish and I’d probably get sick every other month to make up for my long string of healthy living. The Universe has a way of balancing things out.

Well, that seems to be coming true, and it is more than just a little annoying. About a month ago it was MLK Day and I had Strep Throat for the entire 3-day weekend. It was no fun at all. The sore throat alone would have been enough to make me miserable, but with the 3 days of high fever it felt like I had fallen through a trap door in hell.

Now, its President’s Day weekend and I’m sick again. Yesterday I got all of the beadboard, and the weather is sort of cooperating (Around here this time of year that means that we are not experiencing torrential downpours). The plan was to get all of the nails removed and get the caked on dirt off and get it ready for installation. I was really looking forward to this project and now I’m not sure I’m up to it.

Its all very frustrating. I may still be able to get something done. I’m sick, but not as sick as I was for MLK Day. Today, I’m headed over the some peoples house whom I met through my blog. It is sort of a Worlds Collide kind of thing. Joel stumbled on my blog somehow and has left a few comments and we’ve exchanged a few emails. I’m going over today to look at his newly refinished redwood floors.

I’m just dyeing to seem them. Most people chose to cover the old floors with carpet, and there is nothing the matter with that. This will be only the second house I’ve seen where they sanded them down and refinished them, although I’m sure others have done it. Redwood is a soft wood, even the old-growth stuff, so most consider them not suitable to be finished in this way. I can’t wait to do mine.

To make this an even more of a Worlds Collide sort of thing, with me going over to someone’s house I met through the blog, is that fact that I’m 99% sure I’ve worked with his wife as well. I was doing some freelance computer work for a friend and I had to stop at the first of the year because my own job got too intense. My friend found someone new and I’m pretty sure it is Joel’s wife, although I’ve never really met either of them.

Only in a small town, right?

7 comments:

Ginechka said...

Hope you feel better. (Same thing happens to my daughters, they're sick every Christmas and Spring break.) I liked your petri dish reference. I once worked in a bldg. built in 1900, I think we were on the 12th floor. I'd open the window and sit on the window sill. Too bad we can't do that anymore! Less illness, more fresh air, bring back the paperweight, I say!

Anonymous said...

I feel your pain. Moved to NC three years ago. Before that it no colds and no flu. I have had two colds since then, one of gave me nosebleeds from sneezing too hard.

Stress was a big part of it. Networking job went bye-bye in the middle of a real estate swap, and that was that. Had to do the equity refugee bit. I be a self employed house banger now. Loving it as I like to fix houses.

Redwood is pretty when freshly sanded and unfinished. I made some paneling (The old fashioned kind) with my great uncle. We even milled the moldings. We did wonder how to finish it so it wouldn't darken or yellow with age.

I have a yellow pine floor. It's Long Leaf as opposed to Loblolly. It's not as soft as most evergreens but not hard as oak. The last batch I brought was already finished with aluminum oxide so it's pretty tough. Before that, it was a lot of polyurethane coats after getting it in. It holds up well.

Take pictures of that floor if you can. Much interested how it turns out.

Bones said...

Bummer on being sick, man! I sympathize.

Since you're in, did you see the Restore & Preserve supplement in today's Times-Standard? "Stick-Eastlake: That glorious North Coast signature style"

Anonymous said...

This has not a lot to do with your topic, but this is your latest post so I will comment here.

You may have noticed your house is the subject of today's Architectural Treasure Hunt in the Restore and Preserve section of today's Time-Standard newspaper. There are lots of great details that could have been featured, but this is one of the neater ones.

Ron

Greg said...

Gail,

i know, big surprise when you put 50 people in a room with no fresh air and they start getting sick

Rukkfrotz,

I think stress might have something to do with it. I took on some new responsibilities after the first of the year and the last month and half have been very stressful.

Bones, I did see that and I had to laugh. I wonder if they've been reading my blog and tried to help straighten it all out. Even though they don't say, I think one can still call the really narrow ones "Stick Town Houses" and be accurate.

Ron,

Well, that was the first thing I looked for when I gto the paper.

Anonymous said...

Good luck on the redwood floor. We left our bare for two years and I was really surprised at how much it dented from just ordinary use. It is simply too soft to be durable as uncovered flooring. If you look at all the older houses here you will note that whenever a floor was intended to left uncovered it was pine.

Redwood floors after receiving a good finish can look handsome, and even dented can look OK as I have noticed in a couple friends houses, but it will dent, and you will have to be prepared to live with that.

Ron

Greg said...

Ron, I would out-right disagree with a lot of what you said here, but I've written about sooo many times on this blog, I won't go in to it again here.

Besides, I'm still too damn sick to get into a debate at this point.