Twice High Guy

I hired some muscle from Mexico at the Westside Community Action Network day labor site. I couldn't find anyone else who could deal with unpredictable work schedule.

It's hard to get the same guy several days running, which is bad because some of them are great and some of them need lots of supervision.

The hardest part in the restoration of my old house was the eaves. Eaves are the undersides of the roof that hang out beyond the house. About 30% of the boards had rotted, so Jeremy helped me on his limited free days to pull them off. It's 2 stories off the ground. It was unbelievably nasty work. Long ago, paper insulation had been blown onto the boards. A load of it dumped on us every time we ripped off an old board. The rot holes allowed for birds to build nests in the attic. We pulled the birds' nests out, together with their droppings and dead fledglings. We were attacked by bird mites. They didn't bite us, but they were so small and they crawled on us. "Is there one on me right here?" No. "How about right here? " No. "How about here? " No! It's just your imagination! "How about here? " YES! "Kill it! Kill it!!!!"

Jeremy bailed out on me after an iron window weight tried to fall out of the attic on his head.

So I hired this little Mexican guy who was a teacher of Spanish in England. It took us 4 hours or so to put up one little 2'x2' piece of plywood. He bailed out on me after while we were trying to lift an 4'X8' section of plywood up the ladder. He got too scared and I had to take him back to the Westside.

I went the next day and asked a cop, who works with the Westside day labor, to tell me who to hire. He decided I need a roofer who won't be scared. He recommended Jose. I paid Jose 70 dollars to help me put the plywood up. He was scared, too, but he was up there with me.

We talked all day. He's a smallish guy, 37 years old. He said that he's lived on the streets since he was 15. He believes in stars, but not in God. Pluto is his planet, with its irregular orbit. He said, "That's why I'm so unstable and move so often." Jose was flirting with me a little. He said that I have eyes like the most beautiful of snakes. At the moment, I was flattered, because I could really tell he likes snakes.

After working for a few hours, and made our way sucessfully along the eaves to a bump-out in the house's exterior . (It's like a small bay window.) We could no longer use my ladder there, and just had to stand on the steep section of roof above the bump-out. That area wasn't too bad when there were exposed rafters to cling to, but when we put plywood on the rafters, there was nothing to steady us.

At this point, my worker disappeared into the house for awhile. He came back smelling of marijuana. I looked at him shocked for a moment, and said, "Did you smoke a JOINT?" He said, "...Yes... I had to, so I won't fall off, because I was getting too scared. Sometimes I just have to try something and I discover I can do it!"

High on pot, high on a ladder. Twice high. Great combination. He felt more secure, but he was actually in greater danger.

Regardless, we got all the eaves done that day, and we even had time to caulk all the seams.

I really liked him, and he did great work.

I decided not to have him back, though.