(written on the 7th from notes taken previously)
Got up relatively early. Spent some time on my dailies, and saw Heather off to work.
And then I dove in again, day 4 of cleaning and rolling the foundation.
Today left me absolutely hammered.
The actual foundation portion of the job took a good long time because there was so much Red dirt sort of ground into the previous sealing coat. In some sections, I ended up taking a toothbrush and water trying to clean up as much of the dirt as I could get out in order to ensure the second coat would stick.
Heather let me use her sunscreen today, so I managed to finish the day without getting sunburned again. 🎉
Stopped working during the middle of the day to have some leftover smoothie.
Heather came home for lunch, and I showed her what I had done for the day thus far.
Didn’t feel like much progress at all, but I’ve been busting my butt, and she’s been super grateful.
It was a long, hard, exhausting day. I finished with the main rolling portion somewhere around 4:30 or 5:00, with time to finish the last bits that I needed to get done, a second coat to over the lower portions of the first layer of blocks that had chunks taken out of them, and time to go back through and dab on little bits of sealant anywhere I might have missed while rolling.
But I just stood there or sat there, absolutely spent. I knew I had time to finish what I needed to finish before the temperature dropped, but I just couldn’t… do any more.
I was absolutely exhausted, both physically and mentally.
I wanted to finish. Everything had worked out just as I had hoped, darn it, I had time before the rain came tomorrow and the temperatures dropped, perhaps bidding a several-month goodbye to temperatures acceptable to adding more sealant.
I had a couple hours left, and I could get what I needed to get done in that time.
But I had nothing left. 😕
I couldn’t get myself to do anything more. 😞
I thought maybe I could eat some dinner and go back out with my headlamp on, so I started with that approach and hope, but…
I was done. I’d hit a wall, and I was done.
Heather, for her part, was encouraging me to call it, being worried about my health. She’s great like that, more worried about me than about the job. 🤍
Ate dinner with her. Was totally slap happy, something that sometimes happens when I’m dehydrated and completely exhausted.
My sister made another smoothie, and then I headed out to Rover and vegged. I just couldn’t get myself to do any more.
Gratitude to My Father:
- I’m grateful I was able to get done what I got done.
- I’m grateful to my sister for encouraging me to take care of myself, come what may with the house.
- I’m grateful to be done with the longest and hardest portions of the basement exterior wall sealing work.
- I’m grateful that the forecast shows that there is another day next week that might have temperatures in the range that would make it possible to add more sealant.
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 