Life Lessons from my new job

When you think philosophy, great wisdom, and deep understanding of life, what do you see yourself doing?  I'm sure most of you would picture yourself sitting at the feet of a wizened old monk, soaking in the 1,000 year old nuggets of spiritual wisdom falling from his sun-baked lips?  Or maybe you see yourself taking a 3 day trek into the Amazon jungle to converse with the native, ponder life, and maybe lick a few of those toads, (you know, for science).
Well, I bet the last place you would imagine finding the meaning of life is while pouring a concrete garage pad, or cutting plywood pieces to make a mold for someone's retaining wall.  Grasshopper, let me enlighten you.
PRELUDE
Over this last year, we have been struggling to pay bills, and of course, the banks were no help.  Even though we don't have much debt, it's all very short term, and needs to be rolled into a proper mortgage.  Unfortunately, we don't have a "standard" home, and it's tough to get a mortgage on a mobile home.  It didn't help that my credit rating has taken a hit, because of some "interesting times" (as the Chinese proverb would call it) earlier this year.  The only option I have to improve my credit rating is to pay all of my bills fully, on time, and wait for it to go up.  Since we have absolutely no savings, I decided that I needed to work a part-time job.  We needed to have a couple thousand dollars just stashed away.  I had a minimum wage job for a couple of months, before I decided that my time was worth more than $11/hr.  It occurred to me that with the Great Alberta Flood only a few months behind us, there would be a need for laborers to clean up the many thousands of destroyed homes and businesses, and I was correct!  Not only that, but the construction trades have been exploding with work, and are desperate for workers.  So, I answered an ad on Kijiji, and literally, the next day, I was at work!
As a farmer, I have some limited experience with construction materials, especially wood.  I've use concrete and plaster for some projects, so I figured I would do ok.  The company I've worked for for 3 days does "form work, and flat work", which is construction-speak for walls, and floors.

LESSON 1 - SHOW UP
When I responded to the ad, the foreman emailed me an address and a time.  That's it.  So, at 8 am, I arrived at the address, and found a guy in a Bobcat, and immediately he directed me to work raking gravel.  We worked for about 12 hours that day, and during the course of the day, I learned that the foreman had asked his co-worker "Did Adam show up?  Was he on time?  Does he have a car?"  When he learned the answers, he was AMAZED, and I was amazed that he was amazed.  Why would it be amazing that I showed up?
Anyone who has/does work in the trades already knows the answer, but for the rest of you, allow me to give you enlightenment.  Unlike in the office world, construction workers and laborers are notoriously unreliable.  Men routinely fail to report for work, and don't bother calling, or giving a reason.  Just yesterday, my co-worker told me "We got a new guy starting today", and sure enough, he did NOT show up.  We found out later, that he was in some sort of legal trouble, and I found the entire situation to be quite amusing.  I just couldn't believe that someone would just...not be there when there was $23/hr waiting for them.

LESSON 2 - BE READY
My experience with concrete before this week consisted of filling some post-holes, and plastering a ferro-cement water tank.  When I was 18, I helped build a sidewalk.  So, in other words, pretty much nothing.  Despite that, when I arrived at the site, I had every hand tool I owned, steel-toed boots, hard hat, and a huge lunch.  After 1/2 hr, I was loaning tools to the two experienced guys, who had left some important items at another site.  It was immensely satisfying to say "Oh, I've got one of those, let me get it for you!".
Here's the bald truth: I had run out and purchased a bunch of these tools the day before, just in case.  I had never worn a hard hat, nor used a chalk-line.  My boots were brand new, and my tool-belt fresh off the shelf.  Despite that, when I stepped out, I looked ready, and I felt ready.  No one had to tell me to wear proper gear, or bring proper tools.

LESSON 3 - DO SOMETHING, EVEN IF IT'S WRONG
Yes, grasshopper, this is the trickiest step.  There is a saying in Swahili, "It is easier to ask forgiveness than permission".  When I showed up, I was so green, you could have used me as the background of a new Star Wars movie.  I was aware of some basic facts, like, concrete is hard, nails go pointy-end down, don't hammer your thumb, etc, but there are all kinds of things I was completely ignorant of, and more than once I felt like a complete numbskull.  None the less, I watched intently every single time the experienced guys did anything at all.  When there was any kind of task that looked like it needed to be done, I jumped in.  A couple times the foreman had to say "No, it's ok, I'll do that", which is a polite way of saying "You're going to screw it up, dummy." I still jumped in, each time.  Eventually, they trusted me with some tasks that were more advanced, like hand-floating the concrete, vibrating, and cutting plywood forms.
The second day, the boss left me on my own, with instructions to strip some wood off the concrete on a house basement.  It was very physical work, and I was already tired from the day before.  I accidentally chipped a small piece off of a driveway in my efforts to dislodge a stubborn piece of rebar.  Rather than hide it, I just said, "Yeah, that was me."  The site foreman made an angry face, shook his head, but...that was it.  I offered to repair it (right, with my sooper skillz), and apologized, but there wasn't really anything else to be done.  I owned my mistake, and offered to make it right.  Take that!

SUMMARY
Lesson 1 - I cannot emphasize how important this is.  When a promise exits your lips, such as "I will be there at 8 am", your physical body had better be there at 8 am, or better yet, 7:50!  Your reputation in this world is more valuable than your skills.  Anyone who has ever called a plumber will agree, a man who keeps his word is pretty rare.  If you can't make it, CALL!  Give an alternate time, and then be early for the next week.  You could be the most skilled concrete-man in the world, able to hand float a statue of Michelangelo, or power-trowel a floor using only one hand, but if you are unreliable, then you are useless.  Simple as that.
SHOW UP

Lesson 2 - Did you know that Youtube has 18 videos showing you how to replace the brake pads on a late model Toyota Corolla? There are probably 600 videos on basic construction techniques, like "How to hammer a piece of wood to another piece of wood, using a large metal object with a flat spot, commonly called a 'hammer'."  If I hadn't been at least partially aware of basic construction techniques and terminology, I probably would have been completely useless, instead of just partially useless.  I further "cemented" (see what I did there?) my usefulness by having all kinds of inexpensive, yet very handy tools, like a hammer, belt, and putting them into action when they were needed.
BE READY

Lesson 3 - On day 1, the foreman of our small, ragtag team had a little job on the side.  Nothing big, just pouring 2,000 square feet of concrete.  Did I mention that we had already worked a full day?  Right.  Every single task that I was asked to do was completely new to me.  The foreman kept a steady stream of commands going, "Lift the rebar, tap the edges, spray the concrete, hammer this peg down, get me a sandwich!" And I was literally tripping over my boots to keep up, at least at first.  After the second hour, I was doing all of the above, without being asked.  When I saw a task, I tried to do it.  The two guys I worked with seemed very impressed, not with my sooper skillz, but with the fact that I DID something, even if it was fairly useless.  We all knew that they could have done 95% of the work without me, but that 5% made a difference.  Concrete is an unforgiving master, caring not for your schedule.  When it hardens, it cannot be "unhardened".  I allowed these guys to concentrate on the skilled tasks, while I handled the dummy work.  We got the job done, and I earned a crisp plastic $100 bill.  Yeah, we have plastic money here in Canada.  It has a little window in it too, you can see through it.
DO SOMETHING

Is this a complete list?  No.  You also need to have an aptitude for learning, a humble attitude, the ability to both lead and follow, and it doesn't hurt to be in good physical shape.  This is just a few lessons from my first week working a demanding job

Alberta Floods: an on-the-ground perspective

Before I begin, let me first say that, although I did lose some things in the flood, my home and family were perfectly safe and dry here in my community (I don't live in Calgary), and we were not personally hurt.  I've spoken to hundred of people who lost nearly everything, and most of them will never be able to get enough government help or insurance money to cover the loss.  I feel so very bad for all of those people, and I've been praying for you every day!  In Alberta, insurance does not cover flooding, obviously it would be useful, but flood insurance is very expensive, and is almost non-existent, at least for homes and cars.

On Friday, June 21st 2013, 10+ Alberta communities experienced flooding on a scale so devastating, that more than 30% of people had to be evacuated for their safety.  One town, High River, was literally emptied. No living human was permitted to remain, on threat of arrest!  It sounds drastic, but four people have already been confirmed dead, and the entire town was under water.  The whole thing.  13,000 people may have lost homes, businesses, cars, and possessions, and a few lost their lives when the surge came through.  A huge number of those homes were buried up to the roof in water, and those houses will almost certainly be torn down.  I would not be surprised if the entire town was reduced in long-term population by half or more, simply because people cannot afford to rebuild!  The idea is staggering, especially considering that High River is one of my favorite places to shop.  It has (had) a nice grocery store, farm store, and it was small enough that you can cross the entire thing in minutes.  I had friends there, who almost certainly are homeless right this second!

Well, I won't drag the "emotional" part out.  You get the picture, and it sucks no matter what angle you see it from.  Here is my perspective on flooding:

People are funny creatures.  We have access to amazing technology, we can send pictures across the world in milliseconds, speak any language with the miracle of Google Translate, and access the sum total of human knowledge from a device that fits in your pocket, yet most of us use that technology to take pictures of our food, or make duck faces in a mirror.  If I were Nikolas Tesla, who invented AC electricity, I would be clawing my way back from the grave to rampage mankind!

So, people have all this knowledge available, and yet we fail to use it.  We fail to remember that the Bow River flooded in 1902, 1929, 2005 and minor flooding in many other years besides.  We build houses, made from sawdust and glue, with some tarpaper on the outside, right next to a river that has flooded more than 3 times in the last CENTURY, and just flooded again!  Not to kick poor High River when she's down, but they JUST had a massive flood that caused major damage, perhaps 4 years ago.  They called that one a "100 year flood", as if God had some kind of sand timer, and every 100 years he floods the river, and flips it over.  That kind of arrogance means that we place buildings so close to the river, that people can walk out their back door and stand on the bank.  Even if these flood occurred exactly 100 years apart, you are practically guaranteeing that your house will be flooded!

Insurance companies understand this much better than the rest of us.  The very reason that flood insurance is so expensive, is that flooding is virtually GUARANTEED to happen.  The only people who would buy the insurance, are the very same ones who build their house right next to water that has flooded in the past, and is guaranteed to flood again.  I wouldn't sell insurance for that!

There are two kinds of flooding.  First, it rains, and rains, and rains.  The water simply cannot drain off quickly enough, and it starts stacking up, starting with the lowest level, ie, your basement.  The watershed has a natural limit to its drainage, and this exceeds that.  The flooding occurs in all low lying areas, but everyone gets a little taste of it, either in your basement, blocked storm drains, or leaky roofs.  The biggest danger is in cities with lots of collection area, and lots of hills.  The storm water starts barrelling through, and ends up blasting out manhole covers, flooding underpasses, or causing mudslides.
Then, you have flooding caused by someone else's rain.  In Alberta, it only rained 36 mm in Calgary, but more than 140 mm in the mountains, which are the highest point.  The water flows through the watershed in a "surge" and reaches the lowest level, ie, the basement of my office in downtown Calgary (true story).  By that time, it has collected so much extra glop, that it resembles a mudslide, and leaves a 4 inch layer of silt when it leaves!

In "primitive" times, people did their farming, and planting on these flood plains.  When the rivers flooded, the silt brought all kinds of minerals and nutrients, building fertility.  It's no secret that flood plains are the most fertile land in the world.  The main difference today, is that we now build houses on those same floodplains.  I would like to suggest that this might be foolish, when combined with the following other facts: we have all kinds of technology to prevent flood water from entering our homes, and we aren't using ANY of it!  The Netherlands was actually built on reclaimed seabed.  Something like 40% of the land is below sea level, and is held back by dikes.  Vancouver has built a kind of "seawall" around some of it's more vulnerable areas to protect from flood waters.  We are capable of constructing dams that can hold massive amounts of water and last for a century.  We can divert rivers, stop them up, or widen them.  But, we didn't, and we paid the price!  $100,000,000 in damage so far, and almost certainly many, many times that.  A permanent flood wall may have cost $10,000,000, and would have been worth every penny.
Even temporary solutions seemed to have been ignored:
Many companies are selling a long rubber tube that can be filled with water, and braced in place to nearly block all flood waters.  Other products include lightweight sandbags that absorb 20 times their weight in water, and can be stacked in minutes by one person.  Placed around vulnerable doors and windows, $200 worth of these "sandbags" can prevent water from infiltrating into a basement, and could save the homeowner untold thousands.

I should probably quit while I'm ahead...after all, I deliberately left personal belongings inside my office KNOWING that it was at risk of flooding.  It was only a couple small items, shoes etc, but I could have easily moved them.  I simply didn't believe that the river could possibly get that high.

I have learned my lesson, Creator.  I will never be so arrogant again.  I hope that none of us will.

POSTSCRIPT

I would like to send some virtual High Fives to some heroes who showed real love to their neighbors, even putting their own lives in danger:

Cochrane Fire Dept - Not sure how you guys can even walk with those balls of steel, but you literally saved people lives, at the huge risk of your own!  Wading into deep moving water is usually pretty inadvisable, but with no thought to your own lives, you saved many more.

High River RCMP/Sheriffs - 48 hours of hell, and it's still going.  Good work, again, you literally saved lives, and you've watched your own homes disintegrate as well...

Calgary Civilians - Those people who the first thing they asked me, is "Where can I volunteer to help?"  Mr Pond, Mr Hallett, your selfless attitudes are commendable.

Regular people with Couches - And, who offered those couches to the people displaced, no matter where they were from, and who they were!

Mayor Nenshi, City of Calgary - I got the distinct impression that you really cared about your city, and you kept everyone informed.  That kind of devotion surely cost you something that you didn't have to give, and sets you apart from other politicians.

Calgary Fire/EMS/CPS/Transit - You did your job, and you did it well, even when your own homes were certainly at risk.  Like me, I'm sure most of you wish you could have done more, but none of us knew that it would get THAT BAD!!!

I know that so many have done so much, and sorry that I didn't mention you, but you know who you are!