I had such a workout yesterday. Instead of my regular sleep-in late Saturday, I woke up and got ready to work again. But instead of dressing in a fancy suit, I dressed in old jeans, ripped working shoes and a regular long sleeve shirt. My father, brother, and I were ready by 8 a.m. and so we went to work with my cousin Diego.
At 9 a.m. we started working. The roof was tall and slanted; I knew I wouldn’t get up there. I’ve never been fond of heights however when the roof is sort of plain I make the effort to help up there, but not this time. I didn’t feel so useless however, as the other four people who could do roof work got up there.
At first my brother and I watched the guys climb up there like spider men, then as the trash went down the roof we watched that, we helped as we could bringing tools, materials, and drinks to the pros. After they got down with one side, the amount of trash was much that it covered the grass. We started picking it up, big pieces first and left everything else on sailcloth to pick it up later. For hours we did this, it was longer than I initially thought. After we were done with one side we went to the other, however we had to take trips to the trash dumpster this time. And with time the trips got tougher, our legs were giving out, I can feel the numbness of my legs now as it’s hard to walk, every time we go roofing though I can expect this.
It’s a terrible feeling when you see someone fall from such a height, while my brother and I were on break, we sat on a bench and watched the guys work. Two of them were stepping on the same 2×4 wood that was holding them while they walked on the roof, and the thing gave up on them and broke. Incapable of holding anything they both fell down as we watched from a distance, impotent and useless, we seemed so slow when trying to run to see if they were okay. A few scratches and back pain it was, and they both were okay, but the scare was enough. It’s nothing like the movies, usually things like that are never like in the movies, more like in books though, when you read it on a book that you’re into you feel it more. First thing you hope is “I hope they are conscious” then you thinking “I hope they didn’t break anything”.
Well apart from that we carried some shingles onto the lifting ladder that takes them to the roofing people, who then carries them on his shoulder through a ladder that is actually lying on the roof (sounds crazy) and places it across the roof for easier retrieval. We finished at 8 p.m. and our whole body ached, we had arm, leg, back, chest workout in every way. I bet if you get someone to do that every day and drink their protein shake at the end of the day they would bulk up in no time.
– Zogyark
Zogyark 