Seems the satellite dish horn went dry…….that’s good.  Signal is up.  May as well take down the orange tape.  Off with the hard hat. 

Imagine that!

Went up to work on the Quonset hut Wednesday, the old 1940’s post WW2 building that was the first school.  We are restoring it.  Well, maybe restoration is too strong a word.  We’re fixing it up to serve as a woodworking shop for the kids and adults of the community to build boats together.  One of the mothers wants us to donate some space to a potter’s wheel she has.  It is really her way of saying, “Throwing clay pots is not dangerous.  All the men on the island are missing teeth or fingers, usually both.  Throw pots,  Please!”   She has a point.

There are four or five us doing the work.  About four hours every Wednesday when it is not raining.  We couldn’t keep up the pace and so took the summer months off but now it is back to the grindstone.  A nice long lunch is the only respite.  As you can imagine, the project is taking a bit longer than expected.  But we’ll get there.

Of the five of us, only Dan and I can hear.  The others are pretty deaf.  Of course, even Dan and I have trouble with the portable genset running and hammering going on.  The results are pretty funny.  “Hey, Hugh, you got the length on that board?” 
“It’s plenty strong enough.  What is the length I need to cut?”  And on and on all day.

Work-site humour is a special kind of humour.  Very male.  Very funny.  Usually just short little bits of nonsense.  “Geez, better nail it up now before it gets any worse!”  “You ever use a hammer before?  This your first nail?” “Hell, this is good enough for the women we go out with.”  “Too short?!  Try trimming a little off the short end.”  “Didn’t bring the right tools, eh?  Did you check your purse?” 

At the community lunch the others (not the Q-crew) always ask about our progress.  “How’s the Q-hut coming, Dave?”  “Oh, good.  You know.  One step forward, two steps back.  Then lunch.  Then a couple more steps back until we go home.”  

“Sounds typical. Can I help?” 

“Yeah.  Can you do anything well?”  

“No.  Not really.”  

“Great, you’ll fit right in.  See ya Wednesday.  If it looks like rain, stay home.”  

“But aren’t you guys working on the inside?” 

“Yeah.  But when we were working outside we made up the rain rule and no one wants to change it.” 

Did I mention how much slower is the pace out here?