Concrete hell
Filed in: Ed's blog spot
Ed the Editor's personal blog corner
On a road trip today I watched a concrete mixer tragedy in action and was reminded of another memorable concrete story!
Road to concrete hell
A truck driver with 10 tons of concrete turning gently behind him doesn't have a care in the world, until he approaches a queue of slowing traffic on the freeway. He glances at his watch to check how long till drop off time and sees he has a few minutes grace. But imagine the panic in his eyes as he tunes into local radio and realises the freeway ahead is blocked, closed and impassable due to a serious fire. And as he looks in his rear mirror, he sees he is being boxed in and can't even get on to the median to make an albeit illegal escape to get his hardening load to the site.I was laughing as I passed him in the opposite direction, putting all the pieces of the puzzle together. A little cruel, I suppose, but life is funnier than fiction at times. And 5 hours later I hear that the freeway is still closed. I wonder if the state troopers let him escape so the concrete could set in the right place?
House of concrete hell
Years ago a builder friend of mine had to lay a new solid floor in a cottage. He had arranged for three friends to help him. A couple of hours work at most, no big deal. The concrete truck arrived a little ahead of time, so the driver agreed to wait till the hired hands arrived. 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes passed but despite phone calls and assurances, there was no sign of friends.The driver ran out of patience and had to give the builder an ultimatum - dump the load in the cottage or dump it in the yard. In a leap of faith, he asked the driver to pump it in through the window and he set to work like a lunatic, leveling it out, creating a new floor. By the time he reached the point in the story where he was faced witha huge mound of hardening concrete where the lounge was supposed to be, I was in tears of laughter. He was a good tradesman, but no reputation was going to save him if he ended up with that sort of mess.
Somehow, it ended well, though, when three very embarrassed guys turned up to finish off the job. As they toiled and saved the day, builder boy collapsed in a heap outside, his forearms seized, his stress levels through the roof, but a grin of relief from ear to ear. Who needs enemies with friends like that.?!
If you ever miss a day without Ed's incisive observations, haha, you can find all past rambles here.
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