Wow what a shitty session. My legs were dead from shredding yesterday and my day today, which is quite an interesting story if I do say so myself.
So... today was interesting, but the story starts about a week ago when my next door neighbor (who always asks me to do odd jobs so that he can help me pay for college and trips) asked me if I'd like to make some money. I said sure and he called me over to his backyard and told me that his septic system had been overflowing occasionally lately and that he was paying some guy to come in and dig up the ground and get to the septic tanks and figure out what was causing the problem. He asked if I wanted to help, and I hesitated, but I said yes. So today was the day that I was supposed to meet the guy and work with him on my neighbor's backyard. I must say I was not only nervous, but PRAYING for a thunderstorm (weather.com sucks, it totally made me think it was going to rain all day and the rain held off until after I saw Star Wars Episode III which ROCKED!!!). So anyways, I make myself get up after shredding till 2:30 AM and sleeping for only a few hours, and I head over to my neighbor's backyard with two shovels and a pair of gloves.
I'm greeted by an older man who appears to be between 55 and 60. He says "My, you look like the man for the job!" and I say "We'll see." Because I really had no idea what I was going to be doing. Well, we get to the site and he's already started digging a hole and I'm like, okay. So he starts explaining to me how septic tanks are set up and I'm kind of trying to understand, but not fully getting it. Anyways so basically there's a box where the solids stay, and then a box that filters out the solids from the liquids, and the liquids continue on their path and then they get to a large tank at the end of the line. That's what it is essentially anyways. So we dig up the distribution box first (the filter) and when he opened the lid, I swear to god I almost vomited because I really wasn't expected to be greeted by red goop that was bubbling. But anyways he decides that the distribution tank isn't the problem, so we dig up the next box which is a liquid box. That one I basically dug up myself, which is good experience... I'm not really used to digging holes. Especially not to go wading through sewage waste. But anways we pry open the lid and the concrete has become like, soft! He was able to poke a hole through it. That's bad! So then we got a hose and we stuck it in the distribution box and let it flow into the next box, and we notice that it flows through fine, but then backs up in the second box! So he explains that the two pipes that are supposed to carry the liquids further seem to be backed up.
Around that time my neighbor stopped by to check our progress and we showed him what we had done, and they were about to make me dig like a HUGE ASS HOLE to figure out whether it was the two outlet pipes that were clogged or smashed, and I luckily got out of it because the septic guy figured out that it would be a lot more work than he originally thought (thank god I was not about to dig a huge hole by myself, I was already tired). We looked in the solids tank, and that was DISGUSTING.
Oh man. There were ants crawling all over the lid, and a slug, and it was just sick. I'm not a big fans of bugs or large amounts of feces. Well, anyways... so then the decision is made that I'll fill in the holes, because my neighbor and the septic tank guy had to leave, so I filled in the holes and went home. I went over to my neighbor's house later to collect my money and I got $80, which is sweet. I worked 3 hours, and so he paid me $20 an hour plus a $20 tip. Sucks though... I owe $45 to my piano accompanist from my jury like a month ago. But oh well, now I can buy the cigars I've been wanting to... and have a little money for food in New Orleans next week!
I totally forgot to mention that the septic guy was a vietnam vet and he told me a lot of cool stories. Oh yeah and when I asked how long he'd been working on septic tanks and he said 1981, I said that that was a few years before I was born... and he said, "Yeah, I was knee-deep in shit before you were born." And that kind of made my day.
Anyways so that was my day, but I wish I could've played footbag some more... I just got discouraged and gave up. Tomorrow Chris is coming up from Laurenburg so we're going to probably have a shred session and watch a movie, and that'll be cool!
. But nevertheless, I'm working both sides clippers more because I want to actually be able to throw them into my game later on.
