Monday, August 02, 2010

One for Ryan

Some days, God damn! It’s slow work. I’ll get to the site 6, 7, just to be out of the heat. You know, that sun bouncing back on that plated, tinted glass that the bigger buildings use…that’ll really kill your initiative around 12 or so. Sun beating down. I’m sweating like I’m bathing in it…Those are the days when I’m cussing to myself, singing, imagining buckets of ice and beer…anything to make it go faster. And then you know it’s one of those tall bastards that takes a few days, so what’ve I got to look forward to the next day? Another day of it! Soak, rinse, wipe, dry, sweat, repeat.

Then there are those lucky days you might be out on the east side of town. Shady and quiet. Breeze blowin’ Maybe even birds singing. Sometimes I’ll act like I’m focused on the windows and the washing. Tilt my head up as I’m stretching, but really I’ll be looking out the corner of my eye. Looking inside at the workers in their air conditioning. They have all kinds of ways that they look busy.

No matter where I’m working it’s the same old show inside The same old characters. You can usually tell them by the clothes. There’s usually at least one sloppily-dressed guy. They dress up just enough to keep from getting fired. Usually don’t talk to anybody, just sit in front of their computers all day like they’re hiding in a foxhole.

Then the smaller buildings out there on the outskirts of town off the interstate, usually have one or two young-ish women, fresh out of high school or maybe a year or two older. Still young and pretty enough to dress up for work in new clothes. You can always tell them because the office seems to buzz around them One of these days I’ll invent a game where you place bets on which guy will talk to the pretty girl in the skirt first.

The boss is usually the guy who never looks up at me and the scaffolding as he’s passing by. Doesn’t make a lot of eye contact, probably to keep from having to stop and talk. They’re busy guys. I’m always amused at how the offices seem to look about the same whether those guys are around or not. They’ll get there around 10 or so on a Tuesday morning. Go straight to their office and close the door. Reappear around 4, looking at their watch. Head out to the parking lot while talking on their phone. Nice trick!

Seems like I also see a lot of guys who just kind of blend in. Scenery. They’re like the guys who would be soldiers or spear-holders in one of those Shakespeare plays. Definitely not salesmen. They don’t talk enough or dress nice enough to sell anybody anything. One time I saw one of those spear-holder fellas rub his eyes really hard after staring into space for about half an hour, scratch his hair like he was roughing up a pillow and jump out of his swivel chair in his cubicle. He walked straight past one of the dressed-up young-ish girls without even looking at her, (sure left her confused), and went over to the desk of one of the older ladies. She turned from her computer and looked up at him. He leaned in to tell her something quietly, which instantly, I mean, like super quick started the water-works. I mean she was cryin’ in seconds! He just walked away. I wish to God I knew what that was all about…what he said that would do that…

Anyway, I think they all assume I don’t see any of this out there, if they notice me at all. They probably think the walls protect them. I know more than I let on.

2 Comments:

At 3:09 PM, Blogger Ryan Williams said...

Thanks Mike! I enjoyed reading this.

I appreciate that you didn't waste any time dropping a GD :)

 
At 3:30 PM, Blogger Mike said...

Thanks for the idea!

I could definitely see this being expanded out beyond its present state of a quick exercise in writing in another voice. Who knows what kind of stuff this guy could see looking in from the outside? It's almost "Rear Window"-esque.

So, good thinking on your part!

 

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