ThePeacock.com

I SINNED again. I Cheated! I got Lazy and in a Hurry, and Ordered 4 Cubic Yards of Ready-mixed Concrete from a New Company, which turned out to be a Disaster. First of all, the Driver brought 4 Yards that were so Wet and Sloppy that I sent it back, to which they added another cubic yard of Dry Materials; but, forgot to add the extra Bag of Cement that I ordered in each Yard. Well, at any rate, that caused an Hour or more Delay; but, it finally got here, while Juvenal, my Hired Helper, Patiently Waited; and then the New Batch was entirely too Dry toward the last half of it; and, instead of the Far Distant Relative of the 300-pound Belch-more Pizza adding some Water to the entire Mixture, he climbs up to the top of the Shoot on the Truck, and proceeded to add a gallon or more of Water to what was already in the Shoot, which naturally caused the Concrete to run down and Overflow the Wheelbarrow; but, Brother Vern managed to hold most of it in the Shoot with a Shovel, while Juvenal managed to Extract the Wheelbarrow from under the Shoot, while I quickly got another Wheelbarrow under it, just to get it Overflowed, also: because the Shoot was full of Dry Concrete, as if some 6-year-old were in Charge of the whole Operation, instead of a College Dropout. So, the water in the Wheelbarrows had to be mixed into the Dry Concrete, which Wasted more Time and Effort; but, we got it done. However, while Wasting that Time, the already poured Concrete in the Forms was Hardening without being Vibrated, which Wasted much more Time while Attempting to get that done Right, which was almost Impossible. So, while I was Trying to Finish the Big Blocks (one 8' X 3' X 28" and another one 6 feet long), the Driver came to ask me where to put the Remaining Concrete that was in the Truck, which he Forgot was an EXTRA Cubic Yard; and I said to pour it beside some other little Scraps of Concrete that were over there, which were off of the Driveway; but, he Failed to get the Message through his Head, and dumped the entire DRY Cubic Yard, and more, right in the middle of the Driveway, in one HEAP! So, I left the Finishing of the Blocks to Vern, and Juvenal and I nearly Killed ourselves in the Struggle to Spread Out the Dry Concrete onto the Road, while taking Turns cleaning up the 3 Dirty Wheelbarrows and other Tools: because that was 4 Hours Later!

Then comes the Fat Boss from Smith's Ready Mix, saying that I owed him an Extra $1.25 per Minute for Overtime on the Delivery, besides the $392+ for the 4 cubic yards of Concrete. So, I gave to him $400 and said, "Let's call it Even," after I Teased him with: "Who will Pay Juvenal for waiting on your Truck that brought the WRong Mix, and who will Pay for the Time that we Wasted on the Concrete because of your Driver, who ought to go to School and get a few Classes on how to make a Proper Delivery?" Well, he agreed with the $400, and said it was all Bad for Business; and I said to myself, "It is so Bad that I will never bother to call you again!"

And now I have Wasted your Precious Time with such a Sad Story. So much for getting some Help from Machines, which turned out to be more Work than if we had done it all by Hand, the "Hard Way," in our little Concrete Mixer!

I listened to the Evening News tonight, and Discovered that I had no Problem with the Concrete at all, when Compared with what Happened in Tennessee. Indeed, 5.7 million cubic yards of Sludge slipped into a Valley, laced with Mercury, Lead, Arsenic, and whatever, and did as much Environmental Damage as 40 Alaskan Valdeez Oil Spills!

Another 3' Tier, almost finished, for 15,000 more gallons of Water. The Precise Forms are still on the Blocks that we poured yesterday.