Oh, I could never do that

A man came in last night who I hadn’t seen in a while. I asked him what he was doing these days and he said he was roofing. As we talked he explained that he didn’t get paid by the hour but by the square. "By the square? Do you use a nail gun." “Oh yeah.”

I told him I used to roof and that we just used a regular hammer. “Oh, I could never do that” he said. I laughed and told him how I hit my finger so often that it ached for a year after I quit and that I was pretty sure I probably broke it.

I went on and told him that I helped this man frame his house and how we put the roof trusses up by hand – one man on each end; one would climb the ladder and place his end on the frame, and the other would do the same; then we would tie a rope to the peak and pull it up straight. “Oh, I could never do that” he said.

I said, “You probably have the bundles (of shingles) brought up to the roof by a lift, don’t you?” He said, “Yes.” I laughed and said, “Man, we had to carry the bundles up the ladder ourselves.” He shook his head, “Oh, I could never do that. That’s too physical.” I replied, “Ha, yeah it was physical!”

A little later on I recalled something I wished I had told him, how Willie Metzger, who at the time was older than I am now, would carry two bundles at a time up the ladder! After that I spent some time remembering Willie Metzger (and his wife Jean, and their son Carl). I liked that brother.

Sometimes, something pleasant happens in the middle of the night.