Besides WEATHER, those are the reasons that I don't miss working in construction jobs. Injuries happen easily in the construction field and it doesn't matter what you are doing or where you are doing it. It also doesn't matter how old or young you are OR how experienced or in-experienced you are at the job.
Work OR household, my 2 rules are that I won't do plumbing or electrical! I will replace a light fixture and/or ceiling fan, but ONLY if I am just replacing the fixture, not re-wiring anything. I'll plunge or snake a drain if it is clogged, tighten things or replace them when needed in the toilet tank. I even do that at work all the time. Otherwise, let the pro's get shocked, scalded or drenched.
I've worked in concrete framing, pouring, slabbing, surfacing and foundations; house-painting (indoors and outdoors); parking lot marking (painting the lines); floor installation of nearly every type; floor re-surfacing of nearly every type also; fence building (wood and chain-link); sheetrock/drywall/wood plank installation and finishing; structural framing; carpenter; woodworker; and I'm sure I've forgotten a couple. My entire work with electrical is replacing old light fixtures with new ones and my plumbing history is seating a new toilet in place of the old one or replacing the innards of the tank. In my current job, I occassionally tighten things on/in toilets and sinks to keep them from making a mess. I've done a lot of things in my nearly 40 years now. BUT, I still have all of my fingers and toes, as well as all other body parts. Caution is key in those types of jobs.
I even spent some time building pallets for GE (General Electric) to strap their monstrous computer servers and mainframes to for shipping in tractor trailors. That was the most boring job I've ever had! Even though I was very valuable to the company in that spot, I was SO bored there. I "wasted" 8 hours a day there all by myself in the woodshop waiting for specific orders for pallet sizes to come in just to give me something to do. I hate wasting time! It was fun at first, but that was b/c they were so far behind after having no one in that position for a couple of months. For the 1st month, I had thousands of pallets that needed to be re-sized to hold smaller payloads, while also building the special-order pallets as they came into the shop. I guess I was just too good at that (or way too fast) b/c I ran out of things to do after that first month. I already had another part-time job in the evenings (same one I still have and have done for 17 years now), so getting up WAY early a couple of days a week to do nothing but sit on my butt drove me crazy (only figuratively). I like to be moving when I'm at work. I guess the jobs I listed earlier prove that point, but I don't like to be sitting unless I'm at home. I could never deal with an office job sitting at a desk, unless my knees or ankles give out on me. If they didn't have a rotating crane in the woodshop though, I might not be using certain body parts now. Some of those pallets weighed over 200 pounds all by themselves. I was the only person in that building and it was completely separate from the rest of the facility. If a pallet crushed me, no one would know until they came in to check on their pallet.
Then again, my joints are the parts taking the beating from my physical jobs. I have one bad knee already (started with a high school basketball injury), but I just keep moving along and dealing with it. As my body gets older, I have noticed that minor injuries take much longer to heal. My back has held up surprising well though, considering that most of my first jobs were as a stock clerk in grocery stores and hard physical labor in the concrete industry. The knees and shoulders aren't doing so good though. It's very easy to pull or over-stretch a muscle or tendon in either of those and it takes a long time to heal now!
Young guys on here, take heed of the advice in this thread! Don't think you can go forever just b/c you seem to always be healthy!!! I am very healthy too, but that doesn't stop my body from telling me way too late that I over-did something I didn't think I was doing. I've only had the flu twice in my life and I missed one day of school the 1st time in 7th grade (1990) and I missed one day of work the second time in 2008. But I have never had a flu shot! I got bronchitis once when I was about 14 or 15 and I broke my ankle in a car accident when I was 16. I didn't miss any days of school for those. I DID miss work for the ankle, but I could not do the job on crutches. That led me back to concrete work when I could walk on my own again. The rest of the jobs were just for experience of something different to gain knowledge and have something different to do. My current job is great though. I am really good at it and it gives me the exercise that many people would have to pay for a gym membership to get. But I get paid FOR doing it!]
Ranfan, I hope you heal really quick from the water burns! I certainly wouldn't have done that. I'd have much rather cleaned up the mess from the water than cleaned up my hand for weeks.
NO PWE's EVER!!! PLZ PM me 1st before sending any offer. ONLY selling cards as of March 2024. No trades or purchases right now.
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Largest total PC card collections by Team, then Athlete (as of 3/22/24):
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