Pride of craft

In the waiting room at the doctor's office yesterday.  Two men, casual acquaintances meeting there by chance, talking shop, which means either laying carpet or hanging sheetrock, I missed the beginning of their conversation.  First man is seated with his back to me and another row of waiting patients behind him and between us so I can't see him.  Second man is standing.  He's on the short side, round-faced, in his fifties, his brown ponytail's going gray.  Wears glasses, a small ear ring, an unzipped black hooded sweatshirt over an olive green fleece pull-over and faded black jeans with long white patches of dried paint or plaster or possibly glue running from his knees to his cuffs.  His black workboots are splotched and spotted with whatever it is streaking his pant legs.  He keeps one hand half tucked into his pants pocket.  His other hand is always at work, rubbing his cheeks, his chin, the back of his neck, smoothing back his hair from his high forehead.

First man: Want me to say something?  Put your name in?  You're available, I know we can use you.  It's a big job.

Second man:  Sure.  Tell him.  Tell him I can do three hundred yards without thinking.

First man:  That much?

Second man:  Sure.  I used to go in, IBM would have me in, and I'd do three hundred yards in a night.  Doors included.

First man:  You'd get the doors in?

Second man (looking a bit sheepish):  I'd get 'em done.  (Reaches up under his ponytail to rub the back of his neck.  Grins.  His eyes light up with pride.)  Looked damn good too.

Comments

[MikeT]

Probably trim work. That's what it sounds like to me.

[actor212]

Or painting.

[Ian Welsh]

I used to paint houses. Was taught by an old German who showed me how to grip a paint brush, how to make the strokes. Told me to do it exactly the way he showed me and not worry about how long it took.

So I did. Got to the point where I could trim by eye and hand, didn't use tape at all. But if I'd tried to be fast first, instead of doing it right, I would only have been fast, not good.

The real lesson, of course, was not about painting.

[topsy, part one]

"Yards" usually means concrete (or excavation, though he doesn't seem to be talking about that). Trim is in linear feet and paint is square feet.