Yup, I know. It is hard to believe. I was able to squeeze in three hours of work between 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM today.
My ability to work productively has been sliding steadily downward each day. Yesterday was a recovery day. I spent the afternoon watching the fire burn. Not very aerobic but I was whipped by noon.
In my defense, it has been warm outside. Not Alabama warm but warm enough that I was picking jobs in the shade or had very-low calorie burn. Mrs ERJ nodded her head sagely when I told her that was why I chose to mow on the north side of the barn today.
The weed-whacker ran out of string and I needed to restring it. Sweat stings when it runs into my eyes.
This looks like it will be a three-showers day.
The good news is that we are swimming in garden produce. I cannot keep up with the cucumbers. Other than a tub of pickles in the fridge, I am not even trying. I pick them and chuck most of them. Maybe one of my sibs will step-up and host the reunion next year.
Equity and Energy
One of the inherent conflicts within the Progressive party is masked by cheap energy. In their world-view, everybody can do every job with equal ability. In their mind, 60 year-old Asian woman with fifth-percentile female stature and muscular can do the same amount of physical work that a 25 year-old African-American man with 95th percentile musculature and stature can do.
The Progressive mind can pit those two players in the workplace and in their mind both are winners.
That is because of electric motors, hydraulics, power steering, lift assists and so-on. The tiny woman can do the job because of the motors and the large, young man doesn't even break into a sweat. They get paid the same because they can both do the job (at the cost of the additional equipment, maintenance and energy used).
In an austere environment, that tiny, older lady is going to have rotator-cuff repetitive-motion injuries and be down for the count if she tries to keep up with the big, young guys on the job. On the flip-side, that young African-American man will suddenly be a valuable commodity for many kinds of jobs. In fact, he will be in very high demand and have status and prestige.
There are still a few jobs that are not automated, paving and road-construction for instance.
I have vivid memories of watching a young man lugging two, 5 gallon buckets filled with tools. He was following a young lady (with tight jeans) who was carrying a can of spray paint. She marked. He did everything else. Somehow I doubt that they traded jobs at lunch.
I asked a guy who worked in blacktopping about that. He admitted that it didn't seem fair. In fact, he had talked to his boss about it. His boss said "I like having girls on the crew because I get more work out of the men because they are trying to impress them. That, and the language cleans up and there are fewer fights."
Maybe. But I bet the fights that do happen are ten times more vicious; trip to the hospital or morgue vicious rather than an ice-pack or a couple of Tylenol vicious.
"This looks like it will be a three-showers day"
ReplyDeleteI worked overseas for a while. Yup, three showers. I did not enjoy my time there. Gimme days with a high of 65, tops.
"That, and the language cleans up and there are fewer fights."
Even in MI deer camps?
Many years ago when I was raising angora goats [mohair] and sheep when we were making hay I would want my daughter, and any other girls I could hire, to help on the wagons because the boys would work much harder and I could get more of them working. The blacktopping guy is right. Nothing like sweaty girls in shorts and halter tops to instill work ethic. ---ken
ReplyDeleteThere are several miles of interstate four lane under heavy construction near me, and multiple exits are being converted into roundabouts.
ReplyDeleteThe crews doing the exits seem to be different contractors for each exit.
I have generally avoided all of it. but one day a local errand required me to pass through one of the exits under construction. The construction crew had very attractive young females as flag persons. They had a ton of spirit and we’re actively waving cars through smiling and waving and laughing, and having a good time.
That exit became part of my daily commute until the project was complete!
If you slice in half, lengthwise, the cukes before you chuck them. You can feed them to the chickens. Same for melons and squash. Tomatoes just break the skin when you toss it in the chicken pen. Greens, give them to the chickens. If anything is wormy - to the chickens.
ReplyDeleteJust don't give them hard stuff to peck at or they will peck at eggs.
Very few garden scraps or table scraps escape the chickens.
With the garden growing, my chicken feed bill is less.
sam
ERJ, any outdoor work here needs to happen before 0900. As I am usually gone by then, it means not much has happened.
DeleteEnergy is the great equalizer - and not just between the sexes. There is a ton of work I could not do (now, but really ever) because I lack the strength to do it currently, let alone with limited supplied energy.
Our classical pictures of smiths and farmers and stevedores being big, burly men exists for a reason, not just because it makes for good paintings and good writing.
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