More Mechanics

I've bounced between four different jobs in the last four months but seem to have found a new home. I'm working on a decent sized job at NIH which looks like it'll keep me busy for awhile, and I'm happy to be so lucky!

I've spent the last couple of weeks planning out pipe runs and building racks to hang pipe on and now, as material comes in and more and more sections of the job are ready to be started, the foreman has started calling for more men to come to the job. This is always an exciting time for me. You never know who's coming out to help--perhaps it's someone you've worked with before or maybe it's someone new. Maybe it's someone you're going to be working with for the next year or more. You never know!

Two mechanics arrived this week to help on the project and it's been great. Both guys have been with the company for awhile, but none of us have ever met before. We're all mechanics, and it's like we all speak the same language. I'm learning that a lot of what a mechanic brings to a job is intangible. They're not intimated by the size or difficulty of different tasks, they approach problems which calm and reason, and they bring the "can-do" attitude which comes from experience (the "have-done!"). I know that these qualities come from experience, just like speed does, and it's fun to meet more people who've been around the block and bring that sense of capability to a job.