It's hot: make it happen

So you are waking yourself up at like 4AM weekdays.  You work out, eat clean, keep your head on straight, and really want to represent the best to the world.  No matter what there are more people wanting your work than you can possibly serve.  You have a countertop project overdue because your team can stain and polish as well or better than you can, and it seems like most moments you are called to estimate, plan, and manage more than just make cool stuff. But overdue is not how you roll, and so you have to squash this quick.

So you throw the shims, adhesive, caulk gun, level, etc. in the bed of your truck and finally get a hand lifting the big top on your A-frame trailer at a time when you can sneak away and install right quick.  You cut your helper loose after about 10 minutes because you can move these things around and he's on track to be on OT by Thursday morning, and you bid tightly.  Everything looks tight and fits right with a shim or two, so you figure you can glue everything down and be home for dinner tonight and dammit...the tube of adhesive has been roughed up bouncing around the back of your truck.

So you try to straighten that junk...nothing doing.  You realize angle-grinders-spanner-wrenches are for you are like swag for a media-maven.  So you make a pool of glue and scoop it with the wrenches like this:

So you make it happen.  And you submit your invoice, and hope you get paid and can plow that money into land, molds, and training people to take the whole team to the next level.  Maybe none of it matters, but it looks cool and you are thankful for the job you made for yourself.  Here are some shots of the install:

 

Maybe all of it matters.

If we really pay attention to ourselves, we may notice that we say the same things (to ourselves or out loud) repeatedly.  One of my mantras has been “there are easier ways for me to feed my family than making stuff out of concrete”.  I say this because I feel like I could do anything, and this work makes my body hurt pretty regularly. There is no good reason to share that here, though.  

The point is, I am drawn to making things out of concrete for the same reason you are reading this.  There has to be some meaning here. Concrete is rad because the day it is placed is frozen in time. Man, material, intention, and this physical world all collide and fossilize the moment. If it is decent, it will be there 50 or so years.  Because humanity is imperfect, concrete installations are usually imperfect. Just as there are “perfect games” for pitchers in baseball, there are “perfect pours”.  Element7concrete is about the spiritual perfection available to humanity applied to concrete.  We apply it to concrete for the same reason serious street artists melt wax into walls, or etch their tag if possible. We know everything temporal will pass, but there is something in us that wants to make it last.  Something permanent. Something beautiful. We are not happy if it doesn’t come out. We need to come correct with the art within us. 

We can sear our consciouses, and pretend like non of this matters. It might not. It’s hard to really tell for the same reason it is precious. But maybe all of it matters. Maybe that part of us that gets outraged and enlivened and that is realer than anything keeps score on E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G.  Maybe not. But I will bet on it, because I know even if I lose, I will sort of win. I loved that you read all of this. I hope we can hang out someday and not be distracted at all.  I haven’t written much of anything outside of bids and project worksheets for a long time now, and I am glad we could share this time. I hope your day is just straight-up magical.