He then tells me "Sig" will meet me there at 7:00 Saturday morning and gives me the address of the school. He goes on to tell me "Sig" is an Amish boy he hired out of Pennsylvania about a year ago. Right off the bat I let him know if we are cutting pipe with a hacksaw and beveling with a file, done by Monday morning is not happening. "No, no, something happened and he quit, got kicked out I don't really know, but honestly the kid is pretty damn good."
I show up this morning about 7:30 (long line at Starbucks) the truck is rolled out, parallel stand stations, pipe on the stands and fittings lined up on the ground. This twenty something kid makes a bee line for me wearing a Brown Dickey's uniform,safety vest, hard hat, safety glasses, grinding shield and ear plugs. (I'm looking around like WTF is OSHA doing here on a Saturday) He is coming full steam like he wants to fight and I'm thinking shit I'm only 30 minutes late kid. Anyway he shakes my hand, introduces himself, hands me the drawings. I walk in the school with him and I will be damned he has already dropped strings and had the floor laid out.
We commence to getting after it, I am basically just the welder this boy is in charge. I can usually out run a fitter, but this little shit is keeping my hood down, I eventually slowed the root and fat passed it, skipped the hot pass and put in a slow cap on the stands for a lot of it. (relax boys 4" and under, root in deep, cap not undercut)
Stopped for lunch at noon for twenty minutes. Sig eats hard boiled eggs with worcestershire sauce sprinkled on them. Yeah I thought the same thing, I was wrong try it.
Around 3:00 I start thinking we can knock this effing thing out today. I ask Sig if he is down with some OT on a Saturday? "Yes sir, me and my girl are trying to save up for a second car"
Long story short, I am attaching pics of a 12 hour day with really no breaks. Before you start poo pooing, remember two cut in's (lines were already drained). And I admit a lot of it was stand work, but not one boat anchor was made.
I only had a little over $300.00 in my wallet and I pulled it out and gave it to Sig and he argued for a minute but eventually took it.
If you are Amish and in Florida contact me you are hired. Oh, during lunch I asked him how he learned to fit like that and he said his family piped dairy farms and shit. So I asked, "I thought you folks couldn't use power tools?". He said they couldn't OWN them but could use them. I don't know if that is right or not, might be what got ol Sig the boot, but I am thinking it might have been the little girl he is trying to buy a car for.
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