EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE
EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE
After this seemingly unending refrain, a very deep resounding Mexican voice comes in low…..than gets louder as he sings/yells his song.
Maurice played this so much that it got REALLY irritating. Maurice even brought it into a restaurant we were in and asked them to play it, which they did. It is one of those crazy songs that you can not get out of your head. I would walk around singing
EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE
EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE
I wonder if our friends will ever come back. Maybe if we promise to loose the CD.
The CD was a gift to Maurice from Jose, one of the workers who helped build the bodega. They would play the CD endlessly and than gave it to Maurice as a gift when the bodega was complete. Actually there are some very nice songs on it. This is not one of them.
Jose is one of the workers now building our project. He is in command when Don Jose, the BIG BOSS, is not around. Jose is great! Cute, happy and always singing. Jose’s job the last two days has been to prepare the steel wire that will create our columns. They will also be used to make sections that will lay on top of the footings, all along the perimeters and will than be filled with cement. There are 6 other workers on this job. There are another two are up on top hand tying the re-bar.
Here is what happens. First we have solid pieces of steel wire that are about 100 meters, or three football fields long delivered. Each of these steel wires is stretched to their max with the help of a backhoe on one end (of course driven by you-know-who) and a dump truck on the other. After they are stretched out at the very front of our land, and the neighbors, they are cut into sections of varying lengths, depending on what area of support they will be used for. Most of these pieces are than bent to form squares of varying sizes. This is done with the help of a wood frame that was created next to our bodega and a large metal post; and a lot of man power. Piece after piece is done this way, in the sun, by Jose and one of the other workers. They have done about 7 or 800 so far….by hand.
Next there is the re-bar. The re-bar comes in about 22 meters, or 70 foot lengths. This also has to be cut. How do you cut re-bar by hand?? You make a cutting machine. To me, a woman, it looks kind of like a giant cigar trimmer, only it is secured to a large piece of wood and it takes two workers to push it down to cut.
So now we have re-bar and wire squares. Some of the re-bar is placed on the “square making” frame, and the ends are bent. The others are left straight. Then these are all hand carried up the cliff. UP THE CLIFF!!
Solid, heavy pieces of steel. The re-bar is put through the wire squares and hauled up.
The two guys on top than take some of the previously cut steel wire and hand tie each square onto four lengths of re-bar.
They make long rectangular sections. So far they have done all the columns for the main house as well as created the larger frames that will help secure the floors to the footings. I am sure there is a word for what these things are called….I do not know it.
Yesterday they were working outside our bodega, and Jose, as usual was singing. For fun, Maurice turned on his CD player opened his truck doors and out came:
EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE
EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE EYE
Until the day I die I will always hear in my head 6 workers belting out this song in unison. Every word, every EYE EYE EYE EYE….happy does not even begin to describe their reaction to the song. They were almost levitating; with their silvery black hands, colored this way from handling the metal, and handkerchiefs tied around their heads and shoulders to protect them from the scorching sun, they were singing and laughing and swaying to the music.
My word!! Could life get any better!!
No comments:
Post a Comment