4 blisters, 2 bits of flesh missing and 3 splinters is the inevitable consequence of manual labor when applied to computer hands.
Sheds are cheapish (world steel prices jumped at the end of February), cement is not, so to cut costs I volunteered to be a concreter’s laborer for our new shed.
Dumpy, form work, key joint, boxen. These are the terms that haunted me for 4 days as we prepared the ground for the slab. A 500mm drop over the length of the shed is offset with 3 dump trucks of metal dust and road base. A Bobcat can shift a lot of dirt, but the final mile always requires a slave/Dave.
“Don’t knock the fu#@ing boxen Dave! It’s level I am not doing it again!”
“Sorry Rob”.
Saturday morning and the cement trucks are due at 7:00AM. An inch of rain overnight ensures that I am up early to clear the holes out and make sure that the case of beer in the fridge is cold. According to concreter legend, if you don’t have a cold case of beer ready after the slab is poured, the cement will crack like a botox injected face in 20 years.
4 hours later, the beer is good, hands are bandaged and the cement is setting nicely.
I keep telling clients that software development is like building a house. Get a good foundation (the db specifically) and most issues will be cosmetic. Screw up the foundation and no amount of paint is going to fix it. Imagine trying to build a 10 story building on a slab meant for a split level home. It might just stay upright, but the slightest tremor and it’s gone.
Print | posted on Tuesday, March 15, 2005 12:07 PM