This morning I got to work around 8am, after breakfast, devos, and prayer, and I was pleasantly surprised to see one of the "seniors" of the crew already sitting at the table. When I sat down, the supervisor walked in and started writing names on the board.
After he was finished writing names on the board, he handed out a couple pieces of paper outlining our job for the Rosebud dam. We had to fix a floating platform. Pretty sick. As he was explaining it, I was getting super excited to hang out in the water and fix this thing.
Before we could go out to the dam, we had to wait around for at least half an hour for the rest of the crew to walk in. So when we were finished talking about the dam project, Ernie made egg and bacon sandwiches for everybody. That was awesome! I ate pretty quick, cause it was super good. Then we found out that they weren't ready for us at the dam. Shoot. There goes that project for the day.
Since we were out of materials for the fence project, the only projects we had left were running estimates for four projects that people were requesting from us. We had to wait until 10am for the first estimate, so that required us to just kinda chill for about an hour more in the office.
Now I know some of you are wondering how it's possible that I could just chill with an entire crew for 2hrs in an admin office. Well let me tell you. Those names that were being written on the board are the names of people who aren't coming into work today. Four out of the six names on the board were the four directors of the office. Brilliant.
So their absence left us to sit and twiddle our thumbs. At least until the first estimate, which finally rolled around at 10am. We packed up five people for a job that should only take two, and drove out to the first house.
The first house was super simple. We just ran the measurements, drew a map of the yard/fence, and told them we would get back to them in a couple days. We had to hand in our info to the supervisor so he can run an estimate for the cost of the job.
Afterwards, we had to go out to an officer's house in Antelope to run an estimate for a chain link fence for his dogs. His yard took a little longer because it was kind of awkwardly shaped, but we got it done in probably 15min and we were on our way.
Before leaving the Mission/ Antelope area, we stopped at the Mission Pawn Shop, the Rosebud Exchange, PJ's Perfect Pizza, and NAPA auto shop. Why? Because we needed to kill two hours, and we didn't have anything else to do. Depressing, huh?
We stopped back by the office around 12pm, because one of the little guys came in late to work, so we had to pick him up. Since it was lunch time, three of us took a lunch and the other three went to mow a lawn that we had to do. Finally! Some efficient thought processes happening here.
I ran home quick to grab a sandwich and went back to the office. I got there and everybody was sitting around except Ernie, who was staining a picnic table we built a couple days ago. I asked how the lawn was and they told me it was already done. What? Already done? You mean to tell me that we finally started thinking efficiently and we ended up wasting gas and time anyway? We can't win.
We sat around for a while waiting for Ernie to finish staining the picnic table-- more people could have helped but a mix of a lack of initiative and a lack of rags stopped us. Then we talked a while about what we wanted to do about the last two estimates, and decided that we would stop and do the last fence estimate and just mow the last lady's lawn since an estimate would waste a trip.
Searching for the last house that we needed a fence estimate for was quite the adventure. We had a set of directions, couldn't get a hold of the lady on the phone, and absolutely could not find the house. We were given a double digit house number, but all we could find were three digit house numbers. Tough. Lo and Ernie decided to give up so we went out to Spring Creek to do the lawn.
When we got out to Spring Creek (a 45min drive from our office), we thought we had found the place that needed the mowing, but the driveway had barbed wire across the front and it didn't look like anybody was home. We kinda stared at the house for 5min or so, then our driver just decided it was not worth going down there, so we left. 45min later we were back at the office to stand around for half an hour. I left a 3:30pm.
So basically my 8hr work day was literally spent riding in a car or wasting time in pawn shops... And I'm not even getting paid. However, the other five guys were. How is this possible!? Management. It's easy to blame the workers for not having more initiative or not working hard enough, but when all four directors don't even show up to work, I don't blame the crew! Dang. Pretty frustrating.
Even in my frustration, it's important for me to remember the fact that God is in control. He's in control of my life, the lives of others, and even the way a crew decides to spend their work day. His hand is over me, so I can't complain. I know He had a divine lesson to teach me, and I am so thankful for the opportunity He blessed me with.
But what a crazy day. I spend the last half of my day running around Two Strike trying to find info about a church and whether or not there were services happening this Sunday and trying to find Francis who has the keys to the Two Strike community building. No luck again. We'll see what tomorrow holds.
For dinner, Stephen and I went out to dinner in Valentine with some of the teachers that he works with, which was awesome! Unlimited ribs on Thursdays for just under $10. What a steal. And they were good too!! That was a good time overall, but we had to leave to get back for a team meeting.
Our team meeting was focused on our readings from When Helping Hurts and we had a very cool discussion over that. Now we are all just ready for bed, and a Sabbath tomorrow. Nobody is going out to their sites. We are all just staying here, finishing up last minute prep work for LJ, then we are making home made pizzas and watching a movie together. Sounds so wonderful.
I don't have a whole lot more. I hope you enjoyed reading about the unique day I had today. God Bless.
Love,
Brenden
Things I learned today:
1. God can use even the most frustrating situations to His glory.
2. Stephen's car and my car have the same top speed.
3. Jonny's knee is super ticklish.
4. John 15:4
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