Saturday, February 4, 2012

Shop Fix-up


My old gear shop was in a brick building in one of the oldest sections of town. One of our rooms had a large basement, and attached to it was what used to be an underground entrance for deliveries. It had been boarded up and left to collect dust for decades. With space for storage running low, I took the initiative to try to clean out this derelict space to hold boxes of gear. The dusting took ages, though I perfected a method of using a shop vac on blow to clear it out. For weeks afterwards everything in the store was covered with a fine layer of dust. Then I decided to seal up the walls with a clear coat of some toxic paint, and since I was in the enclosed space I wore a respirator. I still wonder how much better off my brain would really be if I'd ever attached a filter to that respirator. My mind floated in a cloud of paint fumes for hours while I worked on it, and at one point I remember yelling at a manager through a foggy haze. That was the only time I've ever been awarded Employee of the Month.

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