Peninsula Habitat for Humanity

Yesterday was good. It wasn't my typical work day routine consisting of getting Starbucks in the morning and sitting at my desk for a 8-10 hours of the day. Every year, my company gathers up volunteers from our office to participate in Peninsula Habit for Humanity. This year, we had the opportunity to help build a 8 unit townhouse community in Redwood City. My day started with meeting my boss' boss in Hayward. She asked to carpool with me since we lived in the same city. I said sure. Can I say I was fake, though? Before she hopped into my truck, I switched the radio station from 106.1 KMEL to MIX106.5. Why do I do that? Was I afraid that she'd judge me by the music I was listening to? Strange. Anyway, we arrived at the work site a little bit after 8:30am. The staff at Peninsula Habitat for Humanity did their Safety introduction and finally assigned us with our duties. Jason and I teamed up once again. When the supervisor announced that our team leader was Steve we were in shock. Like dude! That's the same dude we worked with last year! Too cute. Steve recognized Jason but he didn't recognize me [sad face].

(Brief description about Steve. He is a gray haired Caucasian older male probably in his mid 60s with a tall and very very slender frame. He's very quiet, polite and quite a perfectionist. Whenever Jason and I would fubar, he would just be quiet about it. He's one of the people that when they are disappointed or upset, no words or facial expressions would be necessary. Pretty scary and intimidating. He kind of reminds me of a grandfather you would hate to piss off.)

Our first task was installing insulation pads alongside of a staircase of a 3-story townhome. Insulation is like HELLA itchy. Second task sealing in the insulation with pieces of 2x4's. That was the hardest job. Long after, it was finally lunch time. We had ToGo sandwiches, chips and soda. Yummm! Exactly 30 minutes later...OK - breaks over! I headed off to meet up with Steve. We had to finish off the sealing of the insulation panels. The job was getting more difficult as we were approaching different types of piping inside of the walls. It was very critical that I not nail in my thick 3-inch carpenter nails through the wood and puncture the pipes or else I'm dead meat. He then handed me a power drill and says, "Go ahead and drill your holes into the wood. It'll be alot easier for you to drive the nails in." Ummmmm....Sir, I've never used a drill before. Help! I didn't tell him because, I didn't want to disappoint grandfather. I acted like I had previous experience. I think I played it off pretty darn well. It was sooo fun! I was scared at first but it was fairly easy. Once we were done with the second task, third task was adding more wood to the banister. I have no idea why. Something about dry wall. I didn't bother to question. Final task. Clean up the second floor. This involved clearing up wood chips, wood planks, pieces of insulations, empty water bottles & soda cans, nails, pieces of broken glass, dirt, and saw dust, etc. Gosh, the crew that came in the day before us were slobs! I was sweeping up and sneezing at the same time. Poor allergies. That concluded our work day. I had a good time. I was tired but again it feels good to help a good cause - Building affordable homes for low-income families. It's a indescribable feeling! Oh - I forgot to add. Remember how I mentioned it was the first time I operated a power drill? Well...it was also the first time I literally handled a drill bit. Note to self - Never grab a recently used drill bit by its head. LOL! Jason was switching the drill bit to a screw bit. While he removed the drill bit, he handed it to me with the tip out there for me to take with my fingertips. I immediately took it away from him. OMG! It was HOT!! I screamed and he laughed. The funny part was that I never let go! I was scared that I'd drop it into the pile of saw dust and lose it. I didn't want to get Steve mad... LOL! I should've known. Jason is such a prankster. But, Steve didn't laugh. Gosh - he must not have a sense of humor. That or he really REALLY took his job seriously.