Casual Conversation

For next time, the masks with the exhale valve are 100% worth it. Foam-lined safety goggles are well fitting and sleek now; they work really well for things like overhead insulation removal.

I wear cut gloves all day every day and have for years. It's becoming standard on all safety conscious job sites now. Even a pair of MaxFlex is better than nothing. Then, I can still get nitrile gloves over those for wet work.

Have fun storming the castle!

Sparky here. Usually work in commercial and industrial environments, but every now and then I do sidework, and once or twice I needed to suit up in a full tyvek suit because insulation was all over the crawlspace. Shits not my favorite, but it kept it off me haha.

Working with your hands is hard, but at the end of the day you can step back and see what you accomplished. Not sure excel ever gives that sensation.

Insulation fucking sucks. If your do a lot of work with it though then it's worth it to just fork over the dough for a proper full face respirator. That makes things so much more comfortable. Even with full gear though you'll still wind up itching somewhere.

As far as the trades go though, honestly switching to a blue collar job is the most rewarding thing I've ever done. I went from IT to being a refrigeration mechanic and I love it. I might not be saving lives all that often but it is nice to be able to know that I am helping real people. Like a call I had recently getting a fridge fixed in time for a small town bar to still have cold beer for St. Pattys day. I spent hours laying on a filthy bar floor with an acetylene torch swapping out a compressor old enough to have seen the collapse of the soviet union. But when I got that thing going again the cheer from the farmers sitting at the bar made my day. Sure I didn't change any lives, but I left knowing I made people happy.

Of course the bigger emergency jobs can be very high stress. If I get an emergency 1AM callout with a down grocery store rack system and a million dollars of produce spoiling, then I'm definitely sweating a bit. But even then, it's a good stress. It's a stress that pushes me into action and my brain into gear. There's no dread in it. There's only the knowledge that people are relying on me to solve the problem and there is no one else comming to the rescue. It's a chance to prove that you can fix anything no matter how creative you need to get with that fix.

The job is often backbreaking. The job is often filthy. The job is often even dangerous. Most days I come home covered in various substances with new scratches, bruises, and/or burns in various locations only to sit down and just ache for a while. But most days I also go to bed happy and content.

I think you mean "thank you for your service"

Same. When we had our attic insulation replaced, I was incredibly impressed at the crew crawling around up in that heat and knocking it out in 1 day.

Kudos for doing it yourself and for wearing the proper PPE. Fiberglass is nasty. Good luck with the rest of the project, nothing more satisfying then a well maintained house!

Hit me up with a six pack next time