Day Twelve
It was snowing hard when we got up this morning. On the way to the ramp we spotted two kids roller blading down an unshoveled sidewalk. Cross country roller blading must be the new fad. Unfortunately I couldn’t talk Gordo into circling around again so I could get a picture. We were supposed to get 1-3 inches by the end of the day, but by the time we got to the ramp we already had a good 3 plus inches with no end in site. Casey actually made it to the job site before us. When we pulled up he was already sweeping off the ramp. We helped him until the whole ramp got at least one complete sweep. Grover and I took off to go drill the coping. As we were leaving, one of the very nice guys from Orbit Café came out with a huge roll of plastic. Gordo set about sweeping the ramp one more time and then covering it with plastic. Drilling the coping was non-eventful. There was some sound and lighting equipment in the warehouse. One of the cases had the name “Disco Jon” stenciled on it. I wonder if he’s related to Disco Stu. On the way back, Grover had a jam session on some drums that were in storage. He had to make his own drumsticks out of broken pieces of wood. Outside, the blizzard had miraculously stopped and it was sunny again. Gordo had taken off in search of a real tarp so Grover and I cleared off the ramp and grabed a bite to eat from the Orbit. We figured we should spend some money there since they’d been flowing us free drinks for almost two weeks.
After lunch, Grover and I put up the last four sheets of the first layer. We took a break to unload an emergency infusion of 2×4’s that Gordo had delivered to satiate Carl the Ramp Critic’s lust for ribs on the transition. Gordo plans on adding them in later. Speaking of Gordo, he came back with the largest tarp known to mankind! It’s 38 x 65 feet. We could have used it last week or last night, but better late than never. Gordo helped unload the wood and then we started putting up the highest layer of the second ply that was still in the sun. We roughly cut the part that extended over the top. By that time it was getting dark and cold as hell so we cleaned up and split. As it stands, we’ve got eight sheets of the second ply left to hang and the entire layer of Skatelite, which is 56 pieces. Grover says I’ve been putting too many screws in the other layers. It’s been for a good reason though, so the top layer has a solid foundation to adhere to without having to worry about hitting all the ribs. Gordo is holding the tarp hostage from us because he’s not sure the event promoters are going to reimburse him for it. I hope it doesn’t snow tonight. Gordo has promised us that tomorrow we need only partially secure the Skatelite in place and then he can go add the rest of the screws after we leave the next day. That means we might actually get to skate a little if the weather is nice. Today was good because we really feel like we’re getting close to finishing. Also, Casey was gone for the most part, so we could listen to the namby pamby new wave station without fear of being called homosexuals.
When we got home Gordo went back to the job site to pick up a forgotten circular saw. Grover and I swapped Gordo-related work stories with Chrisitna and learned that he’s MIA a lot when they work together. She also suggested swiping his cell phone to get more work out of him. These tales match what Chris Swan told us about their time together building the Pekin, Il ramp. We chuckled as we chowed down a delcious meal that Christina made for us. Then we watched a bad sci fi movie that was made in the 60’s.
Next Day: Time’s running out!
