Construction Laws Of Nature

 

  Yesterday was Roof-Truss Wednesday. Do you think Mother Nature cut us any slack? Nooooo! The forecast was for rain in the morning, increasing clouds, with a possibility of thundershowers in the afternoon.
The boom truck and trusses showed up at 9:00 a.m. It was drizzling but no serious rain. We had a crew of four here, plus Ed.

   Ed and I used to go to a gym that had some very serious weightlifters. One of the guys had a shirt that said "I'm not very smart but I can lift really heavy things". That's the way this boom truck is. It has a giant arm that telescopes out, oh..a gazillion feet, up into the air. It has a cable with a hook on the end and swings the trusses up to the top of the building. The plan was to have four up top, and Ed on the ground hooking trusses, cutting support beams and blocking, and generally running up and down the ladder like a house-afire.

 The guys up top caught the trusses, set them in the notches that Ed and Rick pre-cut in the roof rim joists, and nailed them in.
    Things were progressing nicely, the rain picked up a little bit, but so far no wind. One after another the trusses flew up to the roof, were snagged by the crew and nailed into place.

I was inside, typing yesterday's blog entry, when I heard the wind suddenly whip through the trees. Rain began drumming on the apartment front door. When I looked out the window, through the pouring rain and tearing wind, I saw...I saw.... those guys just working along like it was just another day in Washington.
     In the far distance I heard the roll of thunder. I started to get nervous. That metal boom truck is sticking up like Benjamin Franklin's kite. A metal cable attached to the truss goes down the two guys standing on metal staging, and everything is soaking wet. Now I know science wasn't my strong point in high school, but I do remember enough to know that this is not a good thing. But the thunder never seemed to move closer, and I was the only one that was getting nervous.

 

There is some Construction Law of Nature that says once the boom truck is finished, the weather must clear. And darned if that didn't just happen! The boom truck left, the skies cleared, lunch was consumed, and everybody went back to work...in the sunshine. The rest of the trusses went up on the single story portion without a problem.

 
 In one day, the whole structure has been transformed. A week ago it looked like a plywood hacienda. Now the trusses have given the whole structure a new look, and you can see the curve of the eyebrow dormer. All the trusses went up in one day, nobody fell, nobody got struck by lightening, nobody choked on my pizza. Life is good.