F**k it’s hot!

This has been going on for almost two weeks now. I can’t stand it anymore! Not even a cloud in the sky. Sweat pouring off me as I work. Why in the world did I get a job paving roads? Hot, melted tarmac, black and steaming. And here I stand with a shovel in my hand spreading it.

It’s miserable. My t-shirt is soaked through and sticking to my skin. We have to wear these fluorescent yellow vests, hard hats, and steel toed boots. I can feel the sweat running down the crack of my butt. It itches.

I need a drink of cold water but until this stuff is spread, I have to stay here. I have a towel draped over my head under my hard hat, but it is soaked through and the sweat is dripping into my eyes. It stings and I’d have to take these heavy leather gloves off to wipe the sweat away and that’d take too long. The crew leader would be yelling at me for sure.

Scoop, throw, scoop, throw, scoop, throw… over and over. These big tandem dump trucks hold a lot of this stuff. I wish I had my CDL. The truck cabs are air conditioned. I can see the driver reflected off the side view mirror. He looks like he’s asleep. Lucky guy. He gets paid more than I do too. It’s not fair!

The guy working next to me has sweat pouring off him too. And he stinks. I guess I do too. My girlfriend says I do when I get home. I have to take a shower before I can kiss her even. I’m so tired I can barely stand up in the shower. Sometimes I just sit on the floor and let the water run over me.

Is this heat wave ever going to break? I’ve told myself about a million times I’m going to quit and find another job. But I never do. Maybe I will tomorrow.

Finally! The truck is unloaded and pulls away. Oh, man, there’s another one right behind it! I don’t care, I’m getting a drink of water.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be right back!” I yell to the crew leader.

The cup feels so good in my hand. It’s nice to have these gloves off even for just a minute or two. My mouth is so dry the cold-water hurts. I shiver as it goes down my throat. I can feel the trail of ice-cold water move through my chest.

And now back to work. I slip my gloves on as I walk back to the truck. It has backed up to the spreader and I start scooping and throwing, scooping and throwing, and over and over. This is torture!

That’s it! I’m going to quit. Right now! I’m just going to walk away from here and never come back. I am. Really. I’m just going to drop this shovel, throw my gloves down, and walk away.

Wait, I can’t do that. I’m twenty miles away from home. How would I get there?

A drop of sweat falls off the end of my nose. I can hear it sizzle as it hits the asphalt. No, not really. The machines are making too much noise. It’s bad enough to work in this heat plus I have to hear these diesel engines rumble.

My hands are aching holding this shovel. My back knots up. I hate this job!

Why did I quit high school? I coulda got a better job. I tried to get a job stocking at a grocery store, but I couldn’t read good enough. I don’t have any experience with anything else, so I hold this shovel for ten hours a day.

My girlfriend told me last night she thinks she might be pregnant. That’s not something I need in my life. Why did she do this to me? Between the two of us we can barely make ends meet. How are we going to feed a child? Maybe I’ll leave her. No, I know I won’t do that.

Scoop, throw, scoop, throw, scoop, throw, scoop, throw, scoop, throw, scoop, throw, scoop, throw… This is monotonous. Did I mention it’s hot as hell out here? Ha, ha, very funny.

Maybe I should cut my hair short and shave off this beard. That’d probably help some. I’ve got my hair tied back in a ponytail. My hair is soaked. My beard is too. Hell, all of me is soaked! I wish there was a swimming pool nearby. I’d jump into it with my clothes on!

How long is this freaking road anyway? It seems like I’ve shoveled a thousand miles of this tarmac already today. It seems like the day is just trickling by. We haven’t even had our lunch break yet.

Not that I want to eat. It’s too hot. Besides those two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches have been sitting in the crew truck since seven this morning. Yesterday I ate and then immediately threw up.

My eyes are blurry. Whether from the sweat of or the heat I don’t know. Maybe a little of both. My head is starting to ache.

Whew.

I wonder what the temperature is out here. The heat index must be close to three hundred degrees! In another hour I bet I’ll just be a grease spot on this freshly laid asphalt. They’ll probably just run the steamroller over me and keep going. And the crew leader would still probably yell at me to get up and start working.

Boy, he makes me mad! He doesn’t do any of this hard work at all. Just sits in his pickup truck and occasionally yell at me. Why just me? He says I am lazy and stupid. He’s lazy and stupid!

I hate this job! I hate this job! I hate this job! I hate this job!

My girlfriend works at a dollar store. It doesn’t pay much either but at least she is out of the heat. She complains about being on her feet all day. Big deal. She wears jeans, a polo shirt and sneakers. It looks like she’d be pretty comfortable. I hate how she whines so much.

Oh good, this truck is about empty. And I don’t see another one pulling up. Yay! I shovel the last scoop of tarmac out and toss it when the crew lead yells, “That’s lunch!”

You don’t have to tell me twice! I drop my shovel where I’m standing and hurry to the crew truck. I pull my gloves off while I’m walking, pull my hard hat off, and wipe my head with the towel. It’s already soaking wet so a little more sweat won’t matter.

A couple of the guys decide to drive to 7-11. I go with them since I’m sitting in the truck. The air blowing through the window feels good and I get a cold chill as the wind blows across my body.

We pull into the parking lot. I decide I’m going to splurge, even though I can’t afford it, and get a coupla hot dogs and a Big Gulp.

We check out and start the ride back to the job site. We haven’t even pulled out of the parking lot when suddenly it starts to rain. Buckets, as they say. We can hardly see the road as we are driving.

We finally get back to the job site just as the rain stops. The sun immediately comes back out.

Dang, I was hoping we’d get to leave early today. But no, it’s back to work.

Scoop, throw, scoop, throw, scoop, throw, scoop, throw, scoop, throw, scoop, throw, scoop, throw… I hate this job.