2009 Physical Science Building

In June 2009, my BA sent me to a job at Cornell University. I think he figured I knew the campus so well I didn’t need directions to the job, or the name of the foreman. The trouble with that plan is that there are always multiple construction sites; some with the same contractor. Naturally I went to two wrong ones before stumbling onto the correct one, so that instead of being 30 minutes early, I was 15 minutes late. After parking my car illegally, I walked into the office trailer, and asked for someone who didn’t exist. Luckily Steve S, the GF who was from Rochester was a nice guy and welcomed me, despite the fact he didn’t know I was coming. After establishing the fact that I was in the right place, we drove my car to the parking area which is all the way across campus. I hadn’t been told we were being bussed to the site which is common at Cornell due to the limited parking available there. This was a very interesting building site. They had managed to tuck a building into a space between two other buildings. They managed to meld the two different architectural styles so that when we were done it looked as though this building had been here forever. Being a science building meant there was a lot of process piping in addition to the usual climate control and plumbing systems. Much of the piping was pre-fabbed in the company shop then shipped to us to install. Sometimes that works well, but frequently you have to re-work the piping due to onsite changes. Mostly this job was going well until in October, I was doing a lot of work up on ladders and a bone in my foot dislocated when I came down off a ladder and step on some debris. At first I just asked my foreman to let me work off the ladder to see if the pain would go away but he insisted I see the safety rep. This then led to a trip to urgent care and x-rays which they misread. I was told it was just a sprain and to stay off it for a week. Steve S. let me work light duty building hangers, but after a week every time I went up a ladder I was crying in pain. I finally insisted on going to a chiropractor, took more x-rays and correctly diagnosed the problem. Unfortunately the foot was so inflamed, I had to get cortisone shots so that he could manipulate the foot enough to get the bone back in place. After weeks I was given custom inserts for my boots and my bone seemed to stay in place even while on ladders. To this day, if I am on ladders for too long, my feet ache and I feel very insecure in my footing. The other rotten thing that happened during this time was that a fellow co-worker, a Sister, decided that I was a terrible person for working light duty. She would leave nasty notes, move my tools, and disparage my work. After confirming that my foreman had no issues with me, I confronted her about it, but she basically just denied any wrong doing and walked away. It could have developed into a very hostile work environment, but a family situation took me off the job. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After being on this job for 8 months, but had to leave to help my sister. Her husband had three kinds of cancer and was dying. She had been trying to do it on her own and was totally exhausted. Even though she is a nurse, 24/7 of patient care is too much for anyone. So I flew out to California and spent the next month doing what I could to ease her troubles. Russell and I had always seen eye to eye on most things. He was a warm, caring, passionate man who left us too early. It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. But now when something is difficult, I just think, if I could handle Russell’s death I can handle this. When I returned home I hugged my daughters a little tighter. I also found that I wasn’t willing to put up with things that don’t make me happy. Life is too short for bullshit.