They tried to overwhelm me. Outnumbered 30 to 1. The mechanical engineering students from the University of Alabama came out Saturday to help build Cretia Craig's new home. Usually the ratio of staff to volunteers is a little better than it was yesterday. Mary Guinee, our Americorp National staffer, would have been with me to help herd the cats, but she had just spent the week at a conference in Taladega and Brandon told her to take the day off, even though she offered to come in and help.
     So, at the 8:30 morning gathering and meeting, I am surrounded by thirty ready, willing and able young men and women, anxious to get to work . Internally, I was reminding myself of part B of my motto. Steady pressure and don't panic. After our introductions, safety speech (don't drink the paint), and a prayer, I added a ps and asked for their patience in receiving their individual marching orders.
      I have a lot of generally unspoken pet peeves. One of them is college kids texting on their phones while they are volunteering. Sometimes, I will fascetiously offer them an empty Home Depot bucket in which to deposit said cell phones. This morning, though, at the start of the day, I was encouraging them to get their texting out of the way while we got everyone assigned a task.
     The exterior of Ms. Craig's home at 110 Juanita Drive is complete, the drywall is installed and finished with one coat of paint on it. The tasks for the day would be installing ceramic tile in the kitchen and bathrooms ( the 30 lb roof felt as moisture barrier and 1/4" hardi-backer board had been installed earlier in the week.), installing the rest of the black felt paper in the rest of the house where we would be installing tongue and groove bamboo flooring .
     I asked the group if anyone had ever installed ceramic tile before. No response. Oh well, it's easy, I will show you how. Who wants to learn? 6 hands go up. Come with me please. The secret to doing quality tile work, I tell them, is to put the first tile in the right place. I show them where that place is (on the corner where the kitchen floor meets the entry way).   Show them how to mix the thinset cement. Not too much water in the bottom of a clean 5 gallon bucket. Sprinkle in the powder. See it sinking to the bottom? Keep sprinkling until a little island emerges on top. That is exactly how much you need. Mix it up with the 1/2 drill and paddle, with your Capt. Morgan stance (one foot on the edge of the bucket so that the drill doesn't knock it over). Get another bucket ready with sponges for your wash bucket. Work clean. Etc.   Show them how the tile cutter works. Have all of them practice on the broken pieces. Rinse and repeat.
      Another bunch of 5 or 6 set about doing the final scraping and sweeping and vacuuming up the mess that the drywall finisher has left on the plywood subfloor. Then cut and fit the black felt paper in the rest of the rooms where bamboo flooring will be installed.
       Finally, the rest break up into a bamboo 101 class.   Show them. Watch them. Let em go. Check back on them. Be their waiter (anything you need?)
      Someone once told me that I reminded them of the guy with the spinning plates on the old Ed Sullivan show. He would have ten plates spinning on sticks. He would start one, then another, then antoher, until he had them all spinning, but then would have to go back to the earlier ones when they slowed down and would start to wobble. It's a very true description of what I do.
      I am truly blessed to have the "job" that I do. Even though a little panic tries to set in every once in a while.