[Bordermarch] Highly Overrated

[Lathrop, Dave]

I have come to the conclusion that pre-planning a work day at site is
highly overrated!
Last weekend I arrived at site and found Lord Decimus asleep in his car,
right in front of the women's bathroom; I left him to his dreams.
I approached Simonn and Tessa's mobile travel house and parked five feet
away. I dare not knock for fear I might disturb their sleepy time;
instead, I called them on the phone.
Sir Simonn answered my call and quelled any reservations I had
concerning sleepy time; he met me at the door.
When I asked how their night went he said, "I slept like a log, but
there was water dripping on Zane's head all night from a new leak in the
roof." Simonn told me he would get to it later.
I read through the chit-chat and realized that Zane was water-boarded
(Chinese water torture) all night, and Tessa got a shower every time she
went to the rest room.
The Gobal clan finally arrived. I figure they stopped and cleaned out
Jack In the Box on the way; that's why they refused my offer of snacky
food.
We headed to the north tower and promptly unloaded the tool trailer.
After rearranged the scaffolding and placing extension cords everywhere
it was time to talk about Aaron Whitewolf; can't tell you what we said.
Lord Adolf and young Lord Eric were destined to lay mortar and set
concrete blocks. Lord Zane and Lord Okum would trail behind Lord Adolf
and Lord Eric to smooth out their mess and fill the voids in the blocks.
Lord Decimus, bless his energetic soul, was voted to be our mortar man.
There was only one vote cast and that vote belonged to his father.
Sir Simonn and I started off by installing the new metal arch that Lord
Adolf fabricated. The arch would support the new wall above the door in
the north tower.
Our timing was perfect since the rest of the crew tied into our work
just as we finished.
After the arch installation was complete my new job, since nobody wanted
to get down from the scaffolding, was to hand the scaffold crew concrete
blocks and buckets of mortar.
As I moved around to the front of the tower I spied Tessa with a huge
pair of hedge clippers going to town on a bush. It wasn't long before
she called me over to appraise her handiwork.
She had carved that bush into a semblance of a rams horn; it should
become an inspiration for Bordermarchers when we take the field of
battle during Melees.
Tessa was soon off like a rocket to resuscitate some plants in her
garden. I saw her giving mouth-to-mouth to some drysanthemums or was it
the moon-pipits; I just couldn't tell from where I was. 
The hole digging badger at the top of the hill was Tessa, once again,
spreading bags of mulch and soil on anything that looked dried-up or
shriveled.
Sir Simonn was asked to cut off a piece of metal overhanging one of the
concrete blocks. His response to this request was to grab a large hammer
and try to bend the offending piece of metal; he broke the concrete
block.
Fortunately, no one noticed the broken block.
Tessa made us all eat fruit! I now realize that ingesting copious
amounts of plums can really speed things along for those getting a
little long in the tooth.
I had a previous engagement later that evening and had to depart company
with the site crew rather early. They succeeded in laying several more
rows of concrete blocks, even without my help.
The next morning I couldn't open my eyes! As hard as I tried they
remained shut. in a moment of panic I thru myself from the bed onto the
floor, not realizing that all my limbs were cramped up tighter than a
cut worm. There I was, coiled up on the floor in a fetal position near
the bed, my eyes refusing to open; a true nightmare! I finally calmed
down a bit and found that I could move my right arm somewhat. With
hidden strength and a lot of resolve, I forced my hand to my face and
pried open an eyeball. Glory Be! It was just the mortar dust from the
previous day, working it's magic on my eye lids. My body finally unwound
and that's when I learned about eating too many plums!
 
Santiago