ouch!

it was bound to happen sooner or later.  i hammered my finger at habitat today.  ouch.  not a big deal, but it's sore and bruised over the first two joints.  dumb, dumb, dumb.

this week's habitat (today), i got to build a deck and stairs!  man, that was loads of fun!  i love learning and doing new things, and it's great watching progress as you go along.  it was just me and the build leader working on it and he let me do some of everything.  lots of everything, and all on my own.  at the end, there was a whole little deck (porch, really), anchored to the house and finished perfectly.  in fact, if a tornado ever hits that house, the deck will remain standing and exactly in place!

last week (day 3) i was down in monroe county.  unlike here close to home, in monroe they are doing almost all new builds.  (washtenaw -- or huron valley -- is doing almost all rehabs.)  i ended up having lunch with a few of the regular volunteers and the construction manager for all of the houses in monroe.  though they seem to never have spots to sign up for online, he said i could call and come volunteer on the new houses.  i think that will be a great opportunity to learn more new things.

that day i blew insulation into the attic.  not too thrilling, but something new and better than just painting and cleaning like most of the other volunteers did.  oh, and yes, it was rainy and cold and most people were working outside.  (only this week did i finally get some decent weather.)  crawling around in the attic was no fun on my very bad knees, and it got pretty warm under the paper suit, but i didn't get covered in too much fiberglass.

sadly, there was one downer part of that day.  the build leader at the house was telling me about a "women build" blitz event that was coming up.  there are occasionally events where all of the workers, included the skilled leaders, are women.  he said "there will be a women build coming up.  well, women-ish."  at my confused look, he explained that "there are some gays."  i was very disappointed.  he went on to say that he believes everyone should have love in their life and it doesn't matter who your partner is, man or woman, so i let it slide.  but it was still disappointing.

i haven't decided yet whether i'm sticking with the local build i signed up for next week or calling monroe and seeing if i can go down there.