While the assumption is often that build days are a welcome rest from the bike, let me assure you that it was just as difficult to climb out of my sleeping bag today, if not more so than on other days. Aside from staying out later, the main factor that fails to be accounted for is the fact that aside from being on our feet all day, we're also using all of those forgotten upper body muscles.
I spent today at the Charlottesville Habitat store that takes donations of furniture and stuff for homes (windows, doors, sinks, paint, etc) as well as buying some stuff at a discount then reselling it for the profit. There were a few remaining tasks from the day before, but our primary job was to unload and sort a huge pickup of windows purchased from a contractor supply store that was moving and didn't want to move all the windows. I now understand why....
There were two huge truckloads of windows that just three people loaded in and drove back to the store, then about 6 or 7 of us pulled them out and stacked them up. Our biggest mistake was to lean them against the metal fence in front of the store. As you can see from the photo above, the score went Windows 1 - Metal Fence 0. There was not a dry shirt in the crowd, and by the end of the day the heat was inescapable. So after leaning about 1/2 of the windows against the fence and then watching it snap and tear out of the concrete, we had to pick up and move all of those windows again into piles sorted by window type. Having to do more work than necessary gets really mentally draining when the temperature outside reaches the high 80s.
But we soldiered on. We got all of the windows out of the first truckload and laid out in front of the store, and then they went back for even more. One thing I forgot to photograph were all of our hands because they were black with dust and soot that had accumulated on the windows as they sat around at the supply yard. In order to make them more presentable, we did our best to wipe all of the windows off (also a huge time killer). Eventually we got into a rhythm where we had stations of people cleaning the windows and several of us moving the windows between clean and dirty piles.
Now of course there are always those who can't follow directions. Actually Emma was just looking to help out more and see if she could lift it, but it just made most of us laugh since the window was taller than she is, she carried it smushed against her face and about an inch off the ground. Just to give you an idea of what we all felt like after moving the super heavy windows around for 7 hours, here's a little taste:
But after a clean shower, we all feel much better--sometimes we even smile!
Dinner was a barbecue prepared for us at the house of a three-time Bike & Build leader Gabe Ofiesh, who helped out with all of our bikes and later rode with us up some of the most intense climbing I've ever done on a bike. But more about that later. As I've said before, we've been spoiled by all of the generosity and outreaching by friends and family of Bike & Builders, and tonight was no exception. I got to meet and hang out with a bunch of Charlottesville B&B alums. It was such a treat to sit outside and have a fantastic dinner and hear their stories and advice from their trips and to learn about how they got involved. Many of them came out the next morning at 6:30-7am to bike with us as well. The cohesion of the Bike & Build alumni family has really impressed me and the bond even with people on different trips is immediately apparent. I can't even express how much look forward to reminiscing about things I have yet experience.
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