Hard Labor – Part 4.1 – Up on the Roof?! – FeMike's (aka IronMikes) Blog

Table of Contents

So far, I’ve described three physical labor jobs I held while in college:

Hard Labor – Part 1 – a single day laying under a rail car pounding with a sledgehammer
Hard Labor – Part 2 – as a warehouse helper for 7Up
Hard Labor – Part 3 – as a warehouse helper and truck driver for another soda distributer during Christmas and Easter breaks

I worked in factories as what can be loosely called a “maintenance helper” during summers for Hard Labor – Part 4. “Maintenance helper” is quoted because I never helped any “real” plant maintenance guys. I was always either solo or as part of a small crew of mostly a few other college kids.

The first of the Hard Labor – Part 4 jobs was after my first year of college. I started bugging a high school friend, Greg Fritz, and his father, who was an engineer at the Linde Wire plant in Ashtabula (see this – Linde Air Products Factory – Wikipedia) of Union Carbide (see this – Union Carbide – Wikipedia). I continued to bug until Mr. Fritz capitulated!

I had two cousins (Nick and John) working there who likely also helped me get the job. If you recall, Nick also helped me get my first “job” at PicWay…you’d think he would have learned by then!

Hard Labor – Part 4.1a – Factory of Rust!

Cleveland Browns Stadium (aka First Energy’s Bribery Stadium, aka Huntington Beach Bank Stadium) sadly referred to as the “Factory of Sadness” (and will continue that way if the crooks, the Haslem’s, own the team).

The Linde Wire plant should have been called the “Factory of Rust.”

At that time, Linde was a supplier of specialty industrial compressed airs to the welding industry, but the Ashtabula plant made welding rods. Huge spools of thick, rusted raw steel wire would enter one end of the plant. The spools would be dipped in massive tanks of acids and water for cleaning. Once clean, the wire rod would be unspooled and finished into welding rods. The acidic air from the acid baths permeated the plant causing much of the plant’s metal to have a slight coating of rust.

The first few weeks, I worked alone doing small jobs around the plant’s grounds. Since I had fork truck driving experience from the soda distribution companies, I was given access to a LARGE fork truck to ease picking up rusted stuff for discard. I mean, it was massive, about twice the size of the fork truck I drove in the soda warehouse!

Similar the to fork truck at Linde that I drove around the plant’s grounds

After a few weeks alone, Greg joined for a brief time. Our first job together was to replace rusted metal corrugated roof panels sitting 20 feet above the aforementioned acid tanks. The panels were rusted thin in most places and had several rusted through holes from the acid fumes bubbling below!

I’m not sure what Mr. Fritz and his cohorts were thinking of sending us up there! But most 18-year-olds thought nothing of it. We hooked up a large pallet to the forklift and hoisted ourselves to the roof. This is a glaring picture of the saying “young and dumb full of c…”

Then we’d unscrew the massive and rusted metal screws holding each panel, remove the rusted and holey panel, and throw it down. This left a gaping hole above the acid tanks! We’d then hoist a new rust resistant plastic panel from the ground, and re-screw it down with new, stainless steel bolts.

To “ease” our minds from the potential of a nice bath in a hot pool of acid, we tied ropes around our waists and to the forklift. But seriously, what were we thinking?! WTF!

Hard Labor – Part 4.1b – Back to the Roof

Greg must have come to his senses and left. I was then asked to work with a professional roofing crew to repair the roof of the main building. This was a flat roof without acid below—talk about an upgrade! It wasn’t very hard work, and I learned a lot about how roofing structures are designed, built, and maintained.

That roof had several sandwiched layers of tar between sheets of tar paper. In several spots, the layers of tar and paper had bubbled up from the deck. We needed to cut the bubbles out and patch with new mesh tar paper and tar.

The most difficult part was working in the heat of the summer sun. Little did I know that I’d be doing this same “de-bubbling” in the future at a different factory. I learned that “in industry, if you do something once, you’re an expert…” which was my motto at Kodak all the time!

Nebaletan Word of the Day – SAUSEEGE!?

My last blog post Nebaletan Word of the Day – Skorper/Skorpor, I mentioned the hollowing out the incredible Balkan Bread and filling it with SAUSEEGE AND PEPPERS.

SAUSEEGE (aka sausiche from here)

Pronounced – Saw-See-Ja
Actual Italian Word – salsiccia
Definition – sausage
Alternate/high school boys definition – male anatomy

Used in context…we used to have late winter baseball practice in the St. John gym.

Our coaches Schmidt and Mel loved to hit ground balls as hard as they could on the gym floor. For some reason, nothing could get by me in the gym. Despite being Brooks Robinson in the gym, in a game, on grass, just the anticipation of a ground ball being hit to me caused great anxiety!

So, here’d be a typical conversation with Capo Carm at a gym practice after I snagged a particularly bad hop with a quick jump to the side on one of Mel’s super hard ground balls:

Carm, “That ground ball nearly took out your caljoons (see this blog post)!”
Me, “Holy crap! It nicked my SAUSEEGE!”

Some Pix – Sedona, AZ

Pizza Review – Pisa Lisa, Sedona, AZ

Sometimes I choose pizzerias because of some list (see here). Many times, it’s because friends have suggested that we try a joint. And other times, it’s just because it’s convenient.

We were in foreign territory in Sedona, AZ; more foreign to me than traveling to Italy. It’s expensive and bougie, way too crowded, and has all this lame spiritual BS (think yogis, mystics, crystals, and incense…pull-ease).

So, instead of wading through the mass of humanity that are Sedona’s restaurants, we walked down to the corner from our Airbnb to Pisa Lisa’s. Before heading to Sedona, Pisa Lisa was in several “Best Ofs”. Although we know my apprehension of “Best Ofs,” it was walkable, it was a Friday Pizza Night (although I already had pizza at lunch!), and college football was on at their bar (which was the only place that we could find a seat to eat in Sedona)…so, what the heck, Pisa Lisa’s it was!

Date	September 20, 2024
Pizzeria	Pisa Lisa
City/Neighborhood	Sedona, AZ/West Sedona (Sedona’s Air BnB central!)
Website	https://www.pisalisa.com/
About Us	About – Pisa Lisa – Pizza Restaurant in AZ Has little detailed info here. I’m hesitant when there’s little “About” detail. I became especially hesitant after searching for the Chef/Owner is Lisa Dahl. She is a serial restaurateur and seems that pizza was next on her list of places to open. That was somewhat worrying.
Style	Neapolitan-NY mash-up. The size of a Neapolitan, but with the bake of a New York.
Ambiance	Hopping for a Friday. So, it was loud! We sat at a bar, friendly conversation with the bar staff about Sedona’s explosive growth and costs that have followed that growth. The place had a little bit of everything. Bar, bar adjacent to the pizza oven, gelato area, and sit-down restaurant. Between the confusing interior and gratuitous exterior paint, it seemed like it was trying too hard to be something…Italian, Pizzeria-like, Sport-bar-ish, who knows? It was a little confusing and added to the place’s loudness. Cozy it wasn’t! We had a great rocket (arugula) salad with shaved parmesan. The ingredients were fresh, and the onion was “oh yeah!” The beauty of AZ being close to CA!

Gratuitous red, white, and green paint on the fence – why?

Rating Criteria
Shape	Round – 12 inch
Dough/Crust	Tickness – thin Cook – crispy (making the bake more like a NY/NJ versus a true Neapolitan), little air, some chew Flavor – Yeasty and bland very much like Balkan Bread described in the last post
Cornicione	Crispy, little air, little chew – which made it more like a NJ pizzer (pun intended) versus a NY
Toppings	Margherita – cheese – it was very good. Could have been homemade, but there was no way to know and fresh basil
Sauce	Thin without much flavor, remind me of my father’s (Grandpa Tony) pasta fazoo. Which was very thin and light yielding an orange hue to the sauce with just a sprinkling of oregano
Cheese	Cheese Type – moozedell Cheese Distribution – splotchy Stringy and very subtle, nice, and mellow
Cheese to Sauce Ratio	Sauce – a little Cheese – a little to medium Balance – overall, well balanced

Value	Low – $18 for a 12″ Margherita. That’s on the high end for what we have but might be normal for Sedona. All up all in with a beer, wine, and a salad, we were pushing a Cento!
Overall Rating	Good
Would I Go Back?	No, it was just too expensive, strange ambiance, and too noisy for me