It’s just politics, eh? No. It’s not. It’s war. And it’s a fight to the death. As soon as you hear the “just” quip in any conversation you can safely stop listening to everything thereafter. Everything I know about politics I learned when I was in my 20s working in the excavating and real estate development industry…

I remember working this site. It was a 100 home subdivision. We had two machines — my Cat 953 track loader below and a Cat D6 dozer. The D6 did most of the deep digs and road grades (stuff I really couldn’t do with my machine) and I cleared and loaded trees and dug shallow…

Hardware and hydraulics only, baby. No software. No bugs. No updates. No screens. Just diesel power and steel. The tools of developers. More excavating here.

I always worked late. Leaving the site when it was already dark made for a very long night of cleanup, calls, accounting, scheduling, and prep for the next day. Then I was back up running before dawn. That was all normal. More excavating here.

Finishing a backfill in the rain. Had to be careful because the loam is soaked and heavy and can break the foundation if the concrete is still green. Sometimes we’d brace the walls. That was a 120 home subdivision. More excavating here.

On the other side it’s straight down 30 feet, 15 feet below grade into gorgeous ivory white beach sand. Shocked we didn’t hit water. One day I dug a sump like this and we hit water (survey error). Then oil came up! That’s bad. Probably leaking gas tanks from storage. More excavating here.

I would often eat lunch sitting in the bucket. It gave me a sense of the utter violence that took place in that space. Same with sitting on the tracks. Not the most comfortable places around but real nevertheless. I never ate in the cab. That was for work. More excavating here.

I dumped the hinge ramps that made this move easy. They were too heavy to lift at the end of every day. But 15 tons hanging off that tail of the trailer got unnerving as the machine rocked into place. Slow! The tail didn’t break but I reinforced it with massive steel underneath. More excavating…

I had a dream recently about two guys I met in real life years ago out on a construction site like the one below. I think of those guys from time to time even now. And, occasionally, a dream bubbles up to just enhance my memory. Here’s how it all went down that day. I…