Other duties as assigned....

I am not, and I emphasize the NOT, a guy who is mechanically inclined and most definitely 'carpenter-ly challenged. I only bought my first hammer about 8 years ago. My wife would confirm that if anything needs to be done from a repair or construction standpoint at home, we'll be paying someone to do it.

My church, Granger Community Church(GCC) (www.gccwired.com) has recently taken on an endeavor to renovate some buildings in the near downtown area of South Bend and its called the Monroe Circle Community Center (MC3). It will house a food pantry, alternative school....etc. Much renovation is going on at MC3 and there is an outstanding request for anyone who wants to volunteer to help to "come on down."

Although I've thought of helping, my obvious lack of construction skills has prevented me from taking that next step......that is until this morning.

I arrived at work this morning around 7:15 am (which happens to be at GCC) and was organizing my day. One of our facility care workers , Phil, appeared in my doorway and said there was someone here wanting to deliver windows. "Windows," I said. "Wouldn't a window delivery be for MC3?" I walked out to the reception area with Phil to talk with the delivery man.

The delivery man thought as well that the windows probably went downtown, but said this was the address he was given. He said he was going back out to his truck to make some calls. I said I'd go back to my office and see who I could contact to get more information.

I was able to reach Theresa, the GCC onsite project leader, for the MC3 project. She was able to give me the phone number of Mark, the MC3 onsite project leader. I phoned Mark who advised he'd been waiting for the delivery of windows for 45 minutes and was going to have to leave because he had another meeting he couldn't miss. I said if it would help, I could drive downtown and let this delivery person in to the building. Mark was elated as they wanted to get these windows installed this coming weekend and if he left the installaiton would obviously be delayed.

Mark advised he'd hide a key for me and I could unlock the door and let the window delivery man in when I got arrived. I went out to the parking lot to tell the delivery man what was going on and he was driving out of the parking lot. I quickly called Mark back and advised him of what had happened. He said he'd call the window company and get the guy re-routed downtown if I'd still come down. I said I'd be happy to come down.

As I was driving downtown it occurred to me that I've never been down to MC3 and I really wasn't exactly sure where I was going. I hoped I was going to what I thougth was the right place. Mark told me on the phone where he would hide the key for me to unlock the building. Ok, I'd be lying if I didn't say I was freaking out just a little. As I said, I really wasn't certain where I was going and what I was in for once I arrived. Is the back of the building in an alley, can people see me? Chicken, yes. I decided I was staying in the car until the delivery truck arrived.

When I arrived at MC3 the window delivery guy was already there waiting for me to let him in.

As I mentioned, Mark told me where he would hide the key he was leaving but when I got there outside of the building all looked the same. After some minmal effort I finally found the key and unlocked the door. I walked in and was astounded at the work that had been going on inside. For a building that appeared somewhat rundown on the outside, I could tell that the inside was on it's way to being a spectacular place with an incredible future.

When I went back outside the delivery guy had his truck backed up and the back opened, displaying a truckload of windows to unload. He started bringing them down the ramp and I asked if it was ok if I could help. He said certainly. I was a little apprehensive at first as I thought it he drops one of the windows he's liable...if I drop one of them....yikes! But I picked a window up under each arm and marched down the ramp. Here goes nothin!

The further back in the truck, the bigger the windows got. As the last set of the medium sized windows were brought in I realized that there was a door to the outside in the room in which we were storing the windows. I said "guess we could have been bringing them in through here, would have been a lot easier!" And I opened the door for the remaining windows that had to be brought in. It was a good thing as they were double hung (I think thats the right terminology for 2 windows side by side.....see I told you lack of construction skills!). As we were carrying the double hung windows down the ramp it occurred to me that flip flops were not the preferred choice of footware when moving windows and I hoped they wouldn't cause me to fall. Yeah, I didnt!

As we carried the last few windows in we were talking about this and that. I learned his name was Trent and he grew up in Canada. He asked how long I'd worked at GCC and what I did. I said I'd been there about 3 months and I was the office administrator and HR person.......and as we wrapped up....I looked at him and said....and other duties as assigned!