The Assault / How to build impossible things / First person singular

The Assault

 

-  But what does it matter ? Everything is forgotten in the end. 

 

How to build impossible things

 

-  Carpentry eventually became the first avocation that I thought I could turn into a career. I studied and practiced it with zeal. I found everything about it interesting. Geometry, engineering, craftmanship, tools, methodologies - they all held secrets I was eager to uncover. My practice brought with it a sense of accomplishment. Every day, I could see the progress I had made.  p. 40

 

- We slept on hardwood, ate bad deli food, drank soda, coffee, and seltzer, and became disorientingly tired, but there was camaraderie and a clear goal in the work that made it worthwhile. Finishing on time felt heroic . p.43

 

- I decided to fashion a radial array of quarter - ellipse ribs for the ceiling's structure; then I milled custom angled borders from PVC tubing for the constellation of recessed lights that randomly dotted the dome. p.48-9

 

- People think I'm a genius because I remember my high school math. Algebra, binomials, geometry, trig - these are the everyday language of building. Most people think SOHCAHTOA is a secret code, like the mysteriously carved CROATOAN from that Roanoke tree. p.59

 

- Competence at anything is a charmed, relaxed and temporary station. I have felt it in a few pursuits; I am there now with my guitar playing after fifty-five years of practicing music , forty seven of them on guitar. - p.114

 

- Orlando was from somewhere in Central America; he spoke little English, at least not a work, outside of the requirements of his job. He was the first master of his trade I was able to watch closely. .. Orlando could feed one hudred people a diner menu's variety of perfect breakfasts in under an hour .. His movements were relaxed, minimal, fluid, and nearly constant; he never appeared to think or calculate; he just cooked and cooked and cooked. - p.141-142

 

First Person Singular