So the back story: When I got to work(maintenance) today, I found out that one of the AC systems was getting replaced. This meant that we had to rip out wiring, cut ducts from bigger ducts and buckets(the part that the duct is connected to when it’s blowing air into the room), and removing the system that’s sits in the attic. Also, let it be known that I have never done that kind of work before. Electrical work? Can do. Plumbing? Easy peasy. But HVAC? Never. We called in some specialists to help us, so I was learning from them most of the time. The one I learned from the most is a small Vietnamese American man, Darn, who is hard to understand. He also likes to say fuck in every sentence.

To start off, we pulled down the old AC unit which went easy. Sliced my hand a couple times, but that’s normal. The issues started to arise afterwards. Now remember, I had never messed with ducts before, so when I was told to start cutting the ducts and removing them, I went elbow deep with my knife cutting through insulation and (i think) tin. Easy, but I started to get an itch on my arm after I got into the third duct, which I brushed off as just being a mosquito bite as mosquitos have been horrible recently where I live. Cut to the last duct being attached, half way through it I had a realization and I looked over to Darn and asked him what the insulation was.

He said it was Fiber glass.

Fuck. Fuck. FUCK.

By this point, my arm is getting irritated just by moving and stretching skin. But there was nothing I could do. I knew I fucked up, and I learned from my mistake. Or so I thought.

A little bit later, we had put two new units in the attic and we needed to start pulling copper. Darn had me up in the attic again, pulling the copper from the compressor out back up through a hole next to the wall of the attic. The roof is sloped, as most building roofs are, so I had be on my hands and knees with my face maybe an inch or two up front the floor. This is where my second fuck up begins.

After pulling all the copper, I stood up and my entire chest became irritated and itchy. I looked down and all the insulation I had been straddling on the studs was picked up and more stringy than when I began. Darn called up from the hole when he heard obscenities from above him and let me know that it was all fiber glass as well, and I had just laid in it. My shirt pulled some free and got caught up in it, my collar let some of the dust from it into my shirt, and got all matted down with sweat from my chest to my shoulder blades.

Now I’m itchy from my hands up my shoulders, down my chest and back, and even up my neck. The worse part is that it wasn’t the last time I would be up there. After going up and down the ladder, from an oven of an attic to windy outside, I had no breaks. My sweat drenched shirt pulled on every which way making torso light up. The wind blew by a cool breeze and it started up again from my arms to my shoulders. Now at home, writing this, I’m doing my best to move as little as possible. The real lesson I learned today is that fiberglass sucks, and you should NEVER let it touch your bare skin. I’m hoping I don’t have to relearn my lesson tomorrow when we continue our work on the AC units.

TL;DR: I shoved my arm into fiber glass the way a doctor assists a woman giving birth. Then, I swam in a sea of fiber glass because I like to suffer.