Get Good Or Go Home

Along a bike trail, I'm in the middle of what feels like a jungle with Brian and new guy Mike.  We are surrounded by vines.  We don't have to cut everything down, just the fast growers.  Box elders, soft maple, black walnut, etc.  If there is a God, he made vines just to fuck with people.  So I say fuck him.  We approach some soft maples just as tall as the power lines and ready to make contact.  We have to cut the trees down so they fall parallel with the wires instead of into the wires.

Everyone gets pretty annoyed with new guy Mike.  I try my best to give the kid the benefit of the doubt, but here in this vine jungle, even he is getting on my last nerve.  Roley said everytime he turns the radio on, the kid sings like he's trying out for American Idol.  Because of this, Roley has given him a second name, Bieber.  Yep, named after Justin Bieber.  In the same sentence, Roley might start out calling him Michelle and end it with Bieber.  It's pretty funny. 

So there we are in this clusterfuck of a forest with God sitting up on a cloud to look down so he can laugh his ass off.  All I want to do is throw my middle finger up to the sky, but I don't want anyone asking me what that was for.  So I do it mentally.  Small victories.  I am explaining to Mike how to push over the trees as Brian is making his felling cuts into the tree.  He tries the technique on two trees, but he's getting close to making contact with the powerlines.  He's not pushing on the right spots of the tree or at the right angle.  Brian's chainsaw runs out of gas, so he walks away to fill it up.

"Do you want to do this instead, Shawn?" Mike
"Do what?" Me
"You know, push the tree over.  I just, I'm no good." Mike
I look as casual as I normally am, but inside I am totally getting pissed, cause if there's one thing I hate, it's a quitter.  People quit on themselves all the time and the typical mentality of America these days is to say it's okay and let them walk away instead of conquering the obstacle.  Lucky for Mike, I'm not going to let him let me down.  I don't give a shit if he gets electricuted or not.
"Get good or go home." Me
Mike is taken back by my words and my delivery of them.
"This is a job, not a club or a support group." Me
Brian walks over with the chainsaw ready to fire up.
As calm as I can be, I finish with, "Now set the hook pole against the tree and get ready to push the fucking tree over."