I worked in construction as a mason for about 12 years. If you don’t know, a mason works with bricks, block, stone, and in our case, concrete too. One of the jobs we did had a long block wall we were building, and I mean it was probably a 60 foot long run of blocks.  

The way you lay blocks is first build the leads, which are the corners. Those corners are set up and all the measurements and heights are set properly there. When those are set, you string a line tight between the blocks, right off the top outside edge, and then it’s easy to set blocks very quickly between them. 

To hold the string line tight, you use what are called line blocks; little wooden blocks that have a cut out for the string, and can be clipped over the edge. When the string is stretched tight, they stay in place. 

Well with that long run of blocks, the string was really tight. My boss, tells me to grab the other end of the string and move it up so he can start laying the next line of blocks. And he warns me, be really careful, because the line is very tight. Yeah, gotcha. I pick up the line to move it, and it shoots out of my hand with the little wooden block behind it. The block shoots all the way down the line and hits my boss in the nuts. He grabs himself in pain, staggers backwards and falls in to a ditch.  

My first thought was: Oh… yeah that was really tight… but then I started to giggle seeing him grab his nuts and then fall into a ditch. He screams at me, Dammit, I told you they were TIGHT.  

What else could I do but yell, Sorry!