As I said earlier this week, 34.5 of the last 96 hours have involved me hauling dozens of mattresses and box springs out of and into a hotel. Every one in that hotel got swapped out, by about 10 to 12 strapping men (OK, 9 to 11 strapping men and me). New ones off of trucks, old ones out of their frames, old ones into dumpster after dumpster -- yes, the hotel tried donating them, they were only able to donate a few -- and new ones into the rooms. The hotel has seven floors with 40 rooms each (about six with two beds in them) and a corner of another floor with five more rooms. All replaced over four days.
Lots of awkward lifting and run-ins with the (softer) mattresses and (harder) bed springs *. Bruises happened. People are going to think I've been beaten. But being able to maneuver something that large and awkward -- when I could (I couldn't always) -- felt good when I did it. (It helped that each king-sized mattress has two box springs, not one humungous one.) I got a hard job done and I'll get paid for it. I'm also not wiped out the way I was the other nights this week -- like last night, when I was in bed with lights out before 10:00 -- because today we worked for 5 1/2 hours. It was all done except for a small crew that stayed behind to load one last dumpster that haven't been delivered yet.
I resisted telling the few tenants I met "You'll be the first ever to sleep on that mattress! USE IT WELL." Because I knew talking to the tenants about their bed use would probably be a bad idea.
* Plus I fell on my ass outside on the concrete while hauling a giant plastic bag (full of the many, many smaller plastic bags that had encased the new mattresses and box springs) over to recycling. At least my butt didn't bruise. (Yes, I checked.)