I got a call this morning that steel joists for a little church addition we are starting are 4″ too short. I thought this simply couldn’t be true. I had sent someone to field measure the existing condition, found it was 4″ longer span than showed on the architectural drawings, then emailed that info to everyone.

The steel shop drawings came through revised and I forwarded them to the Architect/Structural Engineer and the Project Superintendent for approval. Everything was approved and returned to the Steel Contractor for fabrication. No problem except that we all forgot to actually check the one thing we all knew was a change. I suppose we all assumed the guy before had made the change and didn’t go back to our files to verify. Or we just all went simultaneously brain dead.

Fortunately, we all work together as a team. Within minutes, I spoke with the Architect/Structural Engineer and we devised a solution that will fix the problem. I’m glad to work with group of people that cooperate and strive for fair solutions. The struggles of this crazy construction business become much more bearable when surrounded by an excellent team.

On the other hand, sometimes the Oops is so big that nothing could prepare you for it. Can you imagine building a project and coming in one morning and seeing this sinkhole that swallowed everything?

An article from Gizmodo verified that the photo was real and happened recently in Guatemala City during the tropical storm Agatha.

As I go through my daily living, I try to remember that small aggravations will happen (including my own mistakes) and that I need to forgive myself and others and keep getting things done. I also try to keep a floating feather of a thought in my head that a huge Oops can happen at any time. I hope I’m up to the task if it does.