Hit 2,000 sweeps last Wednesday and had to sit down for a minute

I was just going through my old logs from when I started back in 2003. I keep a paper notebook for every job I do. Last Wednesday I finished up a routine clean on an old masonry fireplace over on Maple Street and wrote down number 2,000. It hit me hard because I remember being nervous on job number one, a dirty little insert that barely had a liner. 2,000 jobs is a lot of soot, a lot of weird animal nests, and a lot of different flue setups. I wonder how many miles of chimney I've actually climbed over these 19 years. Anybody else keep track of their total numbers like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

emmasmith7d ago

Man, 2,000 sweeps is a lot but is it really that deep? I mean, you wrote down each one in a notebook and now you're having a moment about miles of chimney? It's just cleaning holes in roofs for 20 years, not like you climbed Everest 2,000 times lol. But hey, whatever helps you feel good about the grind, I guess.

walker.andrew7d ago

Get yourself a new notebook and start a fresh tally for the next 2,000... it helps to see the numbers stack up again, gives you something to look forward to. I did the same thing after I hit 1,500 on my old route and realized I'd been phoning it in for a while. Just writing down each job made me pay more attention to the details again, like checking the smoke chamber or actually cleaning the damper ledge instead of rushing through. That notebook becomes a weird kind of logbook for your own history, even if it's just holes in roofs like she said. You earned that sit-down moment, man.