So instead of getting up for my usual deadline gauntlet run at the office cubicle Friday morning, I went to work for my friend J.K., a local contractor, to help him demolish a 100-year-plus old store front.

Let me tell you, getting up at 7 a.m. to pound the keyboard for a few hours doesn’t even hold a stress-relieving candle to the therapeutic value gleaned from smashing down a brick wall with a sledge hammer.

J.K., known to a few as John Kelly, has been a local carpenter for the last three decades and began his own solo business, Kelly’s Fine Wood Working, 13 years ago.

I have to admit, I liked J.K. and the job the second I arrived that morning. Unlike some Punching the Clock hosts who take it easy on us, he had a different approach.

After exchanging greetings, I asked what I’d be doing that day. “Well, you see that hammer over there and did you see the brick wall and concrete floor out front?”

Not having a physically challenging job myself, I’m one of those who revel in the occasional bout with labor intensive work, especially when it involves bare handed destruction of property.

And just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, J.K.’s close friend and occasional contracting partner Mark Dalrymple leaned over and picked up a jackhammer.

“And if you want, you can take a shot at it with this too,” he said.