We left Keith here. Sad place, right?

February 19 is not being kind to Keith.

"This is not my average day," he tells me. "This is an unfortunate situation."

Keith identifies existing, underground utility lines for a living. Too bad, he failed to see what was right in front of him: His gas gauge.

Right now, his car has no gas in it. He feels stupid. Sometimes, he leaves his truck running when he's getting out for a relatively short period. He thought he was more vigilant.

As Carlos Iglesias and I leave our latest stop on Bladensburg Road in Northeast, Keith approaches us. He wants help. He's crying out for it (from up the block and across the road).

Read More "District Dude Runs Out of Gas, Suffers Below-Average Day" »

Today, I'm spending my time with Carlos Iglesias, a construction consultant in the District who helps builders stay in compliance with city codes.

After our first stop for the day, Iglesias and I head to another condo building on Bladensburg Road in Northeast. This 18-unit structure is almost done. But---and this is a maaaaaaajor 'but'---Washington Gas has not hooked up the building's gas meters, and Iglesias has been waiting three weeks already for crew-members to come out.

We're here to check if anything's changed. It hasn't. Ugh.

This is no good.

Thus far, Iglesias has been in a good mood. I ask how average his day is going. I'm wondering if this irritation has left him less sunny. Now, after all, he's got to spend several hours at Washington Gas, trying to move things along.

"Let's quantify it," I say. "On a one to ten scale, how are you feeling? Five is average. One is downright suicidal. Ten is blissful---like maybe Linda Argo, head of Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, has just called to congratulate you on your building code prowess."

Read More "What? The Gas Meters Haven’t Been Hooked Up Yet?" »

As a construction consultant, Carlos Iglesias spends a lot of time checking things. He started working at sites as a 12-year-old, assisting his dad with carpentry work. At 16, he apprenticed with an architect, and began reading D.C.'s building code books like they were old testament scrolls.

"I'm a believer in the code," he says today. "It's like being a believer in the constitution."

Talking with Iglesias, I feel like I'm being proselytized into a strange, bureaucratic religion.

After arriving at the construction site---we are visiting a small condo project near the intersection of 14th Street and Colorado Avenue---Iglesias and I head to the basement. There, he points out some average issues he's had to deal with:

Read More "The “Believer in the Code” Makes His Rounds" »

This is Carlos Iglesias. After spending a few hours together, I would deem him an above-average District citizen. He's a diligent 24-year-old, who lives with this wife and two young children in Ward 4, where he was born and raised. Besides the Ward 4 connection, he has some Adrian Fenty-esque tendencies: By the time he's 30, he'd like to go back to law school, and eventually run for city council. If D.C. ever gets a voting congressional seat, maybe he'd run for that too.

For now though, Iglesias works as a construction consultant for Bello Bello and Associates, which advises builders about whether they're adhering to D.C. building codes. His average day is spent visiting construction sites, retrieving documents from downtown city offices, and waiting for government workers to get shit together for him. That's it, in a nutshell.

We met at a small new condo project close to the intersection of Colorado Avenue and 14th Street in Brightwood. Remember Colorado Kitchen, Gillian Clark's down-home, neighborhood eatery? That place was closed so this building could go up.

I arrived at the site wearing jeans, gray converse sneakers, and a plaid button down shirt. Proper construction site attire, I believed. Iglesias showed up looking like this: Read More "Proper Construction Site Attire" »