Author: Lee

Such a Hate/Love Relationship

5 things I hate about my new job:

1.  I have to work 8.5 hours instead of 8, with only a 30 minute lunch.
2.  I am continusly wondering what to do, it’s getting crazy.
3.  I wonder how long this can last.
4.  I often feel alone in this job, as the shop is much larger, with less people.
5.  I get the feeling from a few people that they think of me as someone to clean up “their” messes.  I am not a maid.

5 things I love about my new job:

1.  I am working day hours.
2.  I no longer have to work weekends.
3.  I’m in a much friendlier environment.
4.  I’m not as tired all the time anymore.
5.  I get to spend quality time doing things besides sleeping.

Nothing a little compare/contrast won’t bring out.

Project Complete, What’s On Deck?

I finished the trim and insulation on our new attic stairs.  I’m providing these pictures to show what a “proud papa” I am.

The trim isn’t perfect, as it was my first time doing “trim work.”  It was especially difficult due to it all being overhead work.  With the help of my father on the longer pieces, it came together though.

 

These new stairs are quite nice, as they are steel, fully adjustable and actually seal the ceiling.

The old ones were wood, and didn’t reach the floor.  Some of the treads were loose and you never knew if you were going to make it up there, or if you were going to fall.

We of course have much, much more work to do before we are even close to finished.

My next project:  New interior doors.  We have one, once I teach myself how to install it, the rest should fly by.

We’re Number 6

Here’s some facts showing how Bloomingtonians are still being “raped” by big business.

In todays newspaper, an article states how Forbes has ranked B-Town the sixth best place in the country for business and careers among smaller metro areas.

If you notice, “business” is the first listing there, as this is why we were ranked 6th.  Here are the complete listings.

Bloomington was sixth overall. It ranked ninth in cost of doing business, 19th in educational attainment, 25th in cost of living and in culture and leisure, 44th in crime rate, 80th in colleges, 90th in income growth, 92nd in net migration and 115th in job growth.

There were 179 other “small metro areas” in this study.

Such a great place to live, but I am by no means proud.  The rankings in income and job growth disturb me deeply.

The Last Shift

Tonight as I sit here I am trying to figure out an ingenious way to say “goodbye.”

I am due to start at Sternbergs on Monday, and didn’t have time to give an official notice.

I left many, many jobs as a teenager by interesting means.  When I was a landscaper, I really wanted out.  I called my mom and told her to come where I was and tell the supervisor that I had a doctors appointment.  She came, we left and I never looked back.

I feel as if I need to “leave my mark,” but I’m not sure how.  I thought of leaving the manager a note.  It would read:  I wanted to write a poem, I wanted to write a letter.  In the end, f*** you sounded much better.  Thank you for the 5 months that I appreciated so.  I have come to find that my family means more to me than any job.  Of course, you don’t have to worry about such things.

What repurcussions might I face?  This place is a customer of my new employer.  Could I be “haunted” from beyond?  That’s the only thing holding me back from performing this deed.

Free At Last, Free At Last

Those very famous words, spoken by the immortal Dr. Martin Luther King are exactly what I’m feeling now.

Today, I accepted an offer for a new job.  I finally get to leave my horrible work hours, days and conditions behind.  Thank God!

The new position is at Sternberg, an International truck dealership.  They are headquartered out of Jasper Indiana, with locations in Evansville and Bloomington.  The position isn’t glamourous by any means, I will be simply cleaning up the shop.  The best part is I can have a life again, as it is Monday thru Friday (with some Saturdays) and 7:30 to 4:30.  Small world, my wife’s hometown is 10 minutes away from Jasper!

It is in a place with the same atmosphere as where I’m currently working (a truck shop), but there is room for advancement within the company and other “normal” benefits.  What’s normal you ask?  Try holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving.

All I feel is joy, I never realized how better I would feel about a new job.

The person hiring me has done a very quick job.  I applied to the position last Thursday, had an interview Monday and was offered the position today!  He called here and spoke with my wife first thing this morning and said “he wanted to talk to me.”  She immediately called me and told me to call him.  I was still at my soon to be old job, so I went and hid and started calling.  Their automated night time system was still on and I couldn’t get a hold of anyone for a while, once I did I told him I would be there asap.

I will miss my co-worker CJ, as he has become a dear friend.  I told him this morning about everything before I left, as I am on my weekend now and wouldn’t see him again until Sunday night.  He gave me his digits and told me to call him.  I told him the same.  I’ll miss you CJ!

Things at FirstLease were getting to a breaking point, and I’m glad to be gone.  I was a temp there the whole time, 2 months after I started they hired another temp.  Just a week or so ago they hired him as a permanent employee, but didn’t mention a thing to me.  The climate there is very hostile, and discrimintory.  There are a select few who can do no wrong (but do all the time) and then the rest are always “on notice.”  CJ has a picture and sign on his toolbox, that are quite funny.  The picture has 3 people figures of different colors and it says, “equal what???.”  The other is a sign made out of cardboard, it says “Discrimination Lane.”  I think that paints the picture of how he sees the place.

Thank God Almighty I’m Free At Last.

Think Globally, Act Locally

After becoming a homeowner, I have acquired many things I do not need or want.  All of these items were on my property at the time of purchase.

Rather than throwing away many of these items, which are mainly in decent shape.  I decided to try to give them to other deserving homes.  These items aren’t new, or fancy.  Their just items I don’t need or want.

The only outlets that I knew of, until now were the local newspaper and a “trading post” at the local trash site.  Yesterday I discovered an amazing way to relinquish these items, and make a larger audience aware of them.  It’s called Freecycle.

It was started with the old saying that “one mans trash is another mans treasure.”  Keeping unwanted items out of our landfills is a great way to help the enviroment, which is the main scope of freecycle.

I immediately signed up, and added some posts for items I have been tirelessly trying to eliminate from my land.  When we removed the hideous pool from our backyard, it left a big pit with sand and gravel in it.  I have placed free ads about it, and let my neighbors have all they want.  It hasn’t even put a dent in the sheer amount of material there.

2 hours after I posted this entry, I had over 20 responses asking about it, and when they could get it.  Hopefully we can get our yard back in some order now.

Check it out, if you have workable items you need to get rid of, you never know who might want them!

 www.freecycle.org

So Many Mickeys, So Little Time

While at Disney, we got to meet Mickey in all of his different attires.

Our first day, at Animal Kingdom, we met Safari Mickey.  He’s my favorite.


Our second day, at MGM Studios, we met Sorcerer Mickey.


Our third day, at The Magic Kingdom, we met regular Mickey.

We also met many other characters.  Here’s the list: Goofy, Pluto, Minnie, Donald & Daisy Duck, Chip & Dale, Rafiki from The Lion King, Baloo from Jungle Book, Friar Tuck from Robin Hood, Briar Bear (movie or show unknown), Buzz Lightyear and Woody from Toy Story, a cat from Aristocats, Sully from Monsters, INC and Abby Mallard from Chicken Little. Taylor was very excited about getting their autographs as well.

We could have easily spent our whole time at Disney just getting pictures and autographs with characters.  The lines to see the princesses was 80 minutes long!

Attic Access

I spent all of my day replacing our attic stairs today, with the help of my wife and father.

Our existing one was in bad shape.  It was warped and wouldn’t allow the door to close completely, it was ugly and allowed our A/C or heat to simply “run away” as it was.  Some of the stairs were loose as well.

The first step was removal of the old unit, which was quite fun.  I enjoy anytime I get use my recprocating saw!  The unit was nailed in, and it was impossible to get them out.  I simply sawed around the frame of the unit and let it fall the 8 feet or so to the floor!

Poor Rachel seemed to get hurt everytime she lended a hand, as she hit her head a few times and even was shocked by an exposed switch.  This added tension to the situation, and we argued most of the day.  I’m sorry baby.

Installation was simple, but very drawn out due to the heat of the attic (which I was in most of the time).  I had to add some framing to the existing opening, as it was too large for the new stairs.

Everything but the finish work (trim and painting) was completed in roughly 5 hours.  I plan on completing this tomorrow.

I broke one tool, which was a cheap thing from big-lots, but it did bring up a possible new tool purchase.  My drill was pushed to it’s limits and may need to be replaced should I do anything as heavy as this in the future.

Terabytes & Heat Pumps

Our household and my business recieved some nice upgrades this week.

Our new heat pump was installed Wednesday, and took all day.  It was amazing to watch the guys rip the old POS out.  What was even more amazing is the technology that goes into this piece of HVAC equipment.

 
The difference is amazing, as we can’t even tell when it turns on.  The best part is that we are now saving a boatload on our home heating and cooling costs, thus saving the environment a little.
 

We will be receiving $650 in rebates, divided between a tax credit next year, and a rebate from our electric company.

I also purchased another hard drive to expand my capabilities for video transfers.  This brings me close to having a terabyte of storage space.  (For those of you who don’t know what a terabyte is, it’s 1,000 gigabytes, or 1,000,000 megabytes or 1,024,000,000 bytes.)  I am now at 900 gigabytes, divided into 4 hard drives.

This new hard drive is a SATA (Serial ATA), which I have had no experience with.  So far it seems to be much better, as the data transfer rates are almost double from the standard IDE connection.  This makes editing video, rendering video and burning DVD’s that much faster.

My only problem with the SATA connection is more of a windows problem.  When a “hot swappable” device is attached to a windows PC, an icon is automatically placed in your “tray.”  I am very anal about my computer and this icon bothers me because I don’t need it, or want it!

I have done some searching on this subject, and found some clues, but nothing that has erased this icon from my desktop thus far.