Is My Collar Blue Yet?

I am physically exhausted from all the work I have done in the past week. It is that good tired and sore feeling. The pressure washing is what put it on me. Muscle groups that never saw any action in the gym are being impacted. I may produce a Pressure Washing Workout video that will be all the rage this summer. A few more weeks of this and my body will be ready for Show-n-Tell season. I like doing this steak and potatoes work.
I am only in Gastonia for a few more days and then I depart to go to Sparta, TN where I will assist in the start of a new Walmart remodel. I look forward to the change of scenery and the drive back through the Great Smoky Mountains. Keeping my fingers crossed that my dry rotted tires hold up. As soon as I can, I plan on replacing the two front steering tires. Cheapest tires I have found so far are $300 a pop. But if I blow a steering tire doing 60mph in that bus it could get ugly.
On my drive up here I made the mistake of not screwing my gas cap back on my tank after filling up. Normally, in a regular car it would be a mild inconvenience, but with my bus it has been impossible to find a replacement. In the meantime I stuck a rag in it to decrease the evaporation rate of my diesel fuel. So right now my bus looks like a mobile Molotov cocktail.

The Nashville Flood

I finally have found the time to upload my flood videos and pics. I didn't get as many pictures as I feel I should have. The two main reasons 1) I didn't realize the extent of the flooding-I don't have much TV access. 2) Roads (including interstates) were closed, so I hunkered down to wait and see if a tornado manifested in the Nashville sky. And now the weather channel is reporting that Tornado Alley is roaring to life. Maybe I will spot a freak East coast tornado. I can only hope. Here is today's warning area.


Once I heard there was serious troubles I went to the Electronics section of Walmart to catch up on the news. It was on all the TV's.
Here is traffic backup due to interstate closings.

Here is a graphic showing the rainfall totals. By late Sunday Afternoon Nashville had received 15 inches of rain in less than 48hrs. 3 inches is normally alot of rain. This is considered ridiculous amounts of rain.

Here is most of the video I shot during those two days. It is a longer clip at about 8 minutes, alot of me narrating and showing the rain.

Driving to Gastonia

I drove to Gastonia yesterday. It was a beautiful sunshine filled day. Perfect day for a bus drive through the smoky mountains. My new boss drove his truck along with me.
The night before, I cracked my forehead open on my mounted laptop stand on the bus while I was bending down to pick up my cell phone up off the floor. Caught the corner hard. Probably needed a stitch or two because it is deep.
The injury has garnered mucho non-PC comments... like...."High heels can do that if you stand too close to the stripper pole" or "Are you Indian? Did you accidently cut the ruby off your forehead?" or "You didn't finish your swastika". Classy guys I'm hanging out with.

Here are a couple of videos from the drive.



Here is some beautiful driving footage, tunnel included.

Doors Close, Doors Open

I found out Friday night that the Research team at Vanderbilt was pulling me off the study. They have been monitoring my blood every other day and it appears that the medicine is putting a hurtin' on my Liver. That means I am only eligible for $500 instead of the full $1000 for the study. That's all fine and dandy. It was turning out to be more of a hassle for the compensation amount.
I have been searching for a steady job since I arrived in Nashville and I only found spotty hit and miss jobs. Then things all changed when I answered an ad on Craigslist Saturday afternoon. I have answered about a 100 ads before but this one was different. The location (Charlotte Pike/I-40) was exactly the area I have been staying. The ad had a 'tell me why you should get the job' part to it. And that I had to have experience. The job was for a paint prepper. I figure I have en0ugh experience from painting every room in both houses I have lived in. I went to the school of hard knocks with a master's degree in learning from my mistakes.
The job is third shift 9pm to 6am.. The owner of the company, Rob, is a pretty cool guy. He has a laid back demeanor, yet sharp mind. I liked him immediately. I'll see if I can snap a picture of him later.
On the first day I was already driving, raising and lowering the scissor lifts. It was fun. They had no idea how much I crave to get my hands on a new piece of machinery and learn how to operate it.

Rob approached me the second day and said he had a proposition for me. He told me that he liked me, he liked how I work, he liked what I am doing with the bus. He has several crews across the southeast and he wants me travel and help out with a job in Gastonia, NC. I would get paid more per hour, I would get expenses taken care of, he would fill my diesel tanks. I can confidently say that this is the quickest I have ever gotten a raise. The strange thing is this is how I imagined it. I would find someone who would take a chance on me, I prove that it is a good risk and things work out. On the first day there was already talk of other jobs for me. The current job in Nashville is 9 weeks. Rob owns a painting crew that has won contracts to repaint Walmarts that are in the process of remodeling. So this gives me opportunity to do work to get my bus fixed up properly and take her out on test runs.

Very exciting times. I have been fending off frustration at my inability to find this type of work in the past months. The Main problem has been my lack of technical experience. All my white collar experience doesn't do me alot of good right now. I believed once someone sees my persistent positive, can-do attitude, mixed with real world practical skills and a genuine interest in learning new things that good employment would follow. That has now happened. I am excited to be doing new things.
I am a staunch advocate of firmly believing in yourself, not giving up and things will work out for you. Positive attitude helps.
Now I can build up experience so that no matter where I travel I can pick up work to keep on traveling.
Driving the scissor lift was really great! You get to roll along the aisles while raised up in the air. It is surprisingly steady, low center of gravity and all that. I can take that thing through a normal size door. And then stretch to the roof of a 25 ft ceiling.
In this video, I had Phil hold the camera while I raised us up to the roof. Phil's nervousness is clearly evident towards the end of this short video. Trust issues are funny. He is really a good guy, I enjoyed working with him.
I've got me a man job now. No tasseled loafers at this job.

Tornado Sirens going off

I have been spending a rainy Saturday afternoon in the library. I woke up to rain coming down and thunder crashing in the background. Being on the bus during a rain storm is still one of my favorite things. Especially wrapped in my blankets with warm pets around me.
But a few minutes ago and now again the tornado sirens are going off. And everybody in the library is looking at one another and going back to surfing online or reading their book. Not me. I check weather.com, see a tornado has been spotted about 10 miles from here and I go outside to see how things are looking. Just very, very loud sirens. It isn't even very windy. I have scoped out the safest place in the library in case things get hairy, but I am worried about my pets on the bus in the parking lot.
I have a feeling that if I do ever catch up with a tornado that my video will have a very 'Cloverfield' feel to it. A true cinema verite experience.