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.
No comments:
Post a Comment