Lifes a Train wreck

Robert and I collected all the pipe and elbows to pipe in our heat and AC system from a different shop than I had planned. The “business” I had originally contacted never even started on the list and decided a vacation sounded better than helping a customer.

We got all the parts we needed to buy in one stop, and had all the parts I needed made at another. Let the fun begin!

It is cloudy and cool today. The weather is supposed to turn nasty for the next few days, so we will see just how far I get with the central heat project.

Mom is doing badly again from what I hear. She is very weak and has three appointments this week with health professionals to try and sort it out.

That is about it for today,

Tom

The sky is blue and the world can finally dry out… after three days of constant rain it’s a done deal. No close tornadoes to report, or downed tress that I know of yet, but the weather has passed us by for the moment.

It is chilly though and windy here in northern Florida. But the sun is shining!

Not alot to report from yesterday, since it rained all day, the only thing I did was take some movies back to the rental store and play on the computer while listening to the thunder crack….

Tomorrow I am going to call the contractor I called about the parts for our central air system and see if he has done anything with it yet. If not I found another person who may feel the need to hurry a little bit in the name of customer service.

That is it for now anyway,

Tom

We are still under a tornado watch, and will be until 6:00 tonight. Wind, rain, and lightning have consumed our world the last several days with no break until tomorrow.

Not much going on here. Robert and I worked on models last night for a while and his first GTO is ready to primer the body.

I did see something very interesting in the news; it seems we do have killer whales here in the gulf after all. A group of four pods were spotted south of Alabama with around 200 individuals in it. Evidently they never leave deep water (600 feet) so they are seldom seen. In fact they have only been studied for the last fifteen years or so since sightings were so rare that no one though we had any.

That is all for now,

Tom

We had tornado watches in affect yesterday, and it has graduated into warnings today. A water spout is on the edge of the County right now. (Nothing new) It is cloudy and nasty out, and yet the Blue Angels jets are practising overhead as I type….

That is one perk of living near an Air Force Base, free air shows! Free to the general public. A word of warning if you do move near an air base and attend a show, since you watch it on the base don’t forget to leave your pocket knife at home, or you will receive an armed escort to a destination of their choice.

I am in a real funk right now job hunting wise. I changed jobs too many times chasing the almighty dollar, and I caught it one to many times. But if you don’t chase it you don’t ever get ahead, a vicious cycle!

I will try to concentrate on trade specific jobs (sheet metal) and hope I get a bite from out of town… I hate being gone all of the time but what else can you do?

Last night was TV night: Smallville, Supernatural, and cleaning a few older Knightrider episodes off the recorder. Speaking of Knightrider, I understand why it was cancelled… it wasn’t bad, but it really wasn’t good either. I wonder how long it will take Hollywood to figure out that the general public knows that a car is not going to fly just because you hit turbo boost.

Well, time to go!

Tom

Good ol’ Florida, how do I hate thee, let me count the ways….

It is virtually pointless to try and go into a construction based business here. The requirements to prequalify for testing to receive a contractors license are ridiculous!

Anyone without a bachelors degree in engineering, Architecture, etc. has to have four years experience, trade school, and which is no big deal, but one of those years has to have been as a foreman. Foreman’s positions grow on trees here evidently… not to mention I have not met a foreman here that is more qualified than I am.

Being a foreman has no bearing what so ever on whether or not you know what you are doing in HVAC.

I cannot build my own house here.It doesn’t matter how many houses I have built in my life, but in Bay county, Florida I am not allowed to build a building with more than 125 square feet without hiring a general contractor. It doesn’t matter hat I would follow the same codes he does or even that I can do a fine job without his expensive help.

I am pissed! If I could I would move away tomorrow. I am going to start looking for work elsewhere from now on. I talked with a friend of mine and at least for now Colorado is out of the question as the politicians there killed the oil field work that was fueling the frenzy, and there are no jobs there.

I am really glad that I dug a little deeper before I started spending money on my business ideas.

Tom

Well that was fun, it was also the very last interview I will ever do! I did not get a job after all of the crap I went through trying to get it. I admit defeat and will curl my tail between my legs and try re-entering the world of the brave, the poor, the self employed….

Yes sir, it’s the handyman’s life for me.

I would rather starve than fall that far back down the food chain again, and I am pretty sure I felt the bottom… I guess I am about to see in a very real sense what tomorrow brings.

I picked up the insulation for the duct work on our central air unit today, and the thermostat. I have a list of materials in with a shop that I used to work for as well awaiting a quote from them.

I don’t really have enough material to get started yet, so I hope he gets to it soon.

I did manage to sit at the Dodge dealer’s lot while getting my oil and filters changed. It was a little bit over due. Of course they added insult to injury by having four new Challengers on the lot for me to drool over in my long wait.

Now I am agonizing over a new kind of writing, advertising, business cards, and a business plan, oh my!

Tom

I got the call this morning. At 4:00 PM I get a second interview for the maintenance position. It is funny how finally having some interest by a prospective employer can brighten the day….

I have to feel relief that after so long, anyone does.

Robert and I washed the vehicles yesterday! I got all of the nasty pine sap off both the car and the truck and made them both look a lot better. Robert has a thing or two to learn about washing windows… but his inherent teenage laziness did not pay off as dad made him re wash all of them.

We rented a couple of movies last night: Max Payne, and Eagle Eye. Max Payne wasn’t great by any means, but I did enjoy the adrenaline rush that was Eagle Eye.

I finally managed to get a gallon of carburetor cleaner to fix the lawn mowers with while I was at it too. Hopefully I can get one of the mowers working soon before the weeds get out of hand again.

Well, it is that time again,

Tom

It is a beautiful day outside today! A great day to work in the yard or on the house, but a much better day to recreate….

I watched a couple of programs on the Science channel last night that I thought very interesting. It was on people with special abilities and some of those people were amazing.

There was a man from turkey born without eyes that was an artist. He painted with perspective things that he had never seen and did a pretty fair job of it.

Another man could do complex calculations in his head, like all of the powers of 83 to 9 places; which is in the trillions… and he was not a savant.

A girl who perceived sound and taste as colors, which gave her long term memory beyond the capabilities of mere mortals.

I saw two of the programs, back to back, very interesting.

I spend a couple of hours cleaning out the shed. Lots of trash and crap, very little quality junk that really needed stored… now I have room to cram more crap in there once again!

Well It’s time to wash the vehicles, they need it!

Tom

I tried to get some of the pieces I need for the AC and heat system today. None of they supply houses I managed to contact carry heavier gauge 12 and 14 inch pipe. they all carry 30 gauge pipe but not 24 or 26 gauge… 30 gauge is worthless and flimsy, not a good statement for contractors down here.

30 gauge 12 inch pipe is not even industry standard or technically legal, but it is all they carry because it is cheaper. Planned obscelecence, not a good thing by any means.

So I am going to have to order it or have it shipped in. I have no intention of building a piece of junk just because the contractors here do. I have never understood the cheating your customers thing, it is bad business.

The supply houses here cannot carry items that I am used to using that are faster and easier to use, and are not even allowed to order it. Again a strange business philosophy.

Not much else happened today as I stayed in bed way to long trying to get rid of a headache.

I did watch “Hancock” on the exchanged DVD, and it was nice to see the parts that were messed up on our original  used disc.

Tom

I am one of three in the job race so far… out of hundreds. I had a personal interview and even worked with the guy for a couple of hours.

I am sorry about the late start today, but I woke up with the same headache I went to bed with, took some Ibuprofen, and went back to bed.

Robert and I caught up with three episodes of Supernatural last night right after Smallville.

AC has finally realized they have a problem with search engine indexing! They request anyone, who has an article written on Associated Content, that takes longer than two days to send them the link so they can check it out.

It is beautiful here today, as it was yesterday, and spring has sprung with full force!

I can hardly wait to get that AC unit installed as we will be needing it soon.

Take care,

Tom