Thankful for something I hate

I really hate my job. Ok, just so this is not all doom & gloom, I will try to come up with a few positive things about it. I have a job, there, that's one. I have lost weight, inches and gained more tone/definition, so all the benefits of a gym while working.  I am learning about the lobsters (because that will be so useful sometime in my life?). That's it, I've exhausted the positive aspects of my job.

What is my job? Well, I can't really put a nice name on it, or any name for that matter, nor do I know what my title is, if I had to put it on a resume, because I don't think "crate bitch" or "bug chucker" would look good on a resume. I might need to explain here and now just to clear some things up. I work at Greenhead Lobster, what we do there is buy the bugs (what we call lobster) off the boats and then grade them by size, quality, firmness of shell or just by weight then ship them, well, everywhere. I work in the tank room.

1/2 of the tank

This is where we do all our grading, the tank can hold 534 crates, each crate hold 90-100 lbs of lobster and the crate itself weighs 17 lbs for a total weight of 107-117 lbs each. The tank is kept at about 45*F all the time, which cools the room as well to about 48*F all the time. EVERYTHING is wet, there is NOTHING dry in this room, and its not just water, not just sea water, it is sea water plus! Remember all those 534 crates with 100 lbs of lobster in them? You know what a lobsters favorite food is? Other lobster. And what happens when the bugs eat? They shit, in the water because that is where they live. Sometimes they die in there, sometimes they loose parts in there (legs, claws etc). It all goes in the water, which is in the tank. The water in the tank is always circulating, so there is always water coming in from the sea but all the stuff mentioned above, sinks, kinda, and stinks, like dead fish. Putting the crates IN the tank is not so bad, reaching shoulder deep in to the tank to fix a double stacked crate, sucks. Taking the crates out, usually pulls about 5-6 gallons of water out with it, which is one of the reasons we wear waterproof clothing and boots. So by the end of the day, we smell just like the bugs.  

The Grading area (1/2 of it)

I do grade occasionally, when needed and it really is easy work, also known as being a "bug toucher." This is only 1/2 our day, the next half is especially mind numbing. We pull the crates from the tank (either manually lifting them out or via conveyor). The really fun part is getting into the waders to get in the tank to push all the crates to one end of the tank. Remember the temp of the tank? Remember that it is a lobster cesspool? Ya, we go IN that.

Then the hours, I started there coming in at 10 am, which is wonderful, but not so much when we stay, well, until we are done, anywhere from 8-12 hrs a day, 6 days a week, throwing 117 lb crates around. As I said before, any idiot can do it, and most of the people down there fit that description perfectly. Tired aching bodies, flesh wounds, stinking wet clothes, every day.

I miss having a 40 hr, 5 day a week job where I work with my head, not my back. A man should not have to work so hard 6 days a week that he can not enjoy his only day off.

Then there is the pay, or lac there of, with this job. For as hard as we work, as long as we work, the pay is deplorable, there are no benefits of any kind, no insurance, just pay, very little of it.

Its a mindless job. I love jobs where I make, build or fix something. Here on the coast of Maine, I would love to get into boat building. I think it is something that I would love to do. I get to use creativity (to some degree) I get work with my hands building something, and have to actually think and use complex problem solving. I guess I just really miss my engineering job but the type of engineering I did, there are too few people in Maine who do it.There are plenty of boat yards in the area, it's just a matter of finding one willing to hire someone with no boat building experience. Until then, I toil away 6 days a week making not enough money for the job I do.
I really hate my job.

The Roxie Files 2

This is a re-blog from Gypsie. I added my cometary into it. This is the next phase, removing the entire drive system in one piece for the purpose of removing the gearbox and differential to swap it out with a non-broken one. Actually I do not know which failed, the gear box or diff so the both will come off while it is on the stand. Also I will be doing a thorough tune up, carb re-build and cleaning of the engine at the same time, maybe even a little painting, why not, what classy lady doesn't want to have just a little hint of sexy under the hood? Once all that is done, and the painting of the car is done the chore of putting it all back in will need to be done.

So here is The Roxie Files 2

The Roxie Files

This will be the companion blog to Gypsie's blog about the resurrection of her new car, Roxie.

Let me introduce you, this is Roxie:

She is a 1963 Corvair Monza convertible. Look at those classic sexy lines, that stout stance, she looks a fun ride at any speed. She has issues, shows her age, but has tons of potential. Her start with us was rather auspicious, the alternator was not working, so it needed to be charged before we left. 15 miles in to the trip home (I was driving) we went around a corner, the battery (wrong size to fit in the car) tipped over and leaked acid, the car stopped. We could not get it jump started so I decided to try to roll start it being pushed (up hill) by my Volvo 240 (Gypsie driving). It worked great! 1st gear, away we go, 2nd powering up the hill with ease, 3rd gear....BANG! something broke. Long story short, we had her towed home from there.

Also, the brakes were scary, stiff pedal, but nothing much happens until pressed all the way down then the rear wheel lock up. Thank the gods for being able to down shift. 

Home finally.

There are good parts to Roxie, not all is bad. The body is solid (some small holes in the floor under the back seat) the engine runs strong even needing a tune up.

SO today we started with the demolition. We removed the interior to expose the cancerous sheet metal underneath and to get rid of the worn beyond use seats.

This is the part where we find what we are really up against for work to get her back in road ready condition and have this old girl dancing again.

We have bought a parts donor car as well, a 1964 Corvair Monza Spyder, the 150 HP turbocharged hard top version of Roxie. The interior is great but the body is bad. After talking with the (previous) owner, we have narrowed down that BANG from the return trip to the differential (most likely). So more parts will be coming out of Boris than originally thought. Boris will be my personal project after we finish with Roxie. It will take longer but it also is not going to be my primary transportation as Roxie will be for Gypsie. I am still getting over the fact that she bought *my* dream car for herself, oh well, I get the parts car to play with out of it too.
Here is Boris:

So sit back and follow along on our journey, mistakes, failures and triumphs in restoration.

Rice & Beans

MMMmmmm Rice & Beans, when done right is a great meal, and usually goes over ok here and there are always left overs (making good food stretch). Food is not what I am here to write about, but it is what brought me to this topic today. Kinda. It started from a post on Google+ from someone in my circles. Cara Schulz originally posted this, and a friend of mine re-shared it today which was the first time I read it. Cara touched on something that I have had thoughts on for several years now. The economy stinks, it really stinks right now. Being unemployed makes it just that much harder. People have told me to go apply anywhere and everywhere. Why? Here is an example: I applied at certain world wide known fast food chain that is the but of many menial job jokes. They never called me back even when advertising that they are hiring. I have been turned down from a major retail chain as a cashier because I am "over qualified." So I am too qualified to earn a paycheck?
Damn.. did it again, off on a tangent.

What I propose is something like as follows.

As conditions for qualifying to run for any elected office of governor or higher, they should have to do this for a year.
First, be stripped of their legal and/or business degrees (seems to me that most have one of these), move into a rental house or apartment, have little to no money in a bank account (by little, I mean under $100), no credit cards, no wait, yes, give them 2, both maxed out. A cell phone bill a month or 2 past due, 1 modest, high mileage car that does not fit the entire family. Now, they will start off with their utilities on, electric and internet. No land line phone, instead, Magic Jack (because there are some local gov't agencies that can NOT call to these numbers). They will need to get oil, for their heat AND hot water, propane/gas for their cooking stove. I will be nice and let them be on well water, and have a septic system, so there is no water bill or sewer bill.
 Their challenge, make it 365 days after this start with out going homeless or losing a MAJOR utility. Also they are starting off unemployed.
Here is what they will find. Being broke sucks. EVERYTHING costs. want to go to a job interview? find money for gas to get there. Need a copy of your resume to give? Well guess what, your printer is broken, now you need to go to the library to print it, .10/page. Stamps cost to send back an application. Your assistance that you thought you could get to help get you by until there is employment? Sorry, the assistance is broke too, there is none.
Once they get a job, (if they get one) it might be 40 miles away and because they have no real experience in anything that is hiring, they have a $14/hr job, but hey, its employment right? Its great, they think they have won until they realize that what they take home is much less than that and all benefits/assistance is based on GROSS wages, not NET, but they now make TOO MUCH to get most assistance that is still out there. Dont forget the kids, which means that they will BOTH have to work, and opposite shifts, because day care is too expensive and they need to schedule it so that they can still do it with only the one vehicle. Until it breaks. There is no public transportation, because where they live is too far outside of a metropolitan area that uses it. Remember the job that was 40 miles away? 

How many presidents, have lived like this as an adult? How many congressmen, senators, state reps or governors have lived a life living on rice & beans because they have $20 left to feed a family of 6 for a week?

Having them read about it does nothing, they will not see the reality of it. Joe the Plumber means nothing to them except publicity, because they have not lived like Joe the Plumber.

Just think what would change and how fast it would change if everyone from state rep up to the president had to do this?

They talk about creating jobs, but for who? Where? What kind of jobs? Employment is only one piece of the puzzle, what needs to be fixed is everything else too. No one sees this unless they see it from the inside. Chances are, if you have enough income to run for one of these offices, this life is alien to you.
We need to turn this around, have them see it for what it really is for any real change to happen.
"They should be forced to feed their family on $20 bucks and ask a stranger how to cook some freaking beans..."

Maybe it would not take all of them, maybe just a few of the RIGHT ones. Maybe. Just maybe.

Now to go have a bowl of home made fried rice, I need to find some way to use it all.

New Junk

Let's see.. where to begin with this. First, a warning, this is a RANT! I am blatantly complaining here. Second, I will be speaking in generalizations, I KNOW that what I am complaining about is not absolute and not the case EVERY time, just in my experience, so please dont tell me I am wrong just because you have had a different experience. Ok, disclaimer done. On with the rant.

Age, price, and mileage mean NOTHING to the quality and reliability of a used (no, not "pre-owned" that is just a marketing way of saying USED) car. Weather you buy it "certified" from a USED car dealer, or private party paying cash, makes NO difference. I have bought a $300 23 year old (at that time) car with 150+ thousand miles on it, and sold it with over 175K on it still running great with only routine maintenance. I re-built a few things on it out of choice.

 I have had a slew of under $2000 vehicles that were pretty good and we got our monies worth out of them. I personally have had several under $500 that I drove into the ground. Most recently we (my wife) had purchased a 2004 vehicle for roughly $14,000 with 110,000 miles on it. From day one there were things wrong with it. The heated seats did not work, the dealership delayed getting it to us because there was some sort of glitch getting it inspected. Leak in the sun roof, strange noises (coming from under the car, no where near the engine like neither one of us have heard before and the dealership service department says its "normal"), oil leaks, and we have even had to replace the transmission. When we bought it, part of the deal was new tires, this was done, but there was something they missed. Several months later, we had a side-wall about to let go on one of the new tires, come to find out the dealership never replaced (or even checked) the tire pressure monitor inside the wheel. This needed to be replaced, and the "extended warranty" they sold us did not cover it. Turns out they are supposed to be replaced when tires are. Now, there is a leak in a valve stem and we MIGHT have to replace another tire pressure monitor ($90). Now there is something, somewhere draining the battery when not driven for 2 days, almost to the point of having to jump start it (and the battery is new). We have had this beauty for just a year now. It is junk. Plain and simple. New, plastic, over engineered, junk that gets 1980's big car fuel economy.

TANGENT

Let me just say that the D.O.T. (in my opinion) is totally run by the auto manufacturers. Why they mandate that ALL vehicles come with some things is beyond me. The 3rd (center) brake light, I can almost understand, but not totally, and now this stupid TPMS thing. Some useless gadget put on an expensive vehicle as a "safety feature" (how does this make the car safer?) and now everyone has to have something that adds to the cost of a vehicle, costs about $360 to replace all 4 (which is recommended to do when replacing tires). Thanks D.O.T. you have made my travels SO much safer.

So my latest purchase, $1600, 19 years old 180-some odd thousand miles on it and the biggest repair was a $30 timing belt (that I was able to do myself) and i still get nearly 50% better MPG than the newer expensive one.  I have had this just about as long as my wife's POS.

I have to say, she didnt really choose to buy this particular car, its not what she wanted or even likes, I will just leave it at that. Her car was bought so that she could have "dependable, safe transportation" for her self and the kids. Something that is newer, "so it will not have to be repaired all the time" like an "older," "cheaper," car would have to be. hmmm...

This is why I have always hated that argument, that price/age of a vehicle = dependability and minimal repairs. OLD does NOT = broken, unreliable, costly to fix, or anything else of such derogatory terms used towards "older" vehicles.  So far, in my life time of owning MANY vehicles newer/more expensive does not guarantee good value.

This also depends on the vehicle itself, our particular 4 wheeled mechanism of hatred, has stopped being made after only a few years, and I can see why.

If given a choice between an 19 year old with over 100K miles for under $2000, or a newer 7 year old car I would happily NOT go in debt and buy the much more reliable and safe, economical car.

There is also the "green" factor; people are so concerned about re-using and re-cycling, well, why not do that with cars? If more people just put 10% of the cost of a *NEW* car into an older car, there would be less cars made, right? Here is another little secret, many old cars got good (even by today's standard) fuel economy, and even BETTER than most SUV's that are on the road right now. There was more steel on them and less plastic, steel is easier to recycle and in a very real way, greener than most new materials in cars now. So for get the new hybrids that they still have not figured out how to safely make GOOD batteries for (or how to dispose of them), for get the shiny new cars that get about the same mpg as that old "clunker" in your drive way that needs about $1000 in repairs because we know that $1000 is more expensive than financing a $38,000 car, right?

Customer (dont) Care

WARNING: VENTING RANT TO FOLLOW

I have now (as of tonight) developed a love/hate (leaning more towards hate) relationship with Sprint. I had Sprint back in the wonderfully simple analog days in the late 90's, then went a few years w/o a phone and then back to sprint again in 2004 and have continuously been with them since. That is customer loyalty. I have little to no complaints, even going so far as highly recommending them to others. I love the devices & services they offer. Their plans are great and reasonably priced too. Did I say I love the devices they offer? I currently have the HTC EVO 4G and LOVE it (but have thought about rooting it). This is my 3rd HTC phone (Mogul, Snap, EVO, in that order). This is the love portion of my relationship with Sprint. They dont love me so much anymore. They have just essentially gave me the we should see other people line. In the mail to day was a love letter (of sorts) from them. They will terminate our service if we continue to use roaming at our current rate. Sprint is wonderful, we have not been charged for roaming in the 4 months we have lived here. We have to use roaming, there is NO sprint service where we live, which means for us to have any signal, we must roam.

You see what is highlighted there? "Off Network Roaming" That is where we live. You see that dark green labeled "Best" Its a lie. I drive up Rte. 1 every day, and am roaming the whole way, into Bangor, even IN Bangor.

Here is the Hate. I have been paying a $160+/month for my wife and I to have service. Now because we are roaming so much, and we are not on Sprint Network enough, the dont want us anymore. We have to switch carriers, buy new phones, and all that lovelyness that comes with it. I will have to pay a security deposit to start a new service. Have you seen the prices of new phones? For 2 phones, + deposit + first months bill we are looking at close to $1000. Just because Sprint does not provide service where we live. We do NOT have a land line phone, so these phones are our ONLY phone lines. But Sprint WILL waive the early termination fee so that we can switch carriers. How nice of them.

So lets boil this down
I pay $160/mo for Sprint service.
Sprint does not provide service here.
So they have not been giving me what I have been paying for and I am the one who has violated the terms & conditions of the contract?
They will not refund the previous 4 months that I have paid for a service that I did not get.
Hmm... in the rest of the world, if you pay for something, and dont get it, it is considered theft or fraud. I spoke to the fraud dept. They only deal with identity theft, that is their definition of fraud.

 Fraud

noun

1.

deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage.

2.

a particular instance of such deceit or trickery: mail fraud; election frauds.

3.

any deception, trickery, or humbug: That diet book is a fraud and a waste of time.

4.

a person who makes deceitful pretenses; sham; poseur.

 Synonyms:

counterfeit

duplicity

extortion

treachery

charlatan

blackmain

chicanery

Our best option is now US Cellular. They have comparable phones to what I have but not what I really want. I have also been told there is no way to re-use the phone I have on another network (even if I root it).

Sprint, you now are a douchecanoe.

Featured by BradyBooks

I was asked by the good people of Brady Books to write a blog for them. This is what happened.

http://bradybooks.wordpress.com/2012/02/24/unaffiliated-un-uniformity/

Why I Do What I Do

I have been meaning to say this for a while, I represent no one selling a product nor any agency, just me. First off, nearly all of my adult career has been some how involved in Fire Protection. I have been and am once again a volunteer fire fighter, I have been and am once again a fire sprinkler installer (sprinkler fitter). The most loved job I have had (paid) has been as a fire protection design engineer. I have worked in the manufacturing and sales of fire sprinkler devices, I have grown up with a entrepreneur father who was a distributor of fire protection and standpipe equipment and even ran his business for a short while too. I have designed and installed special hazard suppression systems (non-water based suppression systems). I have been in buildings (as a fire fighter) where there have been sprinklers activated and in buildings (houses) without them. So, my whole life has been about fire protection. Now that that is out of the way, onward.

I am self taught. I work in a highly specialized field, also, a relatively low paying career (compared to many others). I have had opportunities to do other things that may, in the long term, have paid much better, even to the point of not living pay check to pay check, but I stuck with what I love. Lately, I have been involved in many "discussions" about sprinklers in houses. I really do get angry when I hear the argument that it is a "waste of money" and "just another pointless building code" or worse, "if I am already spending $200,000 to build a house why should I spend another $5-$6000 on something I will never use?" Even worse (to me) is my co-workers, some of them, hate their job, and are just doing it for the pay check. They could care less about what they do, even one, who has stated that he sees no point in putting them in new construction. Really? Maybe he needs to find a new career.

Well here is why *I* design/install fire sprinkler systems in nearly every type of building you can think of, INCLUDING houses. I am passionate about what I do for several reasons below are some of them. 
The following are links I have found in my twitter stream:

http://marietta.patch.com/articles/sprinkler-saves-house-11-people

 http://fox4kc.com/2012/02/05/fire-quickly-extinguished-thanks-to-sprinkler-system/

 http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/feb/17/fire-prompts-partial-evacuation-santa-fe-station-h/

 I see these headlines EVERY DAY. Yes, every day. They are examples of what I do for a paid career saving lives.

 I dont get paid anywhere near what my job is worth, but I still do it, every day. If just ONE of the systems I have either installed or designed does its job, just once to help people evacuate, hold back a fire or save a life, then my career will have been worth while.

There is another side to this that so many in the industry over look; sprinkler systems are NOT intended to EXTINGUISH the fire, but only to CONTAIN it so that the occupants of the building can evacuate and until we, my brethren fire fighters can get there and do our job. In reality though, many times they do extinguish fires before they can spread and become a tragedy. Here is how I see it, I would feel so much safer going into a structure fire knowing there is a sprinkler system there, and active than with out one. Sprinklers save fire fighters lives too. Here is one painful example: who remembers the Worcester Cold Storage fire from December, 1999? I do. I was on a fire dept. in the adjacent town. The building had been abandoned for MANY years. The owners CHOSE not to maintain the  dry sprinkler system. 6 Fire fighters died. Had the sprinkler system been able to function, that building would not have turned into the inferno that it was.

I am searching for a second income. I will NOT leave the fire protection industry, it is too important to me and what it can do. I am a certified EMT-B, but not in the state I live, more on that one later.

Install sprinklers.

Hug a fire fighter.

If you see anything in the news about laws for mandating installing sprinklers in houses, do everything you can to support it, it may save your life or the life of someone trying to save your life.