Second day at labor ready

Ouch, it hurt.  This time, we were at Saint Leo college and the work involved moving two desks, two large night stands, two dressers, and a large cabinet to each dormitory room.  Oh, this was mostly on the second floor, with no elevator.

Four straight hours, of lifting things up to a second floor took a major toll on me.  Mind you, I stayed on the stair well most of the time lifting the furniture up the stairs over and over again.  People would cart the furniture to the bottom of the stairs where I and others would grab it, we would climb the stairs with the furniture, place it on other carts where they would be pushed away by other people.  This was a non stop flow, we would get to the top of the stairs with the furniture, and more would be waiting for us at the bottom.  There were many times where I had to stop for a few seconds, catch my breath, drink some water get yelled at, and get back at it.  By the time it hit 12:00 we finally had a break, the hour promised to us for the nine hour day.

I drank a bit of Gatorade felt better, and the next three hours we repeated the process.  The last hour we went from room to room, taking the furniture out of the cardboard and throwing it in the recycling bin.

Two weeks ago I weighed in at 257, today I was 242.

Yeah, the labor is that hard.  I'm sticking with it though, I know it will get easier as my body adjusts.

The sad thing though, is that for working that hard I only made $54 for eight hours..

First day at labor ready

Well, I had my first job at labor ready.  It was on a garbage truck, I was the guy hanging on the back tossing all of the garbage in the truck.  It is a lot harder than I thought it would be, I've got bruises all over my arms from bumping into the truck.

Much respect to the garbage men out there, it is incredibly tough work.  I made it about four hours before I started to feel exhausted, dizzy, and out of breath.  At 250lbs I am incredibly out of shape, I think I may have been suffering from heat exhaustion.  At that point, I kept having micronaps on the back of the truck clinging on as hard as I could.  I ultimately decided to inform the driver that I couldn't do it for much longer and they should contact another person to take over.  I stayed another two hours working on the back while waiting for my replacement.

I was afraid I was going to pass out and fall off the truck, there isn't much room back there it is basically just a step you stand on, and you hold on to a few bars.  Going 40mph at times, while feeling really dizzy and all the strength being sapped out of you can be a frightening experience.

To top it off, I have huge blisters on my feet from going to Disney world last week, they got much worst after this ordeal and now I can't walk.

Labor ready was top notch about the whole ordeal, they told me they would find something else, I'm gonna take off tomorrow though in the hopes that my feet heal enough.

Woot, another job!

As I had planned a few days back, I decided to give Labor Ready a shot.  I already am getting phone calls for work, so I am once again gainfully employed.  I am a bit worried, as this is one of the lowest rungs in the work force.

I don't mean to sound discriminatory here, I am a poor person after all.  I just know that at this level, we have criminals, and people that are here due to extremely poor life decisions.  Last week, when I went in to apply there was a guy there talking loudly on his cell, complaining about how he was fired for doing drugs on the job.  That is the sort of thing that worries me, people with a nasty attitude on drugs, first because I would rather not deal with an idiot that is prone to violence, and second because I don't want to rely on someone at a work site who is drugged up and not paying attention.  I really don't want to deal with some sicko scumbag either, nor do I want to have people trying to do criminal activities near me.

I hope to find more people working there such as myself, live and let live types, who are there more so because conflicts of schedule, or are just down on their luck.  If I am to believe what I have read on the internet, a lot of people that work there are felons, crack heads, and all sort of nasty.  I don't know, perhaps I am lucky because I live in a nice town.  Outside of that one guy that was fired, most of the people I saw there were nice.

On the plus side, I have a job where I can work whenever I want.  I will be outside, doing hard labor, so I will lose weight, I will be learning new skills, and we may just be able to have air conditioning throughout the house for the summer.

For now, I am going to be assigned to working on the back of garbage trucks, slinging the garbage.  I don't mind that, to be honest.  It is honest work, it may be harder than working on the phone, I'll smell trash all day, but at the very least I won't feel like it by trying to con people out of their money.

The unfortunate part is, that is considered overflow work.  I will be on call for when someone calls out, or feels like a day off.  So, on the days where I get no call I am to report to a branch at 5:30 in the morning and be assigned work.  From what I have been told, there is more work than they know what to do with.  To be honest, I am excited to learn new trades.

I really hope there is work on boats, such as fisherman.  That would be really cool.

Outside of the employment scene, I am going to have to take off a semester from school.  I hate to do this, but I am paying out of pocket as I don't want to collect a lot of debt.  It is about $800 for six credit hours if you include the books, and at this point I just can't afford it.

I hate to do so, because I still have college algebra to take and it is best to take your algebra courses one after another.  I also want to get a bit more in programming.  I should be able to afford the winter semester though, as I will be saving up.

The boat is doing well, I've seen some coleman 5hp long shaft outboards that retail for around $500 new and have been considering purchasing one.  I have a feeling my boat will be in the water soon, and can't wait to take my wife and kids out on it.

Oh wow, I got to lose some weight

250 pounds didn't seem like too much to me, I was about 220 when I was 17..  I just saw a video of myself though, and damn I am chubby lol.  I've been floating around 248 to 255 the past week, depending on what I am wearing and the time of day.

I'm gonna aim for the 230s by the end of the month, it shouldn't be too difficult when you weigh as much as I do.

I don't want to live a "normal" life

I really don't, I am horrible with routines and I hate commitments held to others outside of my family.  I don't want to work forty hours a week, fifty weeks a year, until I reach the ripe old age of seventy so that I can "enjoy" life.

If there were such a disorder, where people were the opposite of OCD - I would probably have it.  I like change, routine is my nightmare.

Unfortunately, I am not talented.  If anything, I am a bit below the norm when it comes to others.  So, living such a life would prove to be difficult.  But, where there is a will there is a way.  I don't need a big home, nor a brand new car, I don't need expensive clothes or the best of foods, I don't need expensive vacations nor do I need to outdo my neighbors.

The thing is, I am not swayed by status.  I don't feel the urge, to be valued by strangers.  I don't need to feel that I am better than other people, by my material possessions.  My inexpensive 1200 square foot home is plenty large enough for my family.  My 23 foot long sailboat, built in the 80s, is huge to me.. my $10,000 SUV is more than I need.

And that was the conclusion I came to when I quit my last job,  I would rather be able to sleep at night than bully the elderly into buying magazines, so I could have nicer things.  Today I went to a place called labor ready, it is a temp agency that puts people to work for brief periods of time.  I like that, it is honest work where no commitments are held.  I get to choose when I want to work, and when I want to take a break.  The pay is horrible, but I don't have much that I need to spend it on, so it will do.

We make sacrifices in my household, but we are free.  That is what matters most to me, being free..  You only get one life, enjoy it.

I'm a horrible salesman

I had finally gotten a job, it was selling magazines over the phone, all the calls were inbound, the pay would have averaged about ten dollars an hour, but I couldn't do it.  The thing is, the people calling in received a letter telling them they could win a million dollars, and all they had to do is call in a number and place an entry.

My job, was to try to sell them magazines.  Four attempts at selling magazines had to be made, with each attempt you had to read off a script of several magazines, then nearly demand them buy them.  It felt like bullying, really.  The worst part is, at the beginning of the call you would try to be as friendly as possible with them, then after you gained their trust you pushed your pitch.  It felt so manipulating, grimy, and went against my morals.

The clientele almost exclusively was the elder, people in their 80's who wanted the money to give to charity or their family, most were ill, in poverty, and just couldn't afford the $60 a year commitment, for  four years, many didn't even feel they would live that long.

I would rather be digging ditches, knocking down concrete, or any other physically demanding jobs than be the sort of person that bullies around the elderly.  I gave it my best for three days, and it made me sick to my stomach.  I felt like such a scumbag, and had to detach myself entirely to get through the calls.  At the end of the work day, I would feel like a sleaze bag.

I couldn't see myself doing this seven to eight hours a day, five days a week.  So, it is back to surveys, and perhaps labor ready.. and continuing college.  

I've got to wonder, is this all life has to offer a high school graduate anymore?  I can't work in an environment  where the objective is to scam people out of their money, I can't work at a place where I am not allowed to be myself.  I'm not the sort of person, that likes to take advantage of anyone.  I am the sort of person, that loves to help other people, without expecting them to purchase my product.  For example, fixing things such as computers.  I wouldn't want to sell people computers, just fix them at a reasonable rate.

I'm really missing my old job, working in IT.  If only there were more demand for it now.  For now, I'll just work for my self.  The pay is lousy, but at the very least I can sleep at night.