it's over!!! and just starting.

SOOO I decided I had enough. On Friday (Aug 8th) I quit. For good. No more apprenticing. I'm done with construction. At least as a job. I'll still do stuff on the side if anyone asks me to change a light fixture or whatever. But as of now I am finished. Let's go back a bit...

In my last entry I talked about how I thought I was losing my job at the place I got my new job at. Sure enough I did. So I started looking elsewhere. A guy who lives down the street is friends with an electrician (go figure we only find out now and not 3 years ago). He said he'd hire me on as summer help and see how things go and whatnot. So I start working for the guy and it's all commercial jobs. No more houses. No more Romex. No more grey connectors. Not really any more wood. Everything is steel or some other form of metal. All BX cable. Everything is very sharp. Almost every day I would bleed. Before when I was working on houses it was usually me cutting myself with a knife by accident. But not anymore. I hardly ever use a knife. Everything else cuts me.

This job took me all over the place. Opa! Souvlaki - Erin Mills Town Centre (Mississauga), American Apparel - Sherway Gardens (Etobicoke), Charm Diamond Centres - Georgian Mall (Barrie), Laura Petites, Laura, Laura Plus - Fairview Mall (Willowdale), Freshly Squeezed - Fairview Place (Kitchener), Freshly Squeezed - Scarborough Town Centre (Scarborough), Charm Diamond Centre - Cambridge Centre (Cambridge), Thai Express/Villa Madina - Admiral Inn (Niagara Falls), Teriyaki Experience - Walker's Line (Burlington), Toys 'R' Us Canada Headquarters (Concord), Toys 'R' Us (Vaughan), Toys 'R' Us (Kitchener), Merriam Pianos (Vaughan), and everywhere in between. They apparently have done work in Windsor, Ottawa, Belleville, and The Penn Centre.

As cool as working on all those places was, and getting to see the inner workings and secret corridors of malls and stores, I hated it. I was working 12 hour days with around 4 hours of driving time on top of that for the last while. The only free time I had was weekends and that was because I refused to work them. I worked one Saturday and it was terrible. If I wanted to do anything during the week I needed to sacrifice sleep and then be tired all day. I was always tired at work. There were some days when even if I fell asleep as soon as I walked in the door when I got home, and woke up when I was supposed to be in Hamilton, I wouldn't get 8 hours of sleep. That's not a life. Not one I want to live at least. I don't mean to offend anyone working in the trades or whatever, but I felt that I was living a meaningless existence. I just felt that for my own life. I applaud anyone who can actually do the work for a living and do a good job. I just couldn't see myself doing that for the rest of my life. As jon says, "we were meant to live for so much more".

There's so much BS that those guys have to put up with. I would always hear my boss and the other tradesmen talking about how many times they've gotten screwed and stuff. And everyone is talking about a big slump coming up in the industry and that doesn't interest me. I need job stability. And they all complain so much, and swear, a lot, and say the most filthy things about women they see walking around in the malls. The stereotypes about construction guys being dirty and constantly checking out chicks is actually true. That's what break is for. I'm not lying. I'm serious. I also hated working for my boss. He means well. Unless you piss him off then he is likely to kill you. Also not lying about that. I'm not gonna get into all that business but suffice to say, working for him was crap. I could go on and on, but I won't.

So that all begs the question, 'What now?'. School. Three years after leaving highschool (four after graduating) I am going to college. Tomorrow I should be hearing back from Mohawk with an offer of admission for the Electronics Engineering Technology (Co-op) program. That's what they told me anyway. So ya. Oh look its raining again. Anyway, I quit for ever. I'm going to college. The band is coming along. Working on a few songs. Time to enjoy what's left of summer.

the end again?

so. much. work. I have been putting in 10 hour days. there were a few days were i was gone for 12 hours. so draining. things have been a lot better than my previous job. it's all new construction. no renos. and its all custom homes. big custom homes. ridiculous homes quite frankly. the house in simcoe has a some sort of geothermal thinger. I don't know exactly what it does. it has something to do with the heated floors. ya every foot of floor in this place is heated. even the front porch is. and in the summer the water from the pool will cycle through the floors and ya it's just crazy. incredibly high ceilings. lots of lights. crap load of plugs. there will be a whole whack of tvs around the house. ...5 or 6 from what i know. all plasmas. theres 3 or 4 breaker panels. speakers throughout the house. every single wall is insulated. some other guy originally did the wiring and i think it got inspected and it failed miserably. so we got in there and spent a few weeks ringing out wires and trying to figure out what all they did and what we had to fix. i think we finally got caught up with all the other guys working on the house. we started holding them back a bit cause there was so much we needed to do.
The house in ancaster isn't as crazy. but it's still pretty crazy. the owner is a nut. thats all i'm gonna say about that.
There are 4 houses in Oakville. or. 3. and one just outside in burlington. and i think one other in burlington. i haven't been to that one yet. the oakville ones are crazy. 2 of them are for this guy that buys property with a house on it. destroys everything. then builds a huge house on it. then sells it. the original property? 800K - one mill. insane. its like one of the most expensive areas to live in canada. i saw an aston martin drive by the one day.
I had today and have tomorrow off. i don't know whats going on. might be losing my job. maybe not. i am slightly paranoid.

second first

Today is my second first day of work. I got a call Sunday(25) night from a place I applied to a few weeks prior. He wanted to know when I could start. Today is that day. I'm just waiting for him to call me with where I'm supposed to go. It's in Ancaster somewhere today. At least for the morning. And he just called. Ok. 5:30 wakeup wasn't entirely necessary today. Don't need to be there till 8:30. Oh well I'm sure tomorrow I'll have to be up that early. Or maybe earlier if I need to go to somewhere farther away. I know he has jobs in Simcoe, Port Dover, and Oakville. Just took one in TO apparently. That'll be fun to drive home after. Or I'll just stay in a hotel if we're gonna be back the next day. We shall see. I'm a little nervous. I won't lie. Don't want to do something stupid on my first day.
It'll be good to make money again so I can afford things. Like a certain trip down south. *cough* Anyway I might take a little nap. Maybe not. Maybe I'll have a coke. Probably not. XBOX? Definite possibility!

i dunno... pub?

So. It's been a while since I've worked. I'm currently looking for a new place of employment. I have some leads that I will explore. When I get hired somewhere I'll start writing about my adventures again. Bank account is emptying slowly. must. make. moneys. Once I start making money again I can buy some new guitars and finally do the recordings I've planned on doing. And a new computer to record onto. and pay for plane tickets. y'arr.

finally

7735 more hours. I know I did work. I just don't remember much. I don't really care. As far as I know he left for Jamaica on Saturday (15) and gave me Thursday (13) and Friday (14) off and only worked a half day on Wednesday (12). We were in Burlington, OH YA! Monday (10) we went to this guy's place that James knows who owns Complete Roofing to install pot lights on the outside of his house. Problem is that they were to be installed on the underside of the roof that hangs over the edge of the house which is pretty high up cause the house is two storeys and the one was over the quad-car garage which is under the house so the driveway slopes down so now it was three storeys up. We had to borrow one of the guy's 30 ft ladders to get at it because we don’t have a ladder that could reach and this guy owns a roofing business so they need bigger ladders. So we did the first light then the second. At this point we were at the side of the house. The house/property isn't finished so the landscaping is not done at all. A couple days before when we were there James put his foot through the ice into a hole in the ground. While we were moving the ladder we were sure to avoid that hole. Only problem is that the hole underneath the ice was bigger than the hole he made in the ice. I got past it fine but when he walked on it he just dropped which then left the ladder to drop and then gravity and such did its job. We weren't going too far so we decided to leave the ladder upright and pick it up and move it to then gently rest it against the house so we didn't have to bring it down, carry it, then walk it back up. So now there's this teetering tower of metal that is starting to fall toward the house. The very nice expensive house with big expensive windows. So I did what needed to be done. Throw my weight at the ladder to keep it from falling toward the house. I was able to redirect the ladder, but it had already started to tip and so I used every ounce of strength I had left to try and keep it standing and not let it come crashing down. I was holding it steady, but then I realized that I was slowly getting crushed and it was forcing me to the ground until I ended up with my head between the rungs and the ladder resting on my shoulders while i was squatting in the snow. That was terribly painful so I got my head underneath and leaned forward to put the ladder on my back and tried to push up. I don't remember how I ended up getting out from under it. But I did. It did a number of my back and neck which I felt for the next few days. We did the other lights then went into the basement and wired them up.
Then Tuesday (11) we were next door-ish at this other guy's place who is still building the house. This house is 8000 sq ft with a crazy view of Burlington. House itself is sorta ugly. Might look better when it's done. James had been there before I started working for him and had put in a temporary panel and sub panel while the guys built the house but now that it's winter and the structure and stuff is all done they wanted some power inside. So first I had to find the teck cable that was buried under the snow that was running over to the sub panel to discover that it was buried under the dirt for a few feet right by the box. Oh goody. So he found me a pickax and a shovel. The shovel did absolutely nothing to the ground. So a pickaxing I went. That was exhausting. We got the cable out, got the panel inside, ran the wire inside, hooked up the new panel, plugged all the other guys stuff in and done. There was more involved and it took up most of the day but I'll leave it short.
Wednesday we were on Bond Street putting in two wall sconces and a switch for them, and an extra counter plug. Only took the morning to do. Then we went back to the office, I got my cheque for the last 5 weeks and that is all in the way of work for the next 3 weeks. Finally.

not a whole lot

7794 more hours. So after me weeks off, James called me Sunday (18) to tell me that he has stuff to sort out so he won't be around so don't come in till Wednesday (21). Ok then. So Wednesday the weather took a turn for the worse and so I ended up doing nothing all day except fix a plug that the polarity had been reversed. He had outdoor worked scheduled for the day. Now that's planning. So he tells me depending on what the weather is like the next day if I should bother coming in. It snowed that night. So no work on Thursday (22). He said that he would set me up to finish things up at the house on Bristol for Friday (23). Friday morning I'm ready to go out the door and my phone rings. He informs me that there are too many guys still working in the house so there's nothing for me to do. So I crawled back into bed. In the pay period that was those two weeks, out of a potential 80 hours.. I worked 10. weee. This past week I did a full week but I told him that I'll just put those hours on the next paycheck. I think he was relieved that he didn't need to pay me till later. I'm not totally sure about what days I did what but I know on Monday (26) I did the work at Bristol. Then another day I went back to put the last couple wires in the panel and install the rest of the lights. Then I was at a house down the street that we walked over to. It was just the attic that they were getting finished so Rupert was framing it up and I went around and put in some boxes and ran the wires, then that night they drywalled it and it was Friday (30) that I put all the plugs, switches, and lights on. Then we went back to that house on Lottridge that we worked on for so long in the summer that apparently still wasn't done. So I ended up helping with the sink on the main floor and the cabinets. But by the end of the day those two houses were done and the keys were handed over. There's still Bristol however. No idea when that'll eventually get done. Saturday (1) my parents left for Vegas. Today (2) was my birthday. 21. yay. Anyway, tomorrow (3) we're heading to Burlington as far as I know barring any early morning phone calls telling me to not come in. Roads are supposed to be bad tomorrow. We'll see.

wake up call

7832.5 more hours. Thursday (8) I woke up cause my phone was bouncing around (it's on vibrate). It was my boss calling. I thought, why would he be calling me. Maybe I don't need to come in today? First thing he says to me is, 'Where are you?'. I'm at home. 'Are you coming in today?'. Ya. Then I noticed what the time was on my other phone. It was after 9. I'm supposed to be at work at 8:30. Then I started to freak out. He told me to meet him at the house we were going to be working at so I wrote down the address and started feverishly getting ready. I found the street but not the place so I called him and he said that he wasn't even at the house. He got caught up at the supplier downtown and to go wait for him at the Tim Horton's nearby. So I got a hot chocolate and waited. and waited. I sat there for over an hour and a half and then he finally showed up. Apparently there were issues with his brother, and then the supplier didn't have stuff, and other people were calling him and he was exhausted before we even started working. So out of all the days I could have slept in (because in my sleepiness the night before I left my alarm clock on the set alarm time thing so it never went off) the morning where he had a slue of problems that delayed him getting to work is the one that it happened on. That's not chance. Anyway we ended up at this old Italian guy's house. Oh look the whole house has aluminum wiring. Great. Oh what's that? None of the plugs and switches are rated for aluminum? And the light fixtures were connected with marrettes that aren't rated for aluminum? Awesome. So here's what we get to do. Take off all of the plugs and switches. Disconnect all them. Take a piece of copper wire and pigtail the aluminum wires (with special marrettes and special goopy stuff) to the plugs and switches. Oh and also take down all the ceiling fans and lights and replace the marrettes with the special ones and if there is copper to aluminum connections, use the goopy stuff. I was terrible in chemistry class but there' something about copper and aluminum that when they're put together they oxidize and corrode or something and crumble and fall apart and then your house burns down. So these special marrettes you can use with aluminum and the goopy stuff is Noalox (made by Ideal) which impedes that corrosion. Yay. Anyway it sucks. And the old dude has been smoking for who knows how many years and I can hear him coughing in other rooms and it sounds like a lung is coming out and he has this laboured, slow breathing. It's creepy when you're working and he kinda shuffles up behind you and you don't hear him coming cause of the little slipper things he wears but you hear the breathing getting closer and louder and he just stands there watching you work. just. creepy. he and his wife are really nice and kept offering me ginger ale and then some sort of cake at one point. But ya. Then James left me there to fend for myself all day Friday (9). Then I told him that the next week is not such a good one for me. Monday (12) night was the Switchfoot/Relient K concert in Ypsilanti which I would have to leave early afternoon to get to in time, and then wouldnt get back till the next day. Then Thursday (15) I was getting my wisdom teeth pulled out in the morning and I would need the next day off as well to recover. So Wednesday (14) was the only day I could work. That just happened to be a day he was going to give me off because he had meetings with hydro or something. So I said that I would come in Monday (12) morning to help out for a little before I had to leave. He appreciated that. So the concert was awesome. Wrote about it in my Facebook notes. Switchfoot = so good. Got to meet them again and talked with some of them for a while. Jon played Corey's guitar again. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngqmcdgpY7o So then that brings us to Thrusday. All four wisdom teeth ripped from my skull while I'm wide awake. The chloral hydrate definitely failed me. It knocked me out before they started, but once he started injecting me with the freezing stuff, I woke right up. It was horrible. I'm on some painkillers so i don't feel too great right now. If stuff doesn't make sense that's why. I'm tired.