January 3, 2006

Skills To Pay The Bills

I got I got the skills, as it were.

Whir can now be placated with a Beastie Boys ref after the Counting Crows song quote.

Or I could bust out Mom's N'Sync CD and watch his ears bleed. However, since that would make MY ears bleed...no.

Anyway. Let us begin with a picture.

This is not, I assure you, the sort of New Year's resolution I intended. But that new job I mentioned requires it for the respirator mask, so there you go. It feels decidedly odd, yet strangely familiar.

I wish I could show you a picture of said respirator mask, because, as the guy sitting next to me in orientation said, "Hey, now we get to look like Darth Vader." I don't think I get to take it home, though, so.

So what am I doing, anyway? Working at Country Coach. They make RVs. Nice ones. Me? I sand cabinet doors. Many of them. From 6:55 in the morning to 5:25 at night, I sand doors. And putty them. We sand more before 9am than most people sand all day, as it were, leaving aside that most people don't sand anything at all, let alone before 9am.

This is more complicated than you might think. There are steps:

1. Doors, already assembled, arrive to us.
2. Various cracks, nail holes, etc are filled with the appropriate colored putty.
3. Somebody hits it with a little sander across the surface.
4. Somebody else (not me), hits it with a little sander around the edges.
5. Somebody (usually me), hits it with a big sander over the surfaces.
6. Doors are then stained and released into the wild.

We did, I dunno, 2 RVs worth of cabinet doors today, which is up from yesterday, since I'm getting better (I can't putty for shit). We'll probably get 2 and maybe 3 done tomorrow if we're awesome. I will then arrive home at around 6-6:30 more sore than exhausted, though I somehow managed my first day on a whopping 2 hours of sleep. Monday through Thursday, week after week. At $10/hour. This is all surprisingly ok, especially since you're generally far too busy paying attention to detail to actually be bored or anything. But it only leaves me like 3 hours at night to Civ, which is bad.

And now I had best go, before Whir hurts me.

Posted by Dwip at January 3, 2006 7:01 PM
Comments

*yawns* Yeah, I'm totally with you on this whole "I have to get up WHEN? And go do work?" thing. I needed to get caffiene by the time classes let out today.

OTOH, I tried, and could not find it in me to find sympathy for your having only three hours of free time a night. :P

But, in that "yay productivity, yay money" way, yay job.

Posted by: Regina at January 3, 2006 8:16 PM

P.S. I have no compunctions about finding my old NSYNC or Backstreet Boys cds to torture either of you with. So behave. ;)

Posted by: Regina at January 3, 2006 8:17 PM

Do that, and I'll find a way to stay firmly on this side of the country, thank you very much. :P

I gotta say, definitely the worst part about this job is how I get home at 6 and go to bed at 9:30. It just sucks in a way nothing has sucked since HS and going to bed at 10:30-11.

The number of parallels between this and school is in fact numerous, from the hours to how I haven't had oatmeal for breakfast in 7 years or so. For a second I wondered where the glass of milk was, too.

Then I opened up a nice refreshing Cherry Coke.

Posted by: Dwip at January 4, 2006 6:16 AM

So I got out tonight, and there was a sunset, and I was like "Yay!" because you know that whole saying about how West Coast people go to work before the sun rises, and leave work after it sets? Totally me. I see the sun 3 times a day at breaks. I feel like a troglodyte.

As to the whole No Sympathy For The Rabbit thing, well.

1. Both of you are younger and remember HS closer than I do, because it was, you know, 7 years ago almost, which was the last time my schedule sucked this bad, and:

2. I assure you, whatever you did during those hours where you may or may not have had free time, it definitely beat standing in front of a table for ten hours a day sanding doors. And probably hurt a whole lot less. On the semi-plus side of all this, I've pretty much won most all of the "My job sucks worse than your job" arguments I will ever have.

Though I'm sure Cole will find a way.

Posted by: Dwip at January 4, 2006 7:30 PM

Now try adding a girlfriend into the mix. You go from three hours of free time in a day to negative six.

Also remember the three day weekends. I would so unmind going to three day weekends for a few months. Then again, I'm generally working six days a week these days.

Posted by: Whir at January 5, 2006 12:33 AM

I'd think more like -3, since we both know that 3 hours of that time usually goes into Civ anyway.

OTOH, the 3 day weekend WILL be nice, I admit.

Posted by: Dwip at January 5, 2006 5:49 AM

Hey, sweets. I came across (although not literally, but how funny would that be?) a mobile wallpaper of two bunnies having sex, and it made me think of you. Isn't that sweet?

In this pic you look kind of like Lurch's stoned little brother.

Posted by: Rachael at January 5, 2006 9:45 PM

Somehow, this surprises me not at all.

Posted by: Dwip at January 5, 2006 10:25 PM