Starting a new job tomorrow

Well, after three months and four days, I'm sitting at home with a three day weekend, gearing up to try something new.

A small manufacturer around here was in need of a mechanic, primarily with heavy electrical experience. Someone who can read a wiring diagram and build harnesses from the ground up.

Things at Alstom just weren't going to pan out. I don't like being lied to and I don't like working for a company that the higher ups blame everything on the line workers.

I was handed a gun to paint exactly one part. I was told that before my probation was up that I'd have all my in house certifications done. No future in the place, especially considering that only way to get ahead is to be a long time union member where seniority is favored, or basically throw a fit to get ahead.

Working with a bunch of 20 something year olds who are half my age with a fifth of the experience. A few have been there for a few years. I agree with them that they deserve a shot at moving up after being there that long. Give them their shot. But don't ignore the experience of a man who's had a gun in his hand since before these kids were born, either.

The Boston Green Line cars are full of asbestos. The MTA cars are full of heavy metals. Someone called OSHA on them. After over a $100k worth of fines we (the line workers) were blamed for air quality and not taking the proper precautions. No showers provided for the guys in strip and they were basically told there never would be, because the air quality was "lower than OSHA standards." Not that one guy's minimum exposure might be another person's maximum.

Don't even get me going on smearing bondo all over heavily rusted metal and not giving a ****. I closed out my time there smearing eight gallons of bondo on a five foot by five foot patch of sheetmetal on a Green Line car. It was straight, it was level (once the car is in paint it'll probably be the best looking patch of metal on the train), but for $1.2M per train, the taxpayers deserve better than smearing all that bone on top of heavily rusted metal.

Oh, well. On to bigger and better.

I'm going to go to work building amphibious buses. Each one is built to order. The bodies are pretty much built to print, but everything else is custom work. When I interviewed there were four in the shop. One heading to Dubai, one heading to France, one heading to Japan, and the last heading to Norway. Each one of them is powered by something different. The Japanese bus is Isuzu powered with a Yamaha marine engine. The Dubai one is all Cummins powered with twin marines.

Like I said, I'll be doing a lot of the electrical, but I'll also be painting these buses. And I'm getting paid what I'm worth, with the opportunity to make more as I go. So, I'll be getting a huge raise over what I was making, driving half the distance, and have three day weekends to get things done around the house. Which is nice. With the new little one due in December, I've got another bedroom to remodel.

And, Karli and I have agreed: I'll be putting in the garage with the extra money and getting back into restorations on the side. Win, win, win.