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For me? How about the economy pulling up out of the toilet so people will start building houses again? I'm sure that I speak for Tom and Marty and possibly a few others too when I say this.

I was pretty bummed on Monday - I deposited my paycheck then paid my rent... and ended up with a dollar and some odd change left over. I now have three dollars and some change to last me 'til the 15th. Things are getting pretty hungry.

Sorry for complaining. I know there are people out there that are worse off than I am, but it sure sucks when it happens to you. Anyone else in the same boat as I?

 

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Jimmy, you are correct. Its all of the residential world that is REALLY slow. It is also normal for this time of year. Lucky for me, I have one house being wired right now, but that's it.

 

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If only we had a drum!!

 

I'm gonna go run around the neighborhood nekkid.

 

Never mind, its too cold.

 

Woo Hoo!!

I promise to put my fingers over my eyes and not watch!!


How are you doing these days Tom??

 

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Yup, gonna be a lean Christmas, for sure. I just hope to be able to put a nice dinner on the table!! Maybe we'll actually have power this year??? Been without power, on Christmas, for three years running now!!

 

we need a new altenator, some jumper cables and a new battery to get this place going again...

 

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Well... being we're a "Mom & Pop" rental store, we do lose out on a lot of the bigger contracts around here to United Rentals over in Port Angeles. They carry a lot more of the specialty tools, bigger equipment and such that we can't financially justify keeping around. We sold off our D-3 Cat, Case 580 Backhoe, and the All-terrain squirt boom forklift a couple years ago. We were losing money by sub-ing the transport out and our insurance company wouldn't cover any CDL drivers under age 25. But more to the point, there is an IHOP going in across the street from us which has given us a couple rentals here and there from the General and maybe a couple from the Subs.

Commercial construction around here has really slowed though. Along with IHOP, the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe is building a tribal medical center, and there is a Holiday Inn Express going in on the other end of town. And again, these larger contractors are going with United. Most likely because they have revolving accounts - but also they have the bigger stuff we don't have. Not to mention they have an outside salesman that drives to the jobsite to check on their needs and can bring them things at prety much a moment's notice. It's just not fair, I tell ya!

But, when things start looking bleak, I just step back, take a deep breath and remind myself that things will turn around eventually. Maybe not next week, next month, or even by next year. But things will change, and we'll all survive it.

I've heard that people are getting work from the banks for winterizing the foreclosed homes in the region. There's a handyman around here that has just gone to doing that only. He can do up to about 4 a day, and claims to get $4-600 each for winterizing the homes, cleaning up the yards and changing the locksets. Sounds like pretty easy money... if you have the ability... which I don't posess. The only thing I ever attempted to build was a chicken coop, and even though it's basically just a shed, it still ended up being all jacked up anyway! Oh well, I never claimed to be a carpenter or a great builder of things. There is one thing I'm better at than anyone else in the world though... reading my own writing

 

That's the thing. We're geared toward homeowners and the lighter end of contractor rentals. Homeowner needs to unclog his drain? Covered. Contractor needs to put in a trench for utilities? Done. Stuff like that has just really slowed up. And it's been like this for us all year. If we're lucky, we might tie December 2008 for rental revenue.

We've been slow enough lately that we've cut an hour off our workday and are on a rotating type schedule to cut back on labor to ease the business' financial pain.

On a four man crew: two of us start at 7:30am and end at 3:30pm while the other two start at 8:30 and end at 4:30.

I may sound ridiculously pathetic for whining about only having around 43 hours per week, but when you're used to 50-60 per week it's quite a change.