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I started working foodservice in high school. Swore it off when I graduated...only job I could get in college was cooking at the school cafeteria. Few other part time food service jobs over the years for extra income.
Votech for auto mechanics after dropping out of college...turned wrenches at dealerships for a few years, then municipal utility work. Did a stint of road maintenance for TXDOT. Then built, sold, moved portable buildings...then oil field housing, handy man business. Turned wrenches on the side when I needed extra income.
Which brings me to current employ...At 38 I obtained my dream job...I manage a Christian Youth Camp in SW Oklahoma. Believe it or not, I spent a summer working here when I was 17, went to this same camp as a teenager, have taught and counseled here over the years as an adult. Told my wife, before she was my wife, that coming to this camp to do this job was the only reason I would leave Texas. I guess God took that as a challenge! My job is primarily facility maintenance, yard work, PR for the camp and taking out the trash! Oh, and helping cook and serve food for around 700 kids over an average summer.
I grew up doing landscaping in the summers and found work in the winters building homes and as a snowmobile mechanic which was all on the job training.
Eventually I started my own landscaping business which has morphed into mostly excavating with the occasional landscape. Basically I install and repair driveways, put in culverts, drainage etc. Perhaps a picture provides a better description.
My best days are operating/driving this Tower around.
My least favorite are my rotations to drive the medic around…AKA Carry all the bags, because contrary to popular belief ALS stands for “Ain’t Lifting ****”.
I'm in healthcare. No professional mechanical background at all, alas the reason I joined FTE. Just learned basic wrench turning maintenance from my old man and continue to learn and refine shade tree mechanic skills with the mentorship from experts here to keep my vehicles rolling down the road with as minimal damage to my wallet as I can control.
I gots me a masters from Hard Knocks. Like Sous, I started my first job at 14 when I could get working papers but my reason was to get out of the house. My dream was to drive trucks around the country and that's the direction I took. Back then, truck drivers were Gods on the highways, respected and well paid. But by the time I got there that all changed. I didn't need driving school because 1) farm work provided the experience and 2) there was no special license to drive trucks at the time and I was grandfathered in. I know a lot of people who had more jobs in one year than I did my whole life and I had somewhere around 6 jobs in my driving career., five years OTR as an O/O. Last 25 years with a union company and is where I got my pension. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then. Mechanically, my first car was a seven year old, 1969 VW Beetle and I had no choice but to work on it myself. My tool chest and abilities grew from there. There is nothing I can't take apart. Putting them back together has proven to be a challenge now and then. As I age, I see what my years of driving have done for my worldly knowledge and I'm impressed with what I can actually remember. I'm equally impressed with what I can't remember. I have met more types of people and seen more companies and products than most people will ever see and for the most part, I enjoyed talking to everyone. Everyone from the recovering heroin addict who's last stint was living on the streets of Philthadelpia to they guys who started their own businesses in their garages.
Oh, and this site is pretty good with good people and great knowledge but I also haunt a 2A site in PA that gives it a run for the money.
This was the last piece of machinery I designed; this was the first prototype but I disassembled it and rebuilt an entirely new machine the day after we shot this video. The first prototype was a proof of concept, going from mechanically controlled hydraulics to electronically controlled valves. Essentially this project was to take a piece of equipment designed in the late 70's and completely redesign it and bring it to 2010 technology. I learned a lot from this project, I had to reverse engineer the entire machine for schematics, and then re-make those using electronics. Surprisingly, the machine actually cost less to make with all the new technology we added.
Spent the first 10 years of my adult life in the USAF doing air transportation, hell of a good time that was. Since then I have dabbled as an electrician, nurses aide, and currently working as a dispatcher at the largest fuel delivery company in the US. I run the GetGo account, so if you fuel up there across the MidWest, stop please I'm begging you
This was the last piece of machinery I designed; this was the first prototype but I disassembled it and rebuilt an entirely new machine the day after we shot this video. The first prototype was a proof of concept, going from mechanically controlled hydraulics to electronically controlled valves. Essentially this project was to take a piece of equipment designed in the late 70's and completely redesign it and bring it to 2010 technology. I learned a lot from this project, I had to reverse engineer the entire machine for schematics, and then re-make those using electronics. Surprisingly, the machine actually cost less to make with all the new technology we added.
Managed a store for a year, then left and started ETC in 1999. Been doing that ever since.
Shocks everyone to see the "computer guy" pull up in a diesel F-250. But, grew up on a farm and am very familiar with manual labor and working on tractors. Just knew there had to be an easier way to make money.
It's used to make concrete flat, it was a running joke amongst some of us that our slogan should be "It makes concrete flat". What it does is has two drums that roll across the top of concrete and screed the concrete from side to side. The machine in the video used a stringline to steer the machine itself. This was one step closer to using a TotalStation system to guide the machine. The video was showing a dry run, and proof that the machine could pave curves.
It's used to make concrete flat, it was a running joke amongst some of us that our slogan should be "It makes concrete flat". What it does is has two drums that roll across the top of concrete and screed the concrete from side to side. The machine in the video used a stringline to steer the machine itself. This was one step closer to using a TotalStation system to guide the machine. The video was showing a dry run, and proof that the machine could pave curves.
I was wondering too, my first guess was ground radar for NecroSearch or archeological excavations. .
It's used to make concrete flat, it was a running joke amongst some of us that our slogan should be "It makes concrete flat". What it does is has two drums that roll across the top of concrete and screed the concrete from side to side. The machine in the video used a stringline to steer the machine itself. This was one step closer to using a TotalStation system to guide the machine. The video was showing a dry run, and proof that the machine could pave curves.
Originally Posted by bigb56
I was wondering too, my first guess was ground radar for NecroSearch or archeological excavations. .
You are actually correct. Making concrete flat is just his cover story for hush hush DoD/DARPA type stuff.
