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Up Topic Welding Industry / General Welding Discussion / PSYCHED!!!Stoked!!!
- - By Tommyjoking (****) Date 06-06-2008 13:31
Well fortune has smiled upon me....they finally made a decent offer to a professional and got him in the door.  This guy come in with me on graveyard straight out of the gate and started working coupons.  He has already set a record for how fast he finished his first alloy group (2 days).  The coupons had some of the most consistent (pull out the calipers) perfect pen I have ever seen in my 20 years, and beautiful caps.   I don't want to jinx him by braggin on him but,  those coupons are no brainers period.  He likes bikes (owns 5), likes girls, likes beer and has a great sense of humor.   My work life has just got a lot better overnight!!    YEA

Best Regards
Tommy
Parent - By jrw159 (*****) Date 06-06-2008 13:54
Tommy,
  Glad to hear it. It is always nice to aquire quality help. :-)

jrw159
Parent - - By Ringo (***) Date 06-06-2008 14:08
Hope he doesn't work you out of a job.
Parent - - By sbcmweb (****) Date 06-06-2008 14:26
Ringo, when we going to Amsterdam? :-) S.W.
Parent - - By Ringo (***) Date 06-06-2008 14:32
Whenever you want buddy.I went there on a vacation when I worked at the US embassy in Russia ('94).It was a blast.
Parent - - By sbcmweb (****) Date 06-06-2008 14:38
I can only imagine! :-) S.W.

"Do or die, Semper Fi!" (USMC, Traditional)
Parent - - By Ringo (***) Date 06-06-2008 15:00
OOHRAH,Let me know if you ever get that suitcase MIG.
Parent - - By sbcmweb (****) Date 06-06-2008 15:11
Actually, it's on the way. Finishing a feeder up for a guy this weekend.  I'll be in touch. S.W.
Parent - By Ringo (***) Date 06-06-2008 15:23
sounds good
Parent - - By Tommyjoking (****) Date 06-06-2008 18:36
Ringo this guy could out weld me any day on anything....but I can out fab, out machine and out fit anything he can do so maybe I will keep my job.  LOL!
Parent - By Ringo (***) Date 06-06-2008 18:57
Hey I consider myself a pretty slick welder,but I have inspected welds that I knew I couldn't produce.There are those few that can really 'Harness the lightning".  
Parent - - By sbcmweb (****) Date 06-06-2008 14:24
He's a cyborg...None of it's real. Just too good to be true. Probably an axe murderer! :-) I like reading your posts, Tommy. You're a real riot. Never talked to you yet. I'm Steve, an average schmuck from Michigan who thinks he knows a little bit about welding. Seriously, great find. Hope it works out! S.W.

"No.....We don't want your money...We just want your little girlfriend." (Joshua Leitz to a motorist he has carjacked, Cruel Summer)
Parent - - By Metarinka (****) Date 06-06-2008 15:38
sbcmweb what part of michigan are you from? I'm from ann arbor and I cut my teeth welding in Ann arbor and detroit.
Parent - - By sbcmweb (****) Date 06-06-2008 20:31
The big burg of Lansing, Car Capitol Of The World. I mainly sell machinery now. Not a lot of money to be made welding around here. Weld on! S.W.
Parent - By Metarinka (****) Date 06-06-2008 20:47
ahh lansing home to UM's rival michigan state. I've only been up there once but I had some family friends that worked for big auto in that are and flint before everything hit the fan. Not much left for anyone in the state right now, Detroit auto posts billion dollars losses and thhey say it's a success. I hope they get their act back together before the whole state is sucked into economic collapse. They have some really good welding schools there, I wanted to goto Ferris State but it wasn't in the cards
Parent - - By DaveBoyer (*****) Date 06-07-2008 03:52
    Tommy, He sounds like a "regular good egg" Sure beats having to work with an "A" hole.
Parent - - By Stringer (***) Date 06-08-2008 23:11
Sounds like one of a very few, Tommy. This is the Arkansas shop job, right? It sounded interesting to me, but I'm just fine where I'm at. Twenty five years ago I applied for a job in Baton Rouge. Machinist/Welder. The owner tells me he had a guy who was a whiz at everything. I asked him 'Well, so what happened?" "Last week the sheriff came and got him."
Parent - - By sbcmweb (****) Date 06-08-2008 23:23
Yep. Had some good guys work for me in the hotel back in Vegas....'Till they got busted. Get this, I had one dude, a Mexican guy, real good worker. Always there, on time & not a broke dick. One night I come into work & the swing shift bass tells me that Hector's down in security. Seems he got busted "stringing" a slot machine. This is where you drill a small hole thru a coin & attach a string or fishing line to it to activate the sensor that tells the machine you put money in it. He was only 18. Now, he has a felony for tampering with a gaming device! To do that in the place you work in???????? :-( What a moron! Oh well! S.W.

"It's showtime!!" (Betleguise, Beetlejuice)
Parent - - By chris2698 (****) Date 06-08-2008 23:51
I've seen this alot so many guys so so talented but just have no common sense. They work hard when at work but get all caught up in drugs or whatever it's sad.
Parent - - By sbcmweb (****) Date 06-09-2008 00:15
Yep. I went down that road myself. Real glad I had a good boss that offered me EAP. It changed my life. Got off the crack & speed & got a life. I was lucky. I knew a lot of guys that weren't. Blew every chance they had. Stay cool, man! S.W.

"I can't decide, I can't decide, I can't decide...Anything!" (Henry Rollins, Black Flag.)
Parent - - By chris2698 (****) Date 06-09-2008 00:43
yeah I've heard in this buisness a guy can make so much money but without proper management of your money you can go down the drain pretty fast
Parent - - By sbcmweb (****) Date 06-09-2008 01:02
I suppose that can be in anything. It was a good thing that I was only making around $8.50 an hour at the time as a stove cleaner in a Las Vegas hotel. If I had been knocking down $1200 a week.....I would probably have been dead a long time ago! Serious. I would put it in my arm as fast as I could & I'm real lucky I never got busted or ended up with a disease. That life style killed a couple of my friends & was a real sad deal to see them both go down the tubes. Smart guys too. Just not smart enough to know when to stop. I got a 6 yr old now & couldn't ever bear to see him go the way I did.

I guess I learned something. I drink now & have some back problems & like painkillers a little more than I probably should, but I'm not going back to where I was when I was 20. NO WAY! Stay safe out there, Chris. Nice people on this forum. I'm glad I'm a small part of it! :-) S.W.

"Instead of shelling peanuts, you're going to start shelling the wrappers off these chocolate bars." (Mr. Salt to his employees trying to find little Veruca the Golden Ticket, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory.)
Parent - - By chris2698 (****) Date 06-09-2008 01:06
well man it sure is nice to have you here I sure have enjoyed reading some of your post and glad you kicked the drug thing, yeah I got a friend with bad back problems and he probally takes painkillers a little to much to but I still worry about him at times I hate to see him overdue it. I've talked to him about it sometimes but I just don't know if it sinks in.. probally not. I really have never liked painkiller they make me feel nausous I'd rather get drunk instead LOL
Parent - - By sbcmweb (****) Date 06-09-2008 01:16
I appreciate that. Same to you too. Yeah, my back's jacked. Hurt it a long time ago (actually where I worked in L.V. in the earlier post) and I fell down some stairs last year & that didn't make it any better. I got to watch it. At least I ain't on that Oxycotin or anything real heavy. Just good 'ol Vitamin V. Booze is nice, but never agreed with my insides too much. Don't over do it anymore. Good to see you got your friend's back. ( no pun intended!) I'll see you around the forum, I'm sure. Stay cool man. Sorry to hijack the thread!! :-) S.W.

"This place is for workin' stiffs that gotta keep their cars runnin' to keep bread on the table. Not for no rich ass kids that wanna go draggin' on the Orange belt." (Will Darnell to Arnie Cunningham, Christine.)
Parent - - By Jeffrey Grady (***) Date 06-09-2008 03:13
S.W.,
I  can totally relate to the bad back problems, and the things that seem to come with it. I broke my back on the job when i was working on an EWM Thread-Roller. Slipped on some water soluable coolant and fell into into the one behind me as it was on it's down stroke. It slammed into my back and that's all she wrote. Next thing I know..I can't feel or move my legs. I had to have tubes placed into my spinal canal to drain fluids and keep the cord swelling down. I have 2 long rods 4 clamps and 16 screws, But the really bad thing is they got me on the Morphine because I have some kind of reaction to other synthetic type pain killers. I tell ya, it's taken me 4 long years to wean myself down to 7.5mg a day and only at night when it seems unbearable to lay down for a good nights sleep. I got myself down from 90mg 2X a day!! to 7.5mg once at night. I know alot of guys who hurt themselves and never even attempt to get off the pain killers. The Big "V" is just as addictive as any other pain killer and for some folk it is their complete undoing. It depends on the person. Just be careful with that stuff too.
I went from a wheel chair, to a walker, to a cain and now i am free from all of it and working on a degree in welding at 42 yrs old!
I just put in my self nomination on friday through CPOL for a great gig at the Rock Island Arsenal, here in Ill. I hope that works out well.
Be cool man.
respectfully, Jeffrey Grady

Hey Tommy!
Great to hear of a good out come for you. Stay on your toes and be sure to keep your skills just a bit ahead of his.
Parent - - By DaveBoyer (*****) Date 06-09-2008 03:27
I have had morphene after surgery, but they only let surgery patients like Me on it a cupple days so as not to get addicted. That first night on the oral stuff is pure hell. The pill takes an hour to work, works for an hour, and You can't get another for 2 more hours.

"One pill makes You smaller, one pill males You tall, the ones that Mother gives You don't do anything at all" Go ask Allice
Parent - By Jeffrey Grady (***) Date 06-09-2008 04:36
Dave,
I'm doing this whole weaning off thing on my own. I have haven't even spoken to my Dr. about it. They seem to just want to keep a person on the pills to keep their patient load up. I hope to be completely off this stuff in a few months. I have far more will power and determination to excell just to be held down by a legally prescribed drug. Employers don't have a problem with it, as long as I show them that i have a prescription. I just don't like anything having a hold on me.
Respectfully, Jeffrey
Parent - By sbcmweb (****) Date 06-09-2008 03:50
I appreciate the post. I never have had anything like that happen. I just get real sore in my lower back & it hurts to anything after it gets going. I've had 4 rounds of PT in the last few years & it just doesn't seem to go away. I couldn't imagine being on morphine, I've only had it a couple of times & it really didn't do much for me. Never had it IV though. Never took Oxycotin either. I have been on pills in one way or another for the last several years & I know I will always have an addiction problem. I had it with meth & coke. This is really no different. The only real thing about it now is that I DO have real pain & it's a double edge sword. I got hooked on a non narcotic med called Tramadol. I was on it for about 2 years & was abusing it. My doctor just cut me off it & told me to live with it & take Ibuprofen. That was more addictive than ANY drug I ever used in my life. I wouldn't touch it again. Getting off it was hell.

That was about 2 1/2 years ago. I get V's now, but not too many from my doc. I can get by just fine with 2 (or less) 750's a day. Problem is, if I have more, I'll take them. Just that addict in me wanting more. Oh, well. My Mom worries about it all the time, but I went there with ruining my life once & I got way too much to loose now. I will always have an addiction problem. Until the day I die. I found out thru experience though, if you let drugs get in the way of being responsible, then you need to get off them. I didn't touch anything for 4 years after I went thru rehab. I had a little bout back to alcohol, but that lasted about a month. I didn't drink again for another 10 years. I drink now & it's not ruining my life, so I'll leave it at that. Don't touch any of the illegals now, haven't since 1993. Have no desire to now.

I guess we all got our demons to deal with. Great post, Jeffrey. Thanks! Steve.

""He ain't heavy, He's my brother." Father Flanagan, Boys Town Mantra)
Up Topic Welding Industry / General Welding Discussion / PSYCHED!!!Stoked!!!

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