Painter

So I'm a painter.

I go out and put a tatoo on the faces of the earth everyday.

I locate underground utilities.

The thought of ever doing that never crossed my mind until I stumbled upon the job posting for it. At the time I was working at a boys home for at risk youth making 9 an hour. Man are there some stories I could share from that gig. I would like to think that I made any inkling of a difference in the boys I 'mentored' everyday. Definitely makes you thankful for your blessings in an environment like that. I wrestled alot at that job. Which is good, because I have been fortunate enough to be surrounded by nothing but females my whole life (and I have 2 daughters. Go figure. Evidence of God's sense of humor) so I never get to exert my testosterone in that manner prior to working there.

The only wrestling I did as a kid was with my little sister when she'd let me. It was super cool that I could talk her into doing that. It went a little sumtin like this:

Me: "Hey Tiff. Can I please, PLEASE, do a pile driver on you! Your head will hit the couch. Nothing to worry about."
Her: "No way bro! I'm tired of wrestling!"
Me: "If you don't then I won't talk to you at school anymore."
Her: "So?"
Me: "COME ON MAN! PLEASE"
Her: "Okay. But this is the last time."

That was it. As long as I got her to let me do the first one, I'd do wrestling moves on her the whole time WWF Monday Night Raw was on............and it was a 2 hour broadcast.

Working at the boys home was different. I usually wrestled and restrained them because of the imminent need to do so. I'm pretty sure every bit of man that needed to be released after years of captivity was done so during that job. It wasn't fun, but exciting nonetheless.

So I left that life to paint. I locate utilities. I paint blue, red, orange, green, and yellow lines on the ground all day. I deal with irate homeowners and contractors that don't have markings on the ground in time, I'm first on the scene when a utility is damaged, I rarely eat because it's so fast paced day in and day out, I see numerous black widows and wasps everyday, I open manholes, invade people's property, and weild the power of safety cones and a beacon light on my truck (amazing what power you have when you block off a lane of traffic with cones and cut on a safety beacon. People either regard you and care for your safety, or they totally disregard you and fly by, cuss you out, and throw whatever aluminum soft drink can they might have.....still full of the soft drink).

I like this job. I work outside all day. The minutes race by and the work day's over with before you know it. No punching a clock. I wake up, drive to my first job site, and work. The company pays for a take home truck, which goes without saying it a total thumbs up with gas prices these days.

I just stepped down from a supervisor position today. A million reasons why, but I found that I seem a little bit more sane when I don't have 16 different people's problems, and that's not counting contractors and homeowner's issues, to deal with on a daily. A copout? Maybe. But I know that I'll be in a better mood when I come home, and I know that the part of my job I have the passion for is locating, which I can't do as a supervisor. It was a grand experience though. Wouldn't trade that growth for all the beans in Italy.

That's my job. I'm a painter. It encompasses most of my life, which I don't like, but that's my own vice that I need to fix. I've been there 2 years now. I have now accured 2 weeks vacation. I shall now end this blog to fill out a request for said vacation. Sweet.

Peace,

T