Shop Time w/T.W. Friends

I wonder...

 

In high school I took carpentry, masonry, agriculture, etc. to get credits but stay out of the other classes, one thing we did was make a nice ticket booth for the football field. It was brick, roofed, etc. About 2 years after I graduated they tore it down

 

Thx brother. I'm tired of fighting this cancer.

 

My first summer work program involved me working for the city of small town. Around 650 population at the time. We made a big planter at a spot that wasnt good for parking due to its location and traffic flow. It was about 4' deep X 6' wideX 3.5'ish tall, 4ish inches thick concrete walls. Almost looked like a crypt. That was around 1989...it still stands today but has numerous scars on the concrete from people hitting it. Im surprised it still stands...lol

 

Hang in there man, you got this

 

Classes like that probably helped light the fire in you to know you wanted to work with your hands but also be specialized I'm sure. Being a bricklayer is an extremely tough way to make a living. Unfortunately emphasis on work like that has all but disappeared from schools as far as I can tell. We need it more than ever too. Majority of kids Cole's age were partially raised by the computer babysitter. 30 years from now adults will know how to reprogram a computer but not what a pipe wrench is.

 

Really hope they figure out whats going on. Didnt you say last scan was clear?

 

Prayers with you, brother.

 

Our masonry teacher was an older guy, he would take an 8 lb sledge hammer with one hand at the end of the handle and pick it up, bring it back and touch his nose and put it back down. I've tried, still can't do it. He was always saying "lay brick make money, put the mortar on the board" and telling us how much we could make laying brick. One guy that took his classes started his own masonry company and still runs it to this day, he graduated in 1991.

Cole wants to start his own grading business. I told him if he does he can make some good money at it cause of what you just said, kids won't want to do it years from now.

 

People dont want to show up or never call saying they cant make it or dont want the job. It sounds like hes got a good game plan. Hope it works out for him. You Still have a few years with him though its really neat seeing him grow up. On the interwebs

 

Pretty soon, people with actual skills are going to be a near extinct species. Electronics and computer crap is fine, and we need it now... I guess, but people also still need houses, toilets that flush, water that flows and cars that run. You can get all the fancy university edu-ma-catin' in the world, and yeah, you might make a lot of money, or you might wind up asking, "You want fries with that?" until you're 42; get yourself an a apprenticeship in a trade, and follow it through to journeyman? You will NEVER have to worry about making your boat payment!

 

Yeah, they think I'm bleeding in my lungs where I had the radiation.

 

I sure hope they are wrong

 

We tell him we will support him whatever he wants to do, not financially but be behind him. I would love to see him become a machinist but he loves being outdoors. I told him back in July when he was watching a guy on a trackhoe he has to fight the heat, sun, dust, etc. He said nah I'd be in the A/C, I said you got to move the equipment and work on it

 

When I was young, learning a trade or getting a steady job with benefits in a factory was "respectable work", a goal stating that you were an adult and able to pay your own way in life. (No guy who didn't work was considered a man.)

Fathers would say something like "that kid has a good job so he is ok to date my daughter". Seems now young people feel being a worker or tradesman is somehow beneath them. Sad.

I feel our country has kind of gone to seed in the last 25 years or so.

 

That earning an honest wage should ever be considered "beneath someone" is a good indication of how far we've sunk. I have a thousand times more respect for the guy that collects my garbage than I do for the CEO of my bank!

 

At my old job I had lots of truckers come through, one English challenged fellow borrowed some tools.
He told me "you drive - you learn fix!"

 

Little bit of difference in the dead part and the right part.