Shop Time w/T.W. Friends

When we got married my wife was passionate about watching Carolina basketball, I couldn't even talk to her during a game. I would go outside and find something to do.

Turns out she got that from her dad, their house is covered with Carolina "stuff". She realized it wasn't her and wound up not watching, or caring for it.

Last year at my sons 10th birthday party he sat in his car and listened to a Carolina game while we sang happy birthday and his 1st born grandkid opened his gifts.

What little respect I had left for him, left me that day.

 

I really need to get myself a small manual mill.

 

I'll offer my personal experience on this. Understand that I know many people don't have the opportunity to do what we did to get to this point but at the same time, what we did wasn't anything crazy, it just took a bit of foresight and planning. Also keep in mind that I work at a university.

My wife was an RN. She saw education as a means to get out of her parents house and never go back. She went back to school 13 years ago for her DNP degree because she was watching the older ER nurses and realized she physically couldn't do the job when she was 60. Tuition cost was $10k but with the new job she started off making $10k/year more. Easy decision there.

I have an Associates Degree and she's closing in on making triple what i do.

My son is a freshman in college. His junior year of high school he took a liking to chemistry. We've had a 529 set up for both kids since they were 2 years old and they've done pretty good. Being he's as cheap as I am, he's looking into being a RA in the dorms next year because they "pay" you with a free room and meal plan. That equates to about $9k per year we won't be taking out of the 529 and gives him some skin in the game, too. He's getting ahead of himself but now he's talking about getting his Masters and if everything shakes out right, he should be fairly debt free when it's all said and done and should have a pretty decent salary.

Again, I fully understand that college isn't a viable option for everyone. Honestly, some people probably shouldn't go. But that also doesn't mean that no one should.

 

Well said

 

I highly doubt that!

 

I've thought about getting one for the house but then I realize it's only 8 minutes to the shop and I have a key

 

In your case, that all makes sense, as I'm sure it does in many families. The issue I have is with kids that default to a post secondary education like an arts degree, because they don't know what they want to do. I think working, learning, and earning is a better way to explore the real world compared to staying in the education system. If you have an interest and a career plan, by all means, go for it. If not, get a job, preferably where there is room to learn and advance.

 

Excel file broke itself again.

I dug into it more than I have since I first "finished" it and had a few changes that I just finished making.

One formula went from being 126 characters down to 36. That change was made to 20,040 cells.

The other formula I changed went from 251 to 53 characters! That change was made to 166,860 cells.

The file size dropped 2 megs and now opens in 12 seconds instead of 32.

 

That was another reason I didn't go to college, had no idea what I wanted to do. I knew how to stick weld since dad taught me at 10 years old. I worked at a landscape nursery in high school, hated it. Worked for a HVAC company for 2 years after high school, hated it. Friend called me and ask if I wanted a job here at the machine shop. I said sure, I have no experience though. He said that's fine, we'll train you. He quit 2 months later. That was 27+ years ago and I still love my job.

 

A good way to find out what you like is to first find out what you don't like.

Unfortunately, when kids do this in a college setting, they often just switch to another college program.

 

Completely agree.

I had basically that same discussion with my son. Whatever you choose to pursue, make sure you can make a living doing it.

My sister-in-law went to school for glass blowing. She works at a T-Mobile store.

 

I know, right?

I smile every singe time it pops into my head.

 

I hire, work with, run programs for many high school kids and have quite a bit of contact with that age group. The advice I offer is that if you have an idea of what you might like to do for a job/career then go job shadow as soon as possible. There is nothing quite like seeing what a normal work day is like for a job to help you decide if it is for you.

Edit: I also encourage them to volunteer in that work setting if they can. If a volunteer enjoys the work then chances are getting paid to do the job will be thrilling.

 

Did yawl know you can order wiper refills from Toyota? I can’t drive to the Toyota place for $4.69




1 side is a tad longer than the other.

 

Sorry to hear about your friend

 

Re: College; I'm an accountant. You don't get very far without a degree in my field, and has allowed me to work in some pretty neat places. It's also true "the H in accountant stands for happiness".

That said, college isn't for everyone for a number of reasons, and I have had the pleasure of working with many "street smart" folks that I'd hire for a job long before others that had an expensive piece of paper as their only differentiation.

I started school as an engineering student, then realized I was terrible at the math and chemistry needed for that degree. Bounced to a finance degree curriculum and liked it well enough. That said, if I didn't have all my bills paid for courtesy of Uncle Sam and a 529 plan, I'd look heavily into the trades.

 

Seek one on YouTube is a good one also