First it will be 30 years since I graduated from high school, since then I have had a variety of employment. All of it educational in it's own different way. One even informed me that I had a defective attitude, I am guessing that was why my dad told me I wouldn't live to see my 18th birthday. Yet here I am turning 48 years old next month.
One of the best jobs I had was as a deckhand for a barge company on the Mississippi River, I had been out of school a whole year when I landed that gig, for 4 1/2 years I worked that 30 days on 30 days off. I was sure I was invincible and could never get hurt doing that (take my word you are not as invincible as you may think you are). After the first year I was more on than off, so when I quit I didn't have to actually work for 2+ years with a steady check coming every 2 weeks. During those on times, I would on occasion work with people who tended to be wound to tight (you know some one like that more dangerous to you than they are to themselves simply because they were in a hurry and didn't pay attention to what they were told). Those instances I received a rope burn from my wrist to my elbow, being knocked in a barge only to land flat on your back on a steel deck, it takes about 10-15 minutes to grab your breath back after that kind of fall, or a bruise up my spine from my tail bone to my shoulder blades 6 inches wide. Unfortunately this was the start of an ongoing pre-existing back problem that would eventually haunt me later on.
Now that was an excellent job for some one like me, single no one to worry about and no sweety to come home to, of course I was interested in all those pretty young ladies, but I was more interested in staying as stoned on herb as I possibly could, with an occasional alcoholic binge. All I can say is if they send you to New Orleans during Mardi Gras don't expect to be getting on a boat, that was also when I discovered alcohol was not the right option for me.
Now even though I didn't have to work for the next 2+ years, I had the opportunity to meet and eventually marry as I call her my lusty bride, I don't think either of us married for love. I didn't take any time off to enjoy what I had made and went straight to work at a factory making of all things cardboard boxes. This required a lot of heavy lifting and a very good grip. Between both my incomes I was able to payoff my lusty brides multiple school loans totaling $9,000+ in 2 years, upon paying those jewels off we went our separate ways. One year later I was enrolled in a truck driver school.
Truck driving is not as easy as you might think, long hours behind the wheel, driving not only your truck but every car around you, there have been a lot of improvements in that industry when I started, roads were smoother than they were in the 50's, trucks were smoother also. But they were still rough on a existing back problem and slowly making it worse. There is one great thing in my life that came from this experience and that was meeting my present wife, we will be married 17 years this April, and together for 18 years this past December. While driving OTR (over the road) I have unloaded trucks, pulled flat bed where I had to use some fairly heavy ass tarps to cover the freight.
After that gig I did underground utility work, lots of digging, pulling pipe and wire, and driving drunk machine operators to job sites. This was where I discovered that the only way I could continue to try to have and support my soon to be family, I would have to contract out due to the pre-existing back injuries. Company insurance policies tend to not insure people with pre-existing back injuries or problems. I have contracted out since then.
In all these years I have only been out of work due to back problems twice not including the initial injury, once when driving OTR (the medication I was prescribed kept me asleep for almost a month, the other side affect included weird dreams,this is something I don't ever want to experience again) and the most recent was 5 years ago (I received a shot at the base of my spine and was told to rest as much as possible, I received no other medication and was able to return to work in less than 2 weeks). These two instances of the same pain but different ideas as to how deal with it, is also why I am firmly against the idea of daily medications (but that will probably be explained later).
Besides having done the above occupations, I have drove concrete (redi-mix) trucks, set-up and delivery of double wides, home repair and remodeling, and then 5 years as independent contractor for Dish Network and Directv.
No comments:
Post a Comment