That’s what they say.  It takes all kinds.  I think I have worked with them all!  Sometimes they are a little bit difficult to work with and sometimes you have to admire them.

For instance: On one occasion we were remodeling a grocery store.  It involved tearing up the concrete floor to run the wiring and communications to the future locations of the checkout stands.  There were also some walls being moved.  The refrigeration and cooling area was completely changed.  And an addition was being built onto the structure.

With all this construction and remodeling going on, the store had to remain in full operation.  The foreman for that particular job was unflappable.  Nothing “bothered his mind.”

There came the time for us to run a long run of heavy gauge wire in conduit.  There was no room to lay out the wire inside the store, so we laid it out in the parking lot.

About that time a large produce delivery van entered the parking lot.  The driver and his burly helper intended to drop off their load at the back of the store.  If it had been me running the job, I believe I would have (cautiously) approached the driver and asked him to please not run over that wire.  Or maybe I would have said something about letting us move the wire before he drove over it.

Not our foreman.  He walked directly over to the driver and stated: “You run over that wire and you’ve bought it.”

That’s all it took.  We successfully pulled the wire in, and not a bit of it was damaged.  I didn’t see much of that foreman after that project.  He was sent to run jobs all over the country.

Another type of personality I would often run into was the joker/prankster group.  They could keep you laughing for the whole project.

Other personalities were always upset about something.  And they didn’t mind putting their load on your back.

Some personalities needed to be handled with care; as if you were walking on peanut shells when you spoke to them or worked with them.

I have formed many opinions of my own about how employees should be treated.  I was able to put many of them into practical use when I formed my own business.

I never really liked being responsible to start a new job.  There were too many variables in the start of a new project; too many things that I wasn’t sure I knew what to do or where to start.

I would go over the blue prints and drawings.  Then I would walk the entire job to see what should be done first, second, third, etc.  After that I would make a decision of where and how I would start.

When the job had progressed fairly well along, I was much more comfortable.  Then I would take a piece of paper and the blue prints and make a list of everything that had to be done.  Sometimes the list would be organized by when it had to be done and sometimes it wasn’t.  As the job came together, progressing to completion, I would scratch the completed items off of my list.  That was satisfaction!

There were times, frequently, that another thing that I didn’t like to do would happen about that time in the life of the project.  I would be asked to go to a different job (or laid off) before the job was completed.

I knew it wasn’t possible to work on one project for my whole life – day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.  Not only is that unheard of in construction (the Winchester House aside), but it wasn’t a prospect that would have fit my personality.

Some people have that unique ability to stay at one job location their whole working life.  But that wasn’t me.  Other men have a difficulty in seeing one job through to its completion.  At a certain point they want to take off and start the next project and leave the work already started for someone else to button up.  That wasn’t me either.

I was always a little unsettled about what would be coming next, and not wanting to leave until it was completely done.  But any job was better than no job.

Many times when I went through a “lay-off” and had to wait on further employment I tended to devalue my worth.  Therefore, even when I was laid off, I would have projects of my own at home.  (To make myself comfortable, they had generally been started already and were just awaiting my arrival.)

My wife cooperated by having a long “honey-do” list.  We moved our mobile homes from location to location as work availability required.  I preferred living in the rural areas away from traffic, noise, and pollution.

After an extended period of “lay-off”, we managed to buy a piece of property with nothing on it except for a rundown fence.  For the next eight years we spent our spare time and what money we could eke out to build a house and outbuildings.

Then, for some strange reason, we got old and tired.

Mostly tired!

When the electrical industry comes out with something new it is a learning experience.  Sometimes the learning curve is sharp; sometimes it is long and gradual.  Depending on how much you wanted to see the change is directly related to how big a challenge it is to adopt.

The first time I installed baseboard heaters I installed some of them upside down.  Grrrr.  When GFI receptacles were first introduced, they could not be installed in series with a common neutral wire.  I learned that the hard way.  When Arc Fault Breakers were introduced, it was not possible to splice the neutral wires from different circuits together.  (This was not something I had ever liked to do, but many electricians at that time made it a practice.)

One job I had was to connect propane pumps to the propane tanks in several locations.  This type of wiring required explosion proof fittings.  The wiring, fittings, conduit, etc., all have to be assembled just right, and they must all have emergency shut off capability.

It is important that the propane fumes cannot travel up the conduit.  When the installation is complete, the wires must be sealed into the conduit.  This makes it impracticable (i.e. “impossible”) to pull out the wire at a later date and re-feed it.  You must cut out a whole section and reinstall it.

High voltage linemen have special gloves used in handling energized wire.  Despite the high expense of the gloves I had to buy a pair because I was always working with hot wires.  The gloves must be tested periodically to make sure the gloves are still safe.

Balancing circuit loading was another item I learned through experience.  I have found that the idea of balancing the circuits is often ignored.  I have found some conduit so hot that you could not hold onto it.  It was because the circuits were not balanced.

New changes and challenges; that’s why I enjoy electrical work.