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!