My life has been full and overflowing of late, so I suppose it’s time for me to record something (permanently?) to help me as I look back on my life.
In response to my dear sister-in-law, yes my daughter is now (finally) employed. And she is working with her two older brothers at a place that they absolutely love, Papa John’s. In high school I too loved pizza (not that I don’t love it now). And I too loved my job at Dominoes delivering pizzas, getting to use my fine navigation skills, trying never to get stumped by an address. I am happy for all of them.
My own venture of late has had some similarities. For I too have been looking for work. In one regard this pursuit has occupied the deep dark recesses of my mind for decades. When one is working physically by one’s self for much of the day, a constant stream of thoughts usually races through one’s mind. At least that’s been my experience.
I’ve joked for years that because of my occupation I’ve developed an addiction to mud, drywall compound that is. I can bring to mind the tastes and smells and feel of that white substance anytime I want. In many regards it’s a huge part of who I am. That stuff is under my fingernails, it’s in my nostrils, and probably too much in my lungs. At least I don’t need to worry about it being in my hair.
But another thing that I think I’ve become addicted to these past years is the comfort and security that this trade has afforded me. Over the past many decades I’ve developed so many contacts and relationships in this field that I’m able to navigate through the challenging and lean times as well as the boom times. Or seen in a different light, God has chosen to bless me in this endeavor for some odd reason. My father likes to talk about the early days of our full time work together in the early 1980s. During those years construction had come to an almost complete stop. My dad was laid off. The union benches were full of unemployed tradesmen. Finding work was near impossible. And I had decided to take a year or two off of school.
As a young kid with relatively few bills, no family to support, and an optimistic ignorance I started my own business in June of 1981. Not knowing how to bid jobs and not needing to make that much money I starting knocking on doors and calling around looking for work. I found enough work to at least pay for my truck and some lingering school loans. When my dad was laid off in the fall we decided to work at this venture together. For almost two years we went day to day not knowing when or where the next job would come from. Was it living by faith or was it an exercise in stupidity? I still wonder, but my dad always sees God’s faithful through those times. Many evenings we would talk at night and tell each other that something might come up in the morning. Or we would go to breakfast at 6:30 or 7:00 not knowing if we had work for the day, come home and find that someone had called. Looking back I don’t remember ever missing a day of work. The phone always rang with something and from the weirdest places.
Things are a lot different today now that I’m “established.” But I think it’s time for that to change. Various and many thoughts and feelings have been floating around inside for too long without being shared. So when time allows, I will write about the bigger picture and probably write about the wonderful time my wife and I had yesterday in southern Minnesota. It was a chance to connect with my past in some rather odd ways.
