Another Year Another Raise :D

So I'm currently taking my advanced classes and soon wrapping up what's left of this five year apprenticeship. I guess you could say I'm not so good at this blogging stuff eh? For someone who spent a lot of time online you'd think I could get back here at some point. Well here we are anyway and here I also sit on the bus heading into class on a sunny Thursday morning. I find advanced class is a lot of review which is perfect as far as I'm concerned. I've been creating study notes with all the work we've been going through. There is definitely stuff there I have not touched upon in three years. Is it refreshing to see it again? Like cool ocean spray on the face? Well ocean water is salty and in the end can dry out the skin so in a way sure it's like that, lol.
The family has grown by leaps and bounds. Am married and have gained four more children. An adoption for both of us and three step children. Isn't that term so... so.... well I don't know. I just don't like using it when I could just say daughter. The kiddies know who their parents are and I know who their parents are so if I'm talking to a complete stranger they don't need to know the personal inner workings of my life. "Oh step child so this isn't his first marriage eh? Or maybe he had children out of wedlock. Tsk tsk tsk. Poor girl what has she gotten herself into? Hmmm) But then if you saw the kiddies you'd know they were not of my genes. I'm Native through and through and they are soooo WHITE! :P So you get the picture.
ANYhooooo back to my apprenticeship. I'm bad for tangents. I'm done school at the end of Feb. Then I have a week of dedicated review for all those getting ready to write the Red Seal oooooOOOOOOoooooo. IKR? :) Then my hours will be up sometime late April early May. THEN comes the day... Read Seal ooooOOOOOOooooo test day for me! Now From what I've gathered through the grapevine, this Red Seal oooooOOOOOooooo test is always changing. That or there is a pile that they circulate with no predetermined pattern. Always changing its pattern.... I guess it wouldn't really be a pattern anymore if that were true eh? So I could get any version of the test and if I WERE to fail my firs attempt it would probably not be the same the second time around. Well ok. That does make sense. Can't have people memorizing these things and getting by the second time around solely by having a good photographic memory. :) Also plenty of people have failed the first and second attempt at the test. (Hence my crazy study notes/novel I'm creating. So there is that to worry about. Other than that I SHOULD be Red Seal ooooOOOOOoooo approved by summer. Fingers crossed. :D
School with a bunch of guys can be an interesting thing. I noticed that as a group they can be unapproachable. Also they can be un-appealing to approach. One on one though they can be the friendliest of creatures. :P One has to study them well and know the signs when approaching a group of this species. Also the size of the group has a lot to say about how they would act individually. The bigger the group the more they show signs of boasting and the need to be king of the hill. As the groups get smaller they tend to be calmer and more approachable. Always maintain caution though. You never know when one will act out and set even the tiniest of groups going. (Diane Fossey would have been proud of me! LOL) Ok so I'm a bit to blame for the lack of approach. I don't hunt, fish, watch sports, drink a lot of beer or find the need to talk about how much my partner wants a g-spot orgasm (I certainly hope MY partner doesn't have a g-spot... o.O) So with few things in common with the majority of them I do tend to stick to my own thoughts. One on one though it can be quite different. They are the most polite individuals. They probably talk to me the same way they talk to their wives/gf's. I should start a tell all blog about what who says about whom! Be the whistleblower on what REALLY is discussed in construction lunch rooms and whatnot. Would I give names, eventually get taken to court for slander and become a tabloid celebrity? HA! As if eh? I'll just describe them with so much detail that you'd know who "John Doe" or "Subject A" is anyway LOL.
So this is where I am and I now have to run because I have class starting in about five minutes. I'll let you know how "Subject C" was when I get out. ;)

Dusting the Cobwebs off my Blog!!

It's been awhile my fine friends. I've come a long way over the past four years in the trade. Of course very little of that was actually outside the shop, but I think I know the shop better than most now. I'm still bad with names though. "Yeah the... VAV box's you say? Yeah they're over there in the back room behind those big things on a crate. No those things next to THOSE objects right there. Ok ok I meant behind that and to the right of those!! YEAH!!" Maybe I should be getting out to site more. I'd learn what the correct term for everything is. As it is I know what I put together (ie offsets, duct, square to round, elbows, etc...) and I could tell you where 90% of the things we use are stored in the shop, but when stuff we don't make is delivered and then sent out to site I'm not so quick on the draw. According to Ed when I was working at the Queensway Carelton Hospital for those months three years ago I pretty much saw everything there was to see in a site job. It's just layed out differently for different projects. I like that I've seen it, but if I don't handle it, I have no idea. I need to start working out my arms more though. I've gained a lot of muscle since starting this job, but if I were to be sent out on site I'm pretty sure it requires a bit more power. Lot's of overhead lifting and that is my fall back. My center of balance likes to run and hide on me. You should see me doing yoga... not pretty!
I'm a fourth year apprentice now and will be heading into my fifth year technically this Spring. Pay goes up again (YAY!!) and I'm that much closer to becoming a mechanic. Of course getting closer to the end of my apprenticeship hasn't brought me further away from the insulation table AT ALL, but we do what we have to to keep getting paid right?
On a personal note Pat and I are getting married this year. I'm quite pumped about it. He's being all stoic and not showing his emotions (typical man!) so I grumble, cry or yell and shake things up every now and then, but that's just me (typical woman?). Come on, I have to find out what's going on with Mars every now and then don't I? He'll let me in on all their secrets, just you wait and see!
My daughter is 15 now!! OMG!! Of course she turned 15 this past October so it's not all that amazing to me now, but I had to add the emotion for shock value. That Oscar will be mine... oh yes it will be mine! She still endures the forced smothering hugs from me with silent resolve, but she also gets so bitchy if I so much as enter a toe into her and Becky's domain. Wow my girl is growing up!! And she's so much like me!! :S Who'da thunk!!
So here I am gaining further ground in the sheet metal industry, on a plateau when it comes to relationships, and losing ground with my teen (one day she'll walk out that door and into the arms of someone else..... :( My girl is growing up..... *sniff sniff*). Ok she's 15 so not quite yet... I hope... *sniff sniff* I mean yeah she's becoming a young lady!! Who'll one day not want my smothering hugs!!! *sniff sniff sniff sniff* Ummm ok I'll shut up now.
CHEERS!! :D

What 2008 Has in Store!!

YEAH I'm a year two!! And I didn't even keep you completely up to date! :( I totally blame my boyfriend. He has kept me tied to the bed for the past four months (aside from work) and he..... hmmmm well I won't go THERE! Jokes! Needless to say, I've had a busy few months and I am now ready to get back into keeping a record of my progress through this thing we call a career! :)
My time at the Queensway Carleton Hospital has come to an end. I was there right up until X-mas, then after the New Year I was sent back to the shop. I am now still in the shop, but don't mind because it's FRICKEN COLD out there! I got some welding done right up to X-mas, but am back on forming, insulating and assembling duct work in shop.
The pic is of a couple of offsets I fused together (tig welding).
In an attempt to speed up the process and figure out what works best for everyone, we have been adding on to our job in the shop, whilst lessening the job on site. It doesn't necessarily make on site work easier, it just let's them do what they have to do with a bit less to worry about. Over the past week and a half we made a crazy amount of duct for a site. We then made the sleeves that go into the floor for all this duct. Now I am putting fire dampers into the sleeves and then attaching them to the corresponding piece of duct. This way we now have a piece of a riser done and ready to slide into the ground. All that needs doing is to have the pieces that fill in the space between this duct and the sleeve above. A riser being duct that goes vertically up the length of a building to branch out to all the duct on each floor. This is the first time we've taken these extra steps, so we shall see how valuable they will turn out to be for those on site. Usually we make the duct and ship it out... that for the most part is what we do.
I was thinking back in the fall that it would be cool to make something with my new found welding skills. I thought about it for a month or so and had come up with the idea of making a bed frame. After some thought on the idea however I realized a few things. First of all my welding is not what it hopefully will be down the road. I have yet to make any "bubblegum" welds, but that is not to say I don't have a lot to learn in other areas. Also the metal I wanted for the job is out of my league in price. I hadn't realized how expensive metal can be!! So the bed is on hold until further notice...
This year I thought would be the year I bought a car. I'm starting to realize however that it may not turn out that way. I am making more than I made last year by 10% which is a NICE raise, but I am still about a year away from keeping up with the various payments required to own a car. Maybe a few months down the road I'll be able to alter that thought, but for now I'm going to have to dream about wheels... I am however helping my boyfriend look for a car. He got in a bit of a scuffuffle on the Queensway with a tractor trailer and his Suzuki lost the battle. Thankfully it was just between the two vehicles and he came away 100%. :D Searching for a car is quite the task I am finding. You have to be able to judge the car AND the salesman!
I got my letter to attend my basic training in March. No I'm not heading off to the armed forces. This is the first two month full time session of classes we have to take. There are three sessions, giving us a total of six months of full time in class education throughout the five years. In my hopes to buy a car I had thought maybe I'd wait until my second year to take basic. Also it would mean I'd be doing basic, intermediate and advanced in my 3rd, 4th and 5th years, keeping the info fresh each time so that when I go to write my test I'll have most of it right there (we hope... I'm not sprind chick anymore...). Then again there is always the worry that each year we delay, we may end up having to travel to Oakville, ON to attend. Hmmmmmmmm decisions decisions!!
I'll let you know what I've decided....

Hanging Around

*sigh* I have a cold and cannot talk right now. If I were to try it wouldn't be pretty for anyone directly involved. So here I sit typing and if need be, whispering to whomever comes around.

Someone or someTHING has to be trying to give me some sort of signal. I move into a new apartment and it is almost completely renovated beforehand. It feels GREAT to be moving into such a new place. Of course the one thing I take note of as I enter into my new new abode is how wonderously PINK the tiles in the front entrance and bathroom are. Those tiles are not replacement for old finish. I have to admit they are in good shape, which would stand to reason why he did not deem it necessary to change them. However............................ PINK?!?!? What is it telling me!!!

Now that I've been on site for approximately a month, I can give a bit of comparison to the age old question "Which do you prefer, shop or site?". I'm only going to compare it because for me there is no better. Shop is warm in the winter and our shop is relatively cool(A/C), in the summer. That is ALWAYS a plus. Site is cold in the winter and can be a sweatbox in the summer. That is NEVER a plus. I find that site work goes more quickly than shop work. Shope work is repetitive, whereas site work always seems to have some sort of twist to it that either makes it impossible to hang a certain piece without chopping another trades balls off, or maybe just because it's raining and I have to weld anyway. There is never a shortage of stress in either location. Mike seems to enjoy his position and handles it quit well from my perspective anyway. Ed hates his position and never let's the opportunity to point that fact out pass him by :D . Although in all honesty he seems to be handling his situation quite well as well, so as much as you hate it Ed, your doing great!!! Ok that had nothing to do with comparisons for my oppinion, I just felt like going off on a tangent. So where were we.......... ah yes. Site will require much more clothing come the colder months, which keeps me from freezing to death, but also can keep me from getting into that perfect position to get that piece welded. Meh, will just have to try to get at it from a different angle. In shop I left my tools on the work bench I inhabited most often. On site everything has to be locked up or it WILL walk away. I put down a pair of safety glasses for three hours in the middle of a high traffic area and don't they walk away!!!! It's not like I asked for it by leaving them there or anything. LOL. There you have it. A few comparisons, but no real oppinion yet. I'm glad I am on site now, but I'd be ok in shop as well.

I got a chance to hang out near the ceiling for a whole day two weeks ago. I'm telling you the feeling of love when Ed sent me up onto that ladder to hammer drill some holes into the ceiling was overwhelming indeed!! Getting up there and then having to balance myself on the third rung from the top, reach up over me and use one of the heavier drills to vibrate my body into fear of falling, was awesome!! I'm such a lucky girl!!! Well if asked I will do it again. How else
am I going to battle this uncertainty I have in my ability to find my center and BALANCE! I've also done a bit of welding on a ladder and that I can handle. When I'm looking through a mask and the only thing I can see is the arc, I have less sense of my surroundings and don't feel the height. Monday I get to climb on top of a piece of duct hanging from the ceiling so that I can weld it together. Now THAT should be interesting!! Do wish me luck!

Welder to be........ Or not to be.............

Welder to be... or not to be...
I'm closer now to the end of my first year as an apprentice than to the shakey beginning. I can't think of any machine in the shop that I haven't used except the plasma, which I'm not seeing in my near future, but I won't discount it yet. With everything I've done over the past year, one thing still stands in the forefront for a better future... money. I'm looking forward to that 10% raise come November!!
When I first started in the trade, my goal was to start welding. I had no idea how long it would take to get to that point. It was a matter of either learning it in school first, or personal opportunity. Well personal opportunity won out first. Andrew is my first "teacher" when it comes to welding and he has made it possible for me to build enough courage to take what I've learned to work. I have now been welding in shop for over a week. I am definitely pumped about the whole thing!! I still don't know a lot of technical terms as far as the whole process and materials go, but this I know I will learn as time goes on. At least I have my foot in the door and am on my way! I do however hope to stay in shop welding until I am confident in my work, and I will save on site welding (ie. hanging upside down by my toes while bending backward and welding) for better days. :D
Last night was the Union (Local 47's) 100th Anniversary!! In representation of the event all the members got a watch with the unions logo in the middle. Andrew is beyond stoked about the watches (mine included since they ordered female style watches for the women in the trade), and I was definitely proud to wear mine! They are quite something. I went to the event with Rebecca, Andrew and his date Tanya. We sat at a table with four others. Nathan and his girlfriend (don't recall her name, horrible horrible memory... BAD!!). Nathan works at Dilfo with me and also is showing an interest in welding, but don't get too sure of yourself Nathan! I'M shop welder!!!! hehehe. Brian and his girlfriend (don't recall her name either... my brain should be shot, it's lame....) Brian did work for Dilfo some time back during his apprenticeship, but has since moved on to other work. I think the big shocker for everyone invloved was that I wore a skirt! It wasn't my first choice, but there you have it. Not only a skirt, but HEELS!!! Yikes, what will the neighbours say now!! I have a pic of Andrew and myself taken at the dinner and I tower over short stuff quit a bit LOL! I had a great time. I have definitely come to realize that I know enough people in the trade now to stop, schmooze with and feel perfectly comfortable. Mind you many of them were more than half cut and feeling no pain by the time I stopped to say hi, but that's ok, I only took a few embarrassing future blackmail pics, not many.....
:D

NOW you can shit an eggroll!!

I've discovered quite recently, though I've had inklings all along, that I would make a rather content nomadic Native living in a time with no airoplanes or boats on rough water... along with large boats on trailers. Although now that I've long since discovered video games, it's almost worth the risks we humans put on ourselves with the things we create. Poor Andrew has had to deal with a lot this past weekend. My daughter and I went with him up to his camper this past weekend. Friday went without any hitches, and then Saturday we made the attempt to get his pontoon boat out of a receding lake and onto his trailer. The whole process took us between 1.5-2 hours. That is one heavy boat and when it settles off the rollers, it SETTLES!! I think that boat was giving us attitude for not taking it out for a spin in a few weeks. After all the messing around we dealt with, the trailer came out of the water with a flat. So we had to teeter totter the boat to the nearest town for an air pump. We ended up in Smith Falls, which was farther than he had hoped to go. We then spent a wonderful afternoon on Otter lake motoring around and swimming. It was great! The water was warm and Tammie was having a blast!

The sun came up Sunday morning bright and warm. Birds were singing, and I could swear I heard an angel playing a harp. It couldn't have been more cozy. We got packed up and headed back to town a bit early. Figuring we'd have a bit of extra time to do whatever we had to before Tammie and I took off to our family reunion. Everything and everyone bundled into the truck, the boat attached to said truck and we were a shoo-in. I think Andrew must have hiccuped because at one point near the beginning of the journey the truck went a bit right sending the trailer tire onto the shoulder and starting what would be my prozak induced medical dependency for life! (honest!). It was a bit stubborn on returning to paved road which according to Andrew made him "pucker" some. So everytime the truck even seemed to glance (yes trucks in my world can glance...) to the right I'd go all tense. Andrew kept looking at me and telling me to calm down. I couldn't help it, it's in my nature to not want the white man and his ways pressed upon me (in this case that would be sitting in a truck pulling a VERY heavy boat). So we pull into the city and I start to breath. I actually forget all about the boat until the pot hole in the intersection of Fallowfield and Greenbank enters our lives never to be forgotten. In retrospect I don't actually think those were Angels playing harps... I think it was more along the lines of our deathmarch being played out... yes I'm a drama queen.... Well as soon as we hit that pot hole that was it for the trailers axel. Off went half the axel and the left wheel across the road and down went the boat. We heard a BANG, Andrew looked into the review mirror saying we hit the intersection light and then as he watched the boat fall to the left he says (so much calmer than I would have given him credit for considering we were watching his hard work go down) "NOW you can shit and eggroll!" Tammie told us later that she was zoned out and all she really remembers is looking up and seeing us both looking behind us with looks of horror on our faces. Poor girl.

Andrew assessed the situation and then with no other alternative he got back in the truck and dragged the trailer and boat 200 feet to the shoulder and out of the way of traffic. I'm impressed because my big worry with the boat was if it leaned too much it would fall over and take us in the truck with it. What actually happened, is the wheel fell off but the boat didn't come off the trailer at all AND didn't take us with it. Quite impressed, but I'm sorry it took that sort of damage to build my confidence in it's sturdiness. Well Andrew got right back on the horse, called a friend to come help and got the trailer off the ground, welded and back in working order within 3 hours (yeah Andrew!!). We ended up leaving early to get ready for the reunion, but I checked in on him a bit later and all was looking healthy once again. HHaaaaaahhhhhhhhh (sigh....)

Monapolis Times

I think I've forgotten how to do anything else but insulate TDF duct work......... Pitsburgh? what's that................. Ok maybe it's not that bad, but I'm sure Trev and I are the going experts on rigid insulation. Goodness knows I could tell you how it grits between the teeth compared to flex.

I'm thinking our rags must come from someone's home, because they aren't store bought cloth or anything. They are actually ripped up pieces of someone's clothing. Well this week a piece of someone's old pink fleece jogging pants ended up as our cloth at the insulation table. Pink fleece jogging pants............. think about that for a second.......... pink.......... fleece.......... getting any mental images? Jogging pants.................. is it coming to you? Or are you having trouble, because those three things don't belong in the same sentence. Who wears PINK pants in the first place (no Andrew they are not pink they are SALMON or more like a rusty red....), let alone fleece jogging pants. I was looking around the shop trying to picture who's home this monstrosity came from. Picturing the guys I work with walking around with wives wearing something out of the 80s. Or even some of the women that work up front owning a pair. Gave me something to chuckle about while slicing through mile upon mile of insulation. Are you with me here? Or am I alone on this one...

So I asked Danny (big bosses son, future big boss) about my book. We have these books that throughout the apprenticeship have to be signed by someone when we've accomplished a task. At the end of the apprenticeship it has to be I believe 75% full. Our union is for both tinbangers and roofers, so I don't see myself filling out any sections that have anything to do with roofing, but as long as I can get the rest of it filled out, I'm good. I didn't know when I should start concering myself with that though, so I was a big girl and asked! You have to understand this is a big feat for me due to my life long partnership with shyness. It took me awhile to see our forman in a casual light. What's that all about anyway? In my mind I KNOW he's a nice guy, as is everyone out there (well most anyway......), so why would someone have trouble making the first move to get to know that person. Pooey on shyness, I spit at thee!!!! So I asked and it turns out that if I leave or finish my apprenticeship, whichever happens at Dilfo first, they will then go through the book and sign off on all the necessary areas. He DID however say that most people finish their apprenticeships once started at Dilfo, which made me feel REALLY good. I would love nothing better than to stick with Dilfo throughout my apprenticeship and beyond if possible!

I've started biking to work! It's actually quite satisfying. I enjoy it. At the end of the day I can definitely feel it in my thighs though. Rock hard legs coming up! Yay health!! Hopefully this added with good eating will put off anything my high cholesterol started on my heart up until now. Breath easy!