Busy busy...

I promised pictures, so they're at the bottom of the post...

Since my last real update, the welding job folded because my boss picked up a shit job. The Coles Notes version is as follows, (for those new to this or too lazy to scroll down): Boss picked up job that involved erecting several floors on top of an existing steel framed building. The building engineer (possibly the inspector) came in and looked at the building before work commenced. This person said that the existing structure wasn't even up to code. People work daily in this building. To bring the building to code, work had to be done after hours, and involved cutting away the walls at each joint, tightening or inserting the steel bolts, and grinding and re-welding each joint that required it, as the welds looked like a child had done them. My boss was losing money on the job every day that it continued, and was financially committed to it thoroughly enough that he was unable to pick up smaller jobs to keep the idle employees working. Therefore the welding job essentially went poof in a very gradual way.

Not too long after, I bought the Sunfire (now called the unfire, thanks to creative sticker removal). Shortly after that, I got a job as a labourer with D&G Landscaping, a reasonably large company that focuses primarily on corporate and municipal landscaping projects. This was approximately three months ago, and I am now at the point where my probationary period will end within the next few days, if it hasn't ended already. I work my butt off every day, and made a good enough impression on two other crew foremen that they were asking the VP of the company if they could have me on their crews instead of the crew I'm on. The VP and my foreman didn't want to move me to a different crew, so they decided to give me a raise instead. Woo! The raise is effective on my next paycheque (this coming Friday), so hopefully it'll start to make things easier financially.

Somewhere in the middle of that (actually, closer to the beginning) I officially moved in with Amanda, on the First of May. For the most part, things are good. Every now and then, I do something stupid and there's friction, but it gets resolved one way or another. I'm not doing it justice at all here, but my personal life is just that...

I play Rugby now (I actually can't believe I haven't mentioned that before...) and as my Nana said.. "It's a rough old game." Her brothers used to play back in Scotland, so she knows :P Anyhow, in the game against Napanee (in Kingston...) on Saturday, I was gaining yardage down the sideline (I'm a winger. We're skinny and fast.) when one of the Napanee forwards (who was lagging behind his team, conveniently placing him close to my path) gave me a good shove out of bounds. Normally that's not a problem, except the field was built inside a smallish high school track, covered in stone dust (you know, the really tiny sharp gravel). I kinda went down, and have a nicely sliced up hand, and some nasty road rash on my arm and hip. I'm trying to keep at least my hand covered whenever I'm working, because I really don't want dirt in the cut. That's just not good.

The only downside to landscaping is that it's very weather dependent. If it rains too heavily for an extended period, work is stopped for the day, and we're all sent home. It's sometimes nice to get the extra time off, but as with any other time off, we don't get paid for it. My coworkers keep looking at me oddly when I say I don't want it to rain until after 5:30 which is the latest we usually stop work - there have been rare instances of finishing at 6 or later, and they usually fall on really inconvenient days.

I give credit to my eye for detail (or pickiness... you choose.) for my raking abilities... I can grade an area to almost perfectly level, or follow the contours of the area in such a way as to encourage drainage in a direction better than anybody else on my crew, including the guy who taught me a low effort method of raking topsoil. I also move and spread piles of soil faster than all but my foreman and occasionally the same guy who taught me the raking technique (both of them have years of experience to my three months...).

The only other downside to work is this one guy who is so unbelievably slow. He makes my brain hurt with his slowness, despite my attempts to encourage him to improve, including suggestions for making the work easier. We (the rest of the crew) use his age as an excuse for his lack of motivation, because he's 18 and the rest of us are... older.

Beyond that, not a whole lot to report. The exhaust on the car broke last week and cost too much to repair, but was repaired anyways, since it was REALLY FUCKING LOUD. This has thrown finances into the blender, and if you've ever put money in a blender (I strongly do NOT recommend doing that, by the way), you know it's not pretty. Lots of fiber, but not pretty. Sort of a greyish sludge, if you add some water... I'd imagine.

Anyways... pictures!

Front (duh...)
You can see the bug and mud splatter from driving to the job interview.

Front left
The GT sticker on the front was the first to go, and the others are slowly disappearing.

Rear left
That GT sticker is half gone now. I hate obnoxious stickers like that.

Rear
There is now a Support Our Troops magnet directly under the third brake light.

Above right
If you look closely, you can see the shitty respray job on the hood, and the rust spots that were apparently supposed to be repaired by whoever did the work.

And that's the car, and a brief summation of the major points of my life.