July 2nd 2011

My first text comes today at 10:30. It says, "wake up sleepy heads, reps are knocking early today!" I disregard this and go back to sleep. Last Saturday, I didn't get my first job til 10:30 at night. -- I get up an hour and a half later. I pour myself some cereal and sit down at my computer to check Facebook, Email, AMPview, etc. I get another text. It has an address. This means this is the house I have to go to for my job. Crap! Corbin wasn't kidding! They were really trying today! -- It's time to multi-task. I hop in the shower and set my bowl of cereal right there on the tabletop so I can take bites of it periodically while I'm showering. I throw on my work shirt and pants, comb my hair, and i'm outta there. No time for shaving or brushing teeth.

I showed up to my job in record time! Only 20 minutes! The office told the rep it would take me 45 minutes. This customer looked like the guy from Honey I Shrunk the Kids. Same facial structure, same nerdy stance, and best of all, same glasses. He was cool because he's been in several bicycling marathons. -- The install goes well. It is super easy. Brand new Lynx 5000 touchscreen, three doors and a motion sensor. As I've said before, 5Ks are super easy because I don't have to deal with phone lines. It's all cellular. I install everything, send signals, do a 2-way test and teach the customer how to use it all in about 45 minutes. Him and his family are pretty happy with it by the time I leave.

I decide to help out Brent with his job. Brent's a first year, like me, only eight years older. He's funny because he's always negative and mopey about everything; complaining about no jobs, things being too expensive, installs that have been too hard, etc.-- All of us techs have decided to treat his complaining much like jokes, and they are always funny, much like Charlie Brown or Eeyore are funny. Since his face looks more like Eeyore's, that's what we call him. He doesn't tell us many 'jokes' anymore.

I show up to his job about 20 minutes before he does, so I just go ahead and get started. It is one of Angela's jobs. None of the techs like Angela. She's one of those reps that always has a smile on her face even though she's pissed off at you. -- and not a sweet smile, it's a smile with pure evil behind it. She's like Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter, mixed with Flo, the sales rep from all the Progressive commercials.
 -- The customers make me chuckle a little. They are older and from India and have a funny accent. The house smells of curry and other spices, and it is pretty cramped. They make me take off my shoes so I don't dirty up their hardwood floor- It's not like the floor was anything special either. It had scratches everywhere and looked like it was at least 15 years old. Brent showed up. If the house wasn't crowded before, it certainly was now. The hallway was only meant for one person. Now we had the four of us sidling past each other every 10 seconds. It doesn't help at all that Brent in heavier set either. I don't know why these customers felt the need to go back and forth to their room from the kitchen, through the hallway we were working in, but it was driving me crazy! They asked us funny questions in their accent like; "I tat Angla said de smoke detaactor woood go furthair down de hall..?" I wonder what would've happened if I answered their questions in that same accent. Brent certainly didn't lighten the mood with his 'cheerful' attitude, but if these customers cancel their account, I don't care cause it's not my install! :) Over all, we get their existing hardwire ADT system to work with our system by rerouting their power over to our panel. We have to use an outlet in their adjacent laundry room to power up our hardwire to wireless converter. It was funny to see this old guy so curious and almost climb on top of the washer to see this mysterious thing called an 'outlet'. -- Nah, I kid, he knew what an outlet was, but he didn't know there was one in that spot. I made casual chat with the wife and asked them where they were from. She pointed to a picture of some guy on her wall and said, "de same place he's from." I blinked, frowned and confessed I had no idea who that was. She looked at me and said "Ju don know who jaieoh Jeehig is?" ha ha-- I don't remember what the dudes name was, it didn't matter, cause I still didn't know who he was lol. She walks off saying something in her native tongue. Probably something like "ignorant, spoiled Americans" lol I grab my equipment back from Brent's car and leave.

I don't know Durham very well, and I don't know where the closest Walmart is. Actually, all I want right now is McDonalds. It took me awhile to find one. I am just about to order food when I get a text from Brent; "Dude, do you have my keys?" I check my pocket and sure enough! Knowing Brent, this is probably stressing him out to the max and he's probably pacing back and forth at this customers house checking all the places he's been four or five times for his keys. I tell him I haven't seen his keys. (he he he) After 10 minutes, I tell him I have them and head back over to his job. He was in the middle of teaching the customers how to use the system, so he just took the keys real quick from me without yelling at me ha ha.

 I decided to help out Adam. He's cool. He's 29 and has a family. He's been installing for years. His job is a half hour away. When I finally get out there, he is nearly done. All he has me do is take out the resisters from the existing door contacts. Easy stuff. I wanted to stay for the whole thing and see his teaching method, but I got another job, so I had to head over to that one. I forward this job/text to Brent so he can help me with it.

By the time I get there, Brent has been working for about 15 minutes. The customer is an older lady probably in her late 50's, early 60's. She's really skinny, mousy, and wearing safari clothes. Her hair is unkept and it looks like she hasn't worn makeup in years. When I show up, she's not exactly thrilled-- says under her breath 'you guys must be killin' for work.' Normally, people don't care if there is more than one tech working on the system. Most of the time, they are thrilled because it gets put in faster. I'll try and lighten her mood. I ask her questions about herself. She is a science teacher, grades k-5. This explains her appearance and all the different... things... in her house. It's loaded with crap! But not like garbage crap; its more like animal cages, bags of soil, various yard tools, and other things you might expect to see in Bill Nye the Science Guy's house. She started liking me after I told her I wanted to be a science teacher too. Brent really doesn't say a word the whole time. He is working on the door sensors the whole time. By the time I test out her system though, she is getting a little annoyed that we are still working- "After all, it's a holiday and it's nearly 7:30! Do ya'all usually work this late?" I tell her my latest job has been at 11:45 at night and she is quite surprised. Her house is nestled pretty far out in the sticks so I don't get reception there. I have to use my four foot flex-bit as an antenna for my cell phone to make calls.

After that job, I stop at a Kangaroo Gas Station parking lot and read for two hours. I got a text to come home so I started for home. There are fireworks going on in a nearby city, so I pull over to watch them. I am super homesick now.

When I get home, the guys are ready to eat. We go to the Lynnwood Grill. It's more of a bar than anything. This place is packed! The first floor is too noisy with the live band, and the rooftop is deprived of food. There is only alcohol. We want food, so we head over to the cheesecake factory instead. It is fun to hang out with all the guys after a long stressful week of work. Brian W., Matt and Bunnel get wasted. Brian ends up stealing the menu, some forks and spoons. By the time we leave, it's 1:00 and we are hyped up and ready to do something crazy. We race back to the apartment. I have to drive Matt's car because he is three sheets to the wind. Brian M. is a crazy fast driver. He's always going at least 20 over the speed limit. Since I'm in a crazy mood, I race him. Bad idea, a cop pulls both of us over. At least he isn't a total A-hole. He even laughs at Matt's crazy drunk talk. He gives me a ticket for going 15 over, and gives Brian M. a ticket for reckless driving and going 15 over. He's got a court date. I'm just down 200 bucks. The cop went easy on me because I was loosing the race and didn't have to do a quick maneuver to dodge a car that just pulled out. The whole time we were waiting for the cop to run info, Matt almost peed his pants because he drank so much alcohol and couldn't hold it in. -- Naturally, he made this very vocal in his impaired state. When we get home, instead of going straight to the bathroom, he said various things to the rest of the guys for 15 minutes. Guess he went already...? 

Journal entry, June 30th 2011

I can't believe another month has gone by! Only two months left of working in Raleigh. Only two months left to reach my goal of 150 installs. How far away am I from that, you ask? Pretty far. I'm at 79 right now-- but to be fair, and optimistic, I haven't even been working for 2 months yet, and I'm farther than half way there-- so... my chances are good. :) My day started out just fine. I woke up at noon today because I got to bed around 3 o clock last night. Got ready for the day, and headed for the office to pick up my equipment for the day. I'm feeling kinda sickly, so I brought my bottle of dayquil for the long haul today. I've been drinking shots of that all day. Matt wanted to go to Chipotle for lunch. I only ate breakfast an hour ago, but what the heck, I went anyway. I bought Matt lunch because I owe him for helping me out with jobs and such. There goes 15 bucks.. Tax write off!

Matt got a job shortly after and I decided to help him. Problem is, I didn't have a drill. See last night at one of my jobs, Brian, another tech that's been in the business for about four years, decided to use my drill as a hammer to pound in a 3/4 inch door contact magnet. On the last pound, my drill splits into two pieces; the piece where the battery connects too, and the rest of the drill. It is literally held together by two wires. -- We tried taping it up, then we tried glue. Then we tried tape AND glue. Nothing would work, so now I have to borrow my head tech, Corbin's drill. Problem now is that he is in Durham, about a half hour away from where I live, and about an hour away from Matt's job. I have a feeling today I'm going to be using alot of gas.

I drive a half hour and find Corbin in a gas station parking lot talking to some guy that's really high up in the company. I hope I was nice enough to him. Maybe he'll make ME head tech instead of Corbin. I got the drill and headed for Matt's job. I had to pass up a job that was offered to me, by the way. I was heading in the wrong direction and wouldn't be there for at least an hour, so I handed it to Brent. I'm sure he'll like that. I changed my mind half way to Matt's job. Matt's probably already almost done with it anyways, so I head to my favorite hang out spot in Garner instead. It's just a big shopping center with a really awesome McDonalds. This Micky D's features a 44 inch plasma with a fire place and comfy sofa chairs. As long as I buy food there, I can stay as long as I'd like. :) -- As soon as I get to this haven, I get my first job. Lucky for me, it's in Garner! It's a 3k, however, so that balances things out.

My customers name is Bell. She's a retired minister from New York and has a thick Brooklyn accent. I lucked out at her house because the phone jack and the power were right next to each other. This situation RARELY happens. I quickly suggested to put the panel right above that and I'm set! No crawl space runs for me. :) Matt showed up to help me out and we had everything running in a little less than 2 hours. I'm getting better and fishing wire through insulated walls now. I hardly spend any time on that. Got to know Bell pretty well, which is good cause if the customer leaves in a good mood, than that install will most likely NOT cancel.

After that house, Matt and I went back to the awesome McDonalds, bought food, watched CNN and fell asleep for an hour or so. Sometimes, downtime can be quite brutal. Good thing McDonalds has free Wi-fi too. What a great place to kill time.

Matt got a job so we both head out to that one. It's an interracial couple. Coool. The job is for a 5000 touch screen panel. Those are easy. No messing around with phone lines- it's all cellular. I've learned to work pretty quickly with Matt, so everything gets installed and ready to test in less than a half hour. When we send signals to the Vector call center, the only signal they receive is the fire panic. We send the signals again. Only fire goes through. Again we send signals, and again, and again. Only fire goes through. Matt is super frustrated at this point. I just went and chilled with the husband. He was playing Call of Duty Black Opps. I played the game with him and he kicked my trash, but at least I know what I'm doing. I'm not completely inexperienced now. :) After about an hour of video games, Matt decides to switch out the panel and da da da daaaa! Everything works. Stupid broken panels. We finish everything up and get ready to head home.

 Oh wait! I just got a job! So Matt and I head for that job. It's 10:30 at night at this point. The text says 316 Arnd St. ''Arnd' St??? What the F?' I'm sure that's what my gps would've said if it could say anything else besides 'recalculating'. I call the OA. She says, yeah, that's what I got, but I don't see it on google maps either. Here's the reps number. I call the rep. She is a new rep that doesn't sell often. I think they only keep her because she's hot. She has a track record for being sortof... well... dumb. lol. She tells me it's Rand St. It pulls up on the GPS. It's 35 minutes away! I'm not going to get to this job til like 11:10! I haul ass. I get to Rand St, and start looking for the house number. It's not there. there is no 316, but there is a 1316. I call the rep again. She told me it is indeed 316-- but it's Rand ROAD! -- Thanks for that tid bit Megan. I punch it in my gps and guess what?! It's 25 minutes away! ha ha-- I didn't get to this job til about 11:45 lol--

I was expecting a younger couple that stays up late and possibly drunk, but to my surprise, it was another older couple, retired and well into their 60's. At least it was only a 5000. Megan would've scheduled it out, but they were leaving for their vacation for a week in the morning, so it had to be tonight. We did everything, set up all the sensors, ran a 2-way test, sent signals, taught the customers and cleaned up all in about 45 minutes. I don't even remember their names... But the nice lady gave me some candy :) I like candy. It was about 2 o'clock by the time I got home. I used about 30 dollars worth of gas today, but I made 140, so it was worth it.

June 7th 2011

I've decided if I wanna keep up with my journal, I need to shorten my entries. -- So I'll keep it simple.
Today marks my first full month of being in North Carolina!
I woke up at 11:30. I tried calling the Utah DMV to see what I need to transfer my records over to this dude I sold the car too. I need two forms filled out. I need a bill of sale though-- Which I never got from the previous owner. I can't get ahold of that douche bag, so I'm kindof stuck until then. I played Sonic after that until I got a text to help move equipment. Helped move 2 full pallets of equipment to the office storage room. Left for Goldsboro at about 1:45. Got a job at 3. It was a Lynx 5000. No messing with phone lines. It was for a younger couple. The husband was in the military and was due to head out for another 6 months in a few weeks. He had a really nice Harley. The wife was pretty funny-- I swear all she did was complain in a southern twang lol. She was cooking dinner and she complained about the smell of fish and the taste of fish. Then she complained about having to feed the fish in their huge fish tank. Then she complained more about all the housework. She wasn't like, manically depressed or anything, it was all done in a humorous way. :) Since I hate fish too, I complained with her. Her little 4 year old son, who is a bit overweight (a butterball, as I like to call little fat children ha ha) kept calling her 'honey' to get out of trouble, but it backfired when he would just repeat that over and over again.  I mounted their panel on the kitchen wall. The outlet was 3 feet to the right. I had to get my flex bit out and drill horizontally through the studs. I only got though one, however. I attempted the second stud, but ended up drilling through their wall on the other side instead. lol -- That's the second house that I've done that ha ha! Good thing they were remodeling :) They weren't mad at all. The rest of the install went really smooth. They were contemplating more window sensors. They wanted to put one on their 16 year old daughter's window to prevent her from sneaking out during the night. ha ha-- I just told them to talk to the rep. I don't like selling things for a profit and I'll tell you why. Usually, the rep is suppose to sell equipment above cost and make some sort of profit. The reps here already sell any extra equipment at cost, so selling extra equipment with a little profit is hard to do when the costumer already knows what the cost is. Selling at cost, for me, just means more work with no extra pay. I left that job about 2 hours later.
My second job was another 5000. It was in the middle of nowhere and I got next to 0 reception on my phone. It was another younger couple that owned their own photography business. They wanted their panel in the laundry room. The wire run was easy because they had a separate closet room for their AC unit which I could use to run the wire. Since I couldn't make a call inside their house, I had to go outside and use my car as an antenna and make my calls. I didn't talk to this family too much. They let me work in the laundry room and they kept their kids away from me for the most part. I was able to finish that install in about an hour and a half. Oh, something that made me feel experienced and professional; when I was putting up the front door sensor, everything I needed was right where I needed it and I put it in really quickly. The husband on the couch said 'done a few of these, eh.' Wasn't much, but it made me feel professional.
at this point its about 8:30. I haven't eaten since I got up. I barely had enough time to find a McDonalds and go through the the drive-through when i got my 3rd job. I ate my food on the way to their house.
Alright! another 5000! I love installing those :) -- It's a takeover, but I don't have to use any of their existing equipment. Good. Old equipment is always a pain in the ass to get to work with our system. I replaced their panel with ours. it was convenient that it was right above an outlet. I quickly fish my power wire though the wall. The rest of the system went in pretty quick as well. Their laundry room door was kindof a pain to put a sensor on. The walls were made out of some sort of vinyl plastic that was deflecting my drill bit. I had to drill a hole upwards through the door frame and then one perpendicular with the wall to intersect the vertical hole. I used a chain to fish the magnet lead. Again, I had no reception at this house, so I had to use my car as an antenna. I'm seriously thinking of changing my phone provider. This is ridiculous. I finished that one in a little under 2 hours. Their house smelt pretty bad because of all the pets and lack of cleaning their house. It wasn't TOO bad though. They didn't have carpet, so at least no pet odors could be stored and kept there. When I moved the night stand to get to the electrical outlet, there was a pile of cat/dog hair about 5 inches high stacked right up against the wall. Pretty nasty stuff, and a huge fire hazard. I drove home after that install. I made it back in about an hour. I'm up to 44 installs at this point. Six more, and I'll get a nice bonus :)
I talked to Erin for about an hour, played around on the internet, and went to bed around 2:30.

Things I learned today... June 2nd 2011

1. You cannot sell a car without a title.
2. You cannot gain a title in the state of North Carolina without a North Carolina drivers license. -- Even when people tip you off and say 'talk to the manager', it doesn't fly.
3. Before deciding where to put the door contacts, make sure the part on the door is NOT metal.
4. If at all possible, avoid walls with insolation.
5. Long, stressful installs are a great way to get people interested in our church.
6. Long, stressful installs are also great ways to make friends with your customers. -- Which also means fewer cancels.
7. Snakes are more common than I thought in crawl spaces.
8. With Enterprise, an underage fee is 10 bucks a day.
9. I like 2% milk alot more than whole milk.
10. I found out where the library was.
11. 'Dammit, I'm mad' is a palindrome
12. There are more LDS churches around this area than I thought. There are 2 in Goldsboro.

A typical day on the job.

(May 26th 2011)
I wake up at 11:20. I'm not sure what woke me... My roommate wasn't there to do that job. Since I don't have an early schedule out, I let my phone stay on vibrate. When I roll over to look at my phone, there are two messages. One was sent by my boss at 10:30 and said "meeting at 11." The other, sent at 11:15, said "where the hell are you?" lol. I skip breakfast (I'm outta milk anyway) throw on the closest shirt to me and walk to the office. Luckily for me, I'm not the only sleepy head that's late. Richy and Jake stumbled in right after I did. Everyday at 11, the Reps (salesmen) have a meeting to motivate themselves. There's no way to be late for the tech meeting and not interrupt the rep meeting as well. Kinda funny having all of them look at me with my groggy face and out-of-place hair. I give a casual salutation and continue to the tech room. All the other techs are dressed to go to work but me. ha ha -- Corbin put particular emphasis on the three of us to keep our phones loud in the morning in case we get called out. He also stresses about this-and-that... and talked more about... things... that just go in one ear and out the other. The meeting lasts only 15 minutes overall. When we all walk out, the reps call us all to the front and give us a standing ovation for installing so many systems over the past few days. It is fun to stand out in the crowd as someone that looks like he is ready to go back to bed.

At noon-30 sometime, I play around on facebook and notice my girlfriend, Erin's, blog. I scan all of it and read the parts that have me in them ha ha - I had no idea she wrote so well! I am impressed. She has many interesting and deep thoughts that she posts so others can write to them and answer her questions. Her title sounds very professional as well. "Random Thoughts From a College Girl" written in elegant script. Later I find out it took her three hours to come up with that! Reading Erin's blog inspired me to create my own blog. So many different and interesting things happen to me at this job, and I think recording them would be to my advantage. I cleverly title it "my journal".

The Day Begins
At 2:00 I get a text that says to leave for Goldsboro immediately. I leave a half hour later. ha ha - (What! I had to stock up on equipment!) I get a text for my first job at 3:00. Goldsboro is 70-80 miles away. that's at least an hours drive. I arrive at the house. When I pull up, nature calls... loudly. It hits me like a ton of bricks and I have to go the bathroom now! I knock on the front door. No answer. I knock on the back door. No answer. I stifle the urge to kick down the door and rush to the bathroom. I'm pissed and stressed because I'm miles from anywhere with a public restroom and I start considering the option going door to door to ask people for a bathroom break. Finally, a woman opens the door. She looks like she just woke up from a nap. It takes all my mettle not to blurt out - "Can I use your bathroom!" but I resist and maintain a professional appearance. Despite my and obvious association with Vector Security, she still gave me a 'can-I-help-you' look mixed with a look of annoyance. "Um... my name is Alex, I'm with Vector Security... Did you order a security system today?" "No I didn't." "Oh... this is...(I flip my phone open to read the text with the address) 202 valleywood dr, isn't it?" "No, that's a few streets over." I apologize and get back in my car. Several words come out of my mouth. I want to throw my GPS out the window and run it over several times, but I still have to use the bathroom and I bypass that option. I am driving like a madman trying to find this damn street. When I see it, relief floods over me and I speed down that street. When I pull into his driveway, he is just leaving, but is nice enough to show me inside and tell me where he would like the panel and which doors have sensors on them. He rushes out. There is a pregnant lady on the couch. I ask her where the bathroom is. I grab the paperwork and rush into the bathroom. Relief at last!

First job of the day...
I'm on the toilet and making calls. I'm starting to get the hang of my job and multi-tasking is critical. I might just tell the operator where I'm at to see if it causes a laugh, but I decide against it. After 15 minutes, I'm off the phone and toilet. I go back to work. I make casual chat with Jen. (the pregnant woman) She asks me to excuse her if I hear her throwing up in the bathroom. Sick! I thank my lucky stars that I'm a man and go back to work. Two hours later everything is in working order. signals have sent, the panel works and everything is good to go. Unfortunately, I am unable to finish my job because the owner is not there. The call center needs to talk with him and ask him stupid questions like 'Did Alex set up your security system in a professional manner?' and 'Did Alex clean up after himself' and then they'll ask him about billing info and such... I am forced to leave and go to my next job. I will catch him later I suppose.

Second job...
I get a job immediately after I call the office to tell them to put me back on the list. I am starving because I missed breakfast, but no time for food now, I've got to go to this house ASAP. I arrive. She is a sweet old lady with white hair standing no higher than 5 feet. My hopes fade because I know that old people get the 3000 keypad which means messing with land lines and crawl spaces. This automatically adds at least an hour to my job. The panel location is on a wall with insolation. Normally, if I can get away from it, I will choose an interior wall without that crap. The way this house was built, however, there were no practical walls of a such. I get started. I put the panel way lower on the wall than I usually do for this sweet old lady. It is below where light switches are usually placed. It makes it harder for me to bend down and see what I'm doing, but she sure appreciated it. With insulated walls, I drill as big of a hole as I can get away with and fish the wire from the bottom up. It is ALOT easier to see fish tape with a chain on it through a big hole rather than a 3/8th hole. I am incredibly relieved when I see the chain after the first run. I am able to run my power wire smoothly and efficiently. I use my foot long pilot bit and drill through the floor. I grab my headlight, 4' long flex bit, and wire strippers and head outside to find the entrance to the crawl space. The door is incredibly rusted and it looks as if it hasn't been open in at least 20 years. When I take it off (it isn't actually a door, it's more of a big metal cover) there are spider webs everywhere. Every crawl space I've been in, I've noticed, has these sea-shell like creatures living in the insolation. Many, many of these creatures had been caught in these old cob-webs. I guess they don't have much juice for spiders to drink, because almost all the webs had dead spiders in them. I use my flex bit to clear out any cobwebs that get in my way. The thing about crawl spaces is that they are only scary a foot or two in. Once one hits the middle of the house, it's the mold you have to worry about. I find my pilot bit pretty quickly and drill one inch towards the inside of the wall to make sure I'm drilling IN the wall and not through the floor. I don't want to give this sweet old lady a heart attack, so I am extra careful. After I have my hole, I feed the fish tape through and suspend it against the wall with a screw. When I get back in the house, I am incredibly relieved that it is indeed, in the wall and starring me in the face. I attach my phone wire to the chain and head back to the crawl space. I am able to run my phone wire quite smoothly. The phone jack is pretty close by, so I only have to travel 20 feet or so under the house. This crawl space was nice too because it didn't have big air ducts and metal pipes everywhere. It was pretty clean aside from all the spider webs, I didn't even have to crawl all that much, and I only hit my head on a joist once! I poked the wire through one of the crawl space windows and headed for the phone box outside. I performed a standard home-run line seizure pretty effectively and headed back in to test all the phone lines. Everything's running too smoothly... Or perhaps I'm getting better at my job??? I through up all the door sensors and program her key fob and medical pendant. Medical pendants are just key fobs with one button instead of four. I think they are dumb because on the four button key fobs, I can just program a medical panic for her on the spare button and she can just keep that in her pocket like everyone else does. Her door doesn't close all the way, which will be a problem for the security system. "I keep trying to get either of my sons to come and fix it, but they aren't good with tools. You think they would want to tinker with cars and houses but they don't... blah... blah blah..." I tighten the screws of the deadbolt while she talks and the door shuts just fine after that. Stopped her right in her speech ha ha. She is very grateful. I don't think she will cancel the system now. :) I send signals and everything is working well. I teach her how to use it. I teach her how to use it again. And again... and again. ha ha. Old people. I hope she's got it down now.

My 3rd job.
My next job comes right after I leave her house. I am about two miles into my trek to the next house when I realize I left my pilot bit sticking out her floor and had to flip a 'U'y and get it. It was right next to the air vent so neither of us had noticed it. I'm late now, so I hall ass to my next job. She is an older black lady, somewhere in her late 50's, early 60's. It is a 3000 too. 'damnit' is all I'm thinking when I see her paperwork. Her house is full of exposed wires running along the hardwood floors behind couches, chairs and the big screen. She won't mind a bit more exposed wire. I check out her phone lines. They are easy to locate and she has a crawl space. I check it out. It is pretty low... and there is a black shiny creature to greet me. I thought it was a snake at first, but it was just a small salamander. :) The lizards I've seen here in NC have all been SUPER fast! As soon as I see one, it nearly escapes my vision, they move so quickly! This one however, reminded me of a turtle. It looks at me and simple walks away. It doesn't seem afraid of me at all. This crawl space is packed full of metal pipes and cinder blocks and I'm not sure if I can fit in there. I head back in. We pick a place for her panel that happens to be near a phone jack. Maybe I won't have to run wire in the crawl space after all! I can just do a parallel line seizure. My spirits lift and I get started. I am able to fish the power wire through quite nicely. It pokes out right above the base board. I am able to staple it down and run it up to the outlet easily. I decide to tackle line seizure next. My bubble bursts when I find out the jack right next to the panel isn't functioning. I'm gonna have to run phone line. I use my pilot bit and drill down. I'm at the entrance of the crawl space now. I have to psyche  myself out before I enter one this small and potentially dangerous. My little salamander friend is nowhere to be found. I have to go to my right, but there are so many pipes in the way, I have to go straight first and then backtrack. I plunge in. I literally crawling with my toes and hands, trying to slide past all these various pipes and pillars. There is a raccoon carcass and many mold spots on the ground, so I use my fish tape real and drill to touch the ground instead of my hands. I find the place my pilot bit should be... but it is nowhere to be found. I really don't want to go back up until I find my bit and have a hole drilled. A half hour goes by and I come to the conclusion that I need the owners help. I hope she's done talking to her daughter... They've been blabbing ever since I entered the house. With difficulty and caution, I exit. Her daughter has been in the process of leaving the house for an hour now. She is at her car and they are still talking. I'm slightly irritated and politely interrupt to mention that I may need her help. She's cool with it. I decide to busy myself with other things. I install a door sensor. She walks in and is ready to help. I need her to stomp down on the place that I'm trying to find my drill bit while I'm in the crawl space. I go back in the crawl space. She starts knocking way too early-- I'm not even close yet!  So I haul ass and forget that there are nasty things on the ground and just use my hands to crawl. She knocks a few more times and at last I have found my drill bit. It is in a small opening between two joints only inches away from each other. I am so relieved! I drill my hole and put the fish tape in. I go back in the house. I'm excited to be almost done with this crawl space. I begin checking inside the wall for my tape. It is nowhere to be found. I am using my noodle (a large flexible wire with two strong magnets on either end) to try and find the chain. I am frustrated and reach for my light inside my bucket when I notice my fish tape... sticking out of the ground... and not in the wall. ha ha I drilled through her linoleum  floor. Whoops! I wonder if she was standing there the entire time it was happening and assumed it was normal... lol. Swearwords went through my head. I had drilled one inch in the opposite direction of my pilot bit. Back in the crawl space I went. Found my pilot bit, and my mistaken hole, and drilled one inch in the correct and started drilling. Halfway through my hole, my drill battery died. Ha! I said 'NOOOOOOOOO!!!" really loud and swore. I was kinda pissed off now and bolted through the crawl space and out to my car for my spare battery. Back in the crawl space I went. I know her crawl space very well now, so it takes me no time to reach that spot again. Finished my hole, fed the tape and went back inside. I am very dirty now. I have sawdust all over my arm, dirt on my face and stains on my pants and shirt. Also the hole on my jeans is significantly larger now. I am relieved to find the chain easily in the wall and pull it out with my noodle. (ha ha, that sounds funny) I quickly patch up the hole in the linoleum. Now I can barely tell there was a hole there. :) Back in the crawl space I go. The phone wire pokes out the whole with no troubles. I run it out of the closest window to the phone jack and staple it to the floor joists as I'm going. I perform a line seizure pretty easily and head back inside to see if everything works. Her phone lines are working. :) Good, good. I check the panel with my butt set (it's a phone with prongs on the end. It's used to detect power to the phone.) I get nothing. Another swear word goes through my head. This is where I spend a good hour troubleshooting the problem. The phone box I ran my cord out too doesn't have power either... Hmm... I asked the owner where the power to the phone was. "I have this modem in the computer room... is that what you're looking for?" "Let me check it out." Now, I have no idea what a modem does at this point. I figure a modem has to get its power from somewhere, like a phone box.. right? So that doesn't help me... At this point I've called Corbin several times and got nothing but his voice box. I'm frustrated, it's getting late, I've got no idea what's going on, and I STILL haven't eaten. At last Corbin answers the phone. I explain the situation. I finally learn what a modem is... Apparently it is a a wireless way to receive land lines! Translation... I have to run the phone line to where her modem is. On the other side of the house. More swear words. It is nearly 11:30 at night. I explain the situation to the owner and explain that I would have to come back tomorrow. She is very cool about it. She has sensed my frustration and determination and is rooting for me. :) I quickly throw up her panel and clean up after myself. I leave frustrated and discouraged. And HUNGRY! I drive to he nearest Waffle House. They are open 24/7. I sit at the bar area and eat a hardy breakfast. I also found out today that I don't like grits. At 12:30, I call Erin and she is my outlet to all my frustrations. Thank goodness she listens and comforts me while I drive the hour and 20 minutes back to my apartment. Thanks babe!

May 25th 2011

Hello everyone! This is my first attempt at making a blog. Hope everything turns out alright. I've decided to write one because I'm doing a lousy job keeping up with my journal. Figured typing would be alot quicker and efficient than writing. Enjoy!