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!