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.