
Sebastian DeGray |

Ouch! Sorry to hear that Tom. Good luck on the job search.
You should have been in Santa Fe this winter, the old house I bought has been keeping the plumbers very busy.
1. Cast Iron sewer pipes were bad the day we moved in.
2. Sewer line choked with roots
3. Two frozen pipes in uninsulated mudroom.
All this just to keep the water flowing till eventually we can do a remodel.
Seems plumbing is a skill that will always be in demand no matter the economy, so hopefully you find something quickly.

Bree Longfield |

Oh heck, Tom, I didn't know you did plumbing. I'm having plumbing issues right now on this stupid trailer I bought (tons of regret so far). It started leaking after the pipes froze in February. I got under there, ready to do it myself if it was copper (yes, I'm a woman and yes I know how to sweat copper) but, alas it is galvanized steel. That's a whole other can of worms, I'm sure you know!

Winter Snow |

Sorry to hear about the job Tom. I know what a bummer lay offs can be, I've been through it twice!
That said, each time I fell on my feet and did ok, so hoping its the same for you.
You should move to Australia, we have more work than we have tradesmen, tradies earn a fortune - doubly so if they move to the mining areas.

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I could go for moving down there if I had the money to get there. Also probably too hot for me.
At least my sugar gliders would be at home :P They probably wouldn't survive, having been all bred for generations for domestication and whatnot.

Winter Snow |

Queensland is tropical and warm, Sydney is more temperate with cold/wet winters (down to about 5-6c/42f winter and up to around 40+c/110f in Summer) and further down Melbourne is cool all year around. Dont gp to Tasmania, in winter it would freeze the balls off a brass monkey.
Im away down to those colder climes this winter and expect to be out in days reaching up to 40f while the sun is out, and around arounf 14f nights.
And we have Sugar gliders here too!

tom_thiessen |

Sorry to hear about the job Tom. I know what a bummer lay offs can be, I've been through it twice!
That said, each time I fell on my feet and did ok, so hoping its the same for you.
You should move to Australia, we have more work than we have tradesmen, tradies earn a fortune - doubly so if they move to the mining areas.
You don't know how strange that is...I had a company in Sydney that was going to hire me without an interview, but I have no resources to get down there.

tom_thiessen |

Oh heck, Tom, I didn't know you did plumbing. I'm having plumbing issues right now on this stupid trailer I bought (tons of regret so far). It started leaking after the pipes froze in February. I got under there, ready to do it myself if it was copper (yes, I'm a woman and yes I know how to sweat copper) but, alas it is galvanized steel. That's a whole other can of worms, I'm sure you know!
You could always take off one of the fittings and do an iron pipe x plastic fitting, and redo the whole place in pex. :)

tom_thiessen |

Ouch! Sorry to hear that Tom. Good luck on the job search.
You should have been in Santa Fe this winter, the old house I bought has been keeping the plumbers very busy.
1. Cast Iron sewer pipes were bad the day we moved in.
2. Sewer line choked with roots
3. Two frozen pipes in uninsulated mudroom.All this just to keep the water flowing till eventually we can do a remodel.
Seems plumbing is a skill that will always be in demand no matter the economy, so hopefully you find something quickly.
What happened with the sewer line? Just a quick cable to get it running, or did you replace them all?

Sebastian DeGray |

Under the house we had the cast iron stack and the galvanized sewer return lines replaced with PVC. Our feed from the street is still galvanized and may need replacing one day, but everything else is copper. Hopefully everything will hold together till we have enough to do a proper remodel.
Outside the house, somehow they ran a new PVC pipe through the old root choked clay pipe to the street. Not sure how they did it, but it was trenchless. So augured it I guess and then ran the new pipe inside it, they did it in a day while I was at work, so I didn't get to watch.

Bree Longfield |

Bree Longfield wrote:Oh heck, Tom, I didn't know you did plumbing. I'm having plumbing issues right now on this stupid trailer I bought (tons of regret so far). It started leaking after the pipes froze in February. I got under there, ready to do it myself if it was copper (yes, I'm a woman and yes I know how to sweat copper) but, alas it is galvanized steel. That's a whole other can of worms, I'm sure you know!You could always take off one of the fittings and do an iron pipe x plastic fitting, and redo the whole place in pex. :)
Yeah, except I can't afford to do much right now at all. I looked around online and I think I'm going to try to tighten the joints and use rubber patches with clamps on the non-joint leaks.
I just have to make it work until this fall when my next set of student loans come in and I can afford to completely redo the plumbing. I also have a window pane that needs replaced, a deck that needs rebuilt and they want me to paint the outside.
Any leads looking optimistic on the job search so far?

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I had to look them up too. Very cute.
Here you guys go.

Bree Longfield |

Great! Now the wife wants one. :-)
Of course she does!
Since we're talking animals now and not just plumbing and locations, I'm throwing out there that I've decided I'm going to get a Newfoundland dog as soon as I can get a fence built. These dogs are huge, I love them.

tom_thiessen |

Any leads looking optimistic on the job search so far?
I had one company in Toronto interested, although they never did call me back after a phone interview.
One local company that I've been doing an email interview with--which has to be the weirdest thing ever. I'm used to talking about work face-to-face.

Bree Longfield |

Bree Longfield wrote:Any leads looking optimistic on the job search so far?I had one company in Toronto interested, although they never did call me back after a phone interview.
One local company that I've been doing an email interview with--which has to be the weirdest thing ever. I'm used to talking about work face-to-face.
I imagine that would be odd. I wonder why, if they are local, they aren't having a sit down meeting with you? Strange.
Well, you know what everyone told me years ago when I was first looking for a job is that if the company does not call you back, call them. Supposedly employers like that, because it shows that you're serious about the job. How long ago did you speak to the company in Toronto?

Sebastian DeGray |

Border Collie are the breed for me. Although the two dogs I have currently are BC mixes, with chihuahua and blue healer. They look like BCs but weigh 15 pounds. I call them South of the Border Collies

Bree Longfield |

When it comes to dogs, I like what I call either a "bear dog" or a "horse dog", something that is big and sturdy. Something that my 3-year-old could almost ride on, lol. I had a Great Dane for awhile as a teen and I absolutely adored that dog, unfortunately, my step-father was not quite so fond of Roxie and decided she had to go.
I don't much care for little dogs, I'm of the mind that if it's smaller than my cat, it's not a dog :-P

Sebastian DeGray |

Funny thing is I don't either, but when you get pound rescues sometimes its a crapshoot. We saw the mother was a 40 pound BC, we can only imagine what the father's were. We got them as puppies and at some point early on, they just stopped growing. The cat wrestles with them..physically wrestles with them...head to head, they rear up lock front paws and wrestle side to side...its hilarious.
I have a friend with your similar taste in dogs. She lives alone and so likes having big strong males about. She has had a big Lab, a Pyrenees, and now an Akbash.

tom_thiessen |

I imagine that would be odd. I wonder why, if they are local, they aren't having a sit down meeting with you? Strange.Well, you know what everyone told me years ago when I was first looking for a job is that if the company does not call you back, call them. Supposedly employers like that, because it shows that you're serious about the job. How long ago did you speak to the company in Toronto?
Spoke to the Toronto company on Saturday. It is weird that I haven't heard anything.

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Or, you could just show up at the office every day in full gear ready to work. Eventually they may forget they never actually hired you and start sending you out on calls.
It worked for Stephen Spielberg. True story.

tom_thiessen |

It's been a long time since you all rolled for initiative, and I want to be sure no one is getting bored.
I've played in games that were rp-heavy and found myself making excuses to leave sessions early. but I've also been in games where we may as well have played d&d miniatures.
I can skip all these set pieces and push the storyline. or if everyone is enjoying it we can stay the course. I promise though that some of the battles are pretty epic, and you may want to go back to RPing :P

tom_thiessen |

Hurray for interviews!! Which company the local or the one in Toronto (or another one completely)?
A local job. One of the ones I applied for and never imagined I'd get. Doing building maintenance/management.
Weird coming full circle--it was the job that got me started in the trades.

Bree Longfield |

Sometimes life just goes that way...
As far as the RPing, that's always been my favorite part. I'm still getting the feel for Pathfinder and all, so I'm good either way. This is a learning experience for me, and I hope I'm doing OK so far. None of the other players have killed me yet, so I suppose that's a good sign...