Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Self employed

I'm self employed and have been for most of my working life . Today I'm not rushing off to work because I've just put in 3 weeks without a day off . I have about 4 hours work left on my current contract and as yet I do not have another job to start so I can relax a little . Quite often I'm at a loss when I have free time on my hands because I have no plan for it .

Fix my truck ? Clean the House ? Sleep ? Write my blog ...................think ?

Think , that could be dangerous , could lead to worry anxiety fear regret anger wwwwwwwwwwwwwwhoa stop , I know better . Why ?

Later more..........

Monday, October 30, 2006

Renovation project

Fabulous fall day , sunny and warm . Just finishing up a reno on an old house down town Windsor. I'm laughing a bit to myself at how home owners get stressed out during a major renovation. On Friday the owner spent the whole day waiting for the mortgage rep. to arrive in order to inspect progress for a draw on the mortgage. He needs money to pay the trades and paced and puttered around all day waiting .The fellow never showed up. I know he's taking a risk because he purchased a large dumpy house in an old neighbourhood , gutted the interior, and started over with new drywall, wiring, and plumbing. The owner is hoping that that the mortgage appraiser will assign enough value to the completed renovation so that he can get his original investment back plus some profit.

I've been burned a few times in this kind of situation .Home owners who contract their own job often run over budget because they are at a disadvantage compared to builders when calling for trades to price their job .Builders are able to get competitive prices because they are contracting multiple homes year round, thus offering steady cash flow for a particular trade. I had a customer who was unable to pay because the stress of the building project caused a marriage break up and the wife took off with a $20,000 mortgage draw.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

ygallia

ygallia
Let's see if this works
Just got started on this blog and then Connie, my wife , decided to start moving furniture. So shut down the PC and and unplug everything and rearrange our living room to her satisfaction. This is my first day off in three weeks ,no washing done, apartment is a mess, no food in the house and I'm blogging instead of house work .Why? Connie and I work together and when we get home we are not inclined to do house work because we worked all day making someone else's house look spiffy.
Nothing works like it's supposed to but then I'm not web savvy

THE REAL ME


No high tech at work here ,it's all I really know how to do well.
Last week I ran in to the customer from hell. What's that ?
Just someone who want's their money's worth. When the job
is complete they proceed to inspect it with a 500 watt bulb in
hand and pencil mark minute scratches and deficiencies while saying they are not paying untill completely satisfied.What do I do ? Make them happy by doing what they want. Gee I forgot,I
am not capable of making someone happy ,they can only do that for themselves.

Friday, October 27, 2006

15 days without a day off .Is this ok ?Last job was the customer from hell but on reflection he was just trying to get his money" worth .

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Some how I found this site when I googled the words 'Gallia divisa est' thus my screen name .Never blogged before so here goes.
I was remembering my Latin teacher Mr Usherwood who used to look the other way when I cheated on latin tests. Writing really small on the palm of one's hand actually helps to learn latin vocabulary without really trying. So you're thinking; who learns latin these days? Well this was 44 years ago at Boarding School in England and when final exams came I managed to pass without my crib sheet. So that's my starting point.