A New Idea

* If anyone is looking at the Poll on the right Re: student Loan Debt, is anyone saying: "Holy Crap! " by now?

If it is all true, about 50 people owe more than 100K in Student Loans. To me that means they are in a Debt Danger Zone, meaning their monthly loan payments have to be, or will be at least 7K a year. At Least. Right? 

So after Rent or Mortgage payment, Car Payment, Commuting expenses, Clothing, Dry Cleaning bill, Food etc etc............The numbers won't lie. If you have to make a certain amount to cover the loan payments, you can't get around it. 

All people say on Long Island is that 100K a year isn't enough for the average person to live on. And that's without Student Loans.

**As far as my short stories go, I'm not sure if I should finish them on this Blog, because then they could be stolen or at least borrowed from. They are not copyrighted, and if I am ever going to get them published, I will have to do that (copyright them) first. 


The stuff already on this blog can be stolen, but no one knows how the tales are to end but me, since they are, after all, my stories and/or creations. So it would be like stealing half a dollar bill, and not knowing where the other half is. (or a fiver, tenner, hundred etc)


Anyway, Over the last couple of days, I have been seriously thinking about the possibility of my getting a job as a Bridge Painter.


There might be somebody I can talk to about it.


Here are a couple of sample pics that I found on the Internet, but they pretty well represent what a Bridge Painter does.


I have always heard that they make good money. (Which is what I need the most.) And I'd get Health Insurance with the job too, and wouldn't have to pay out of pocket. And Yes, I would be able to get a car loan for a decent car!


Tomorrow I am going to inquire about available jobs.


Maybe I could get into it. Who knows? 


I'm 46, and if I worked for 20 years, until 66,  I would have a pension. 


The pay is very good from what I understand, and if I had good and steady money for a few years, maybe I could make a dent in my student loans, and pay them off within 5. I'd be 51 years old then. 


Maybe I could do it if I don't Marry, and besides, I'm getting to old to have kids anyway. 


Of course, I wouldn't mention my Law Degree at all, and probably not even College. I would just say I tried it. I know better now, because if I dare mention that I have an education, the rest of the crew would never accept me. I know that from experience. (Of course they could learn of my education if my wages were ever garnished.)


I realize the job is a bit dangerous, but I hear it is regulated by a lot of OSHA laws requiring that the Painters wear safety harnesses, and work with safety nets underneath. (Although in the pic above they seem to have only a hanging rope scaffold underneath to walk on, and no visible safety net, and no visible harnesses, or at least harness ropes, either.


The only thing I wonder about is if I would be nervous or afraid of heights. Freeze up, as I have heard some people do.


Probably not, but I would have to actually be up there to really know. I was on the 59th St. Bridge once walking around on some of the steelwork. But that's not quite the same thing.


And besides, risking my life on a risky job is better than ending it in one shot with a self-inflicted bullet to the head right? Anything's gotta be better than that. Right?


The man in the pic below is on the Golden Gate Bridge main suspension cable, but all suspension cable bridges are pretty similar. That red tube actually contains countless smaller cables all wound and bound together. 

But would I qualify for the job? Am I too old already? Do I have the right experience? Is there a test? How does one get into a Union?


But anyway, I think Heavy Construction, or something related to it might be my way out of debt.


I was always hesitant to get into it because it is so dangerous. 


But my family, on my Father's side, have been involved in Steel Construction and/or Erection for a few generations now, and are pretty well known in the industry, which is a specialty in itself (Erecting Steel for high rise buildings and bridges.)


For example, here's an interesting little film clip of the World Trade Center Construction.
My father's old (former) Company Erected all the steel.

I used to watch the men welding and assembling the floor panels (at 26 seconds) in a shop when I was 6 or 7 years old, and walking past huge stacks of them in the Koch Co. Construction yard in Cartaret NJ waiting for delivery to the WTC site.


You can see my family name on the one of the kangaroo cranes at 1:07.


There is the sign for the topping out of the North Tower at 5:18


And there is my Father on the far left waving his helmet at 5:24.


I was actually there on Topping out day for the South Tower. They were still pouring concrete inside, and the windows in the upper floors weren't in yet. Along with my brother and late cousin, we kept throwing little chips of concrete out the empty windows of the upper floor we were on. Not far from the roof, which my father took my brother up to. 


As long as I am thinking about the subject, here is another building in New York city that my Father says that my Grandfather erected in 1930, and was always proud of. He would joke, saying that the Pierre Hotel was slightly out of plumb, and that the water didn't drain all the way out of the bathtubs. 

I would love to go on a tour of this old hotel, but from what I hear it is incredibly exclusive and expensive, and that only Arab Oil Billionaires stay there or something like that. 


The Hotel was all renovated a few years back. Still though, I wonder if they have archives from the original construction tucked away somewhere. If so, I'm sure there are pics of the steel framework being erected, which I would love to have copies of. Knowing my grandfather, he would have had his name on the derricks, as he did in the pic of the US Supreme court building.


My Grandfather even bid on the Empire State Building, but his price was too high.


Before he founded his own company, my great grandfather worked as an Ironworker--a riveter on a 4 man riveting team, and drove rivets on the Pulaski Skyway by hand, and on the Manhattan Bridge, which is around 100 years old now. He even fell off the Manhattan Bridge while working, and survived, and was back at work in a few days I think, or a week or so at the most.

Pulaski Skyway

Manhattan Bridge Construction-Probably how it looked when my G-Grandfather fell off, and I think those old boats in the pic were steam powered, even that tug, which seems to have a steam funnel.

But I know, I know, when conversing, people generally don't like or want to hear me talk about this kind of stuff. I have even been made fun of for it by old girlfriends. (Maybe, as is the case with not just me, but many people with their "inner flaws", I keep going for the same type of woman with the same type of personality--controlling or whatever--and that is why I get made fun of when telling the stories.)


But still, some of you may make fun all you want; but the stories, at the very least make for interesting trivia, if anything. Don't you think?  Call it "Human Interest?"


And with respect to writing, be it good or "Great", average or genius, local yokel U or Ivy League----in the end, isn't the actual story-- the story itself that is-- and how interesting and/or entertaining it is,  the thing that matters a lot, if not the most? 


And also, it's not like a case of me bragging about all the status and money I have, because obviously I don't have any, and am far into the Red with Student Loan debt.


So now that I have apologized enough already, I do have more similar pics of a lot of other old buildings in DC and elsewhere, and around the country done by the old family co. The Manhattan Project, Yale University, Panama, Albany, Florida, Hydrogen Bomb Plant etc.  


And in fact, I have extended family, though I don't really know them, working on the Manhattan Bridge cables right now. 


So lets forget about what those old girlfriends said, are you entertained? 


At least a little? I mean, I'm not going all off about Law School and the loans in this Post,


 right?


And I want to close tonight with this little pearl of wisdom that I have thunked up, and it helps if you scratch your head while saying it: 

"Money comes and money goes, but just like fair weather lovers and friends in an expensive zip code, money seems to go more often than it comes. 


The most important things are your Family 1. , your Real Friends, and your Health." 


But how often we knowingly discard the most important things, in pursuit of the less important. 


Because--- all the rest of the stuff like the beautiful physical and material things and the status etc. are nice--but they are secondary, and not what makes for real happiness in life.

And Buildings and Nations will rise, and then crumble, and, I hate to break it to y'all, so do Religions and all our intellectual efforts. 


Who can say that in a million years, or even less time, and long after all the aluminum and plastic has decomposed, and if the Human Race is still around that is,  people won't be inventing the wheel again, and saying prayers to a sacred Silver Yak or something, and patting some clever fellow on the back for fashioning a new fish hook with a barb on it?


Oh, and while all that's going on, some other clever dude is taking a long hard look at some rocks, and thinking about piling them up into a pyramid or something. (But the rest of the village thinks he's  crazy.)


Know what I'm talkin?

Ain't that the truth.

Amen


JD Painterguy

United States Supreme Court Building, 1932. Zoom in and you can see the name on the vertical Derricks.  I have a better copy of this pic around somewhere.

1.  Your living family that is, and not your ancestors.