Tuesday, July 7, 2015

7/7/15 Who's Got A Five Year Plan?

    Wife was talking to me about friends we know who do not seem to have a five year plan.  This usually irks me because I don't think normal people really plan their lives in five year blocks.  If anything she won the lotto in husband's chosen as I totally rock and make her life a pleasure.
    I know that sounds awful big of myself, but who goes around talking about planning a few years in advance what is going to happen.  First of all, we didn't even plan our children, they both happened as pull out babies.  I consider us lucky that they are who they are, both very different, but very much individuals, but we didn't sit around smoking fat cigars saying "I say Wife, 1994 seems like a great year to be having a skinny kid." "Oh yes, Husband, please, fill 'er up, as the Simpletons say."  No, we got sloppy, and after many years of being lucky, we finally got ummm, luckier?!?!
    Another point she contends with is people nowadays are just floating haphazardly, not paying attention to what kind of job they are doing.  I was lucky to graduate with a degree in 1994, the next year I spent it working in a warehouse driving a forklift for $8/ hr.  I only quit after a year because I demanded a $2/ hr raise and I was ignored.  I figured I was being given more responsibilities, I should get more money, they said no, I then had to show I was serious and quit.  The only person happy I quit was my Mom, she hated that I was working there and not teaching back home, living next door.
    My next stop was not much better, it was with LCRA, I was technically doing work as a chemist, so was everybody else in there.  They had a system, you would start as a tempt, for a few months, if they liked you, you would then be offered a permanent job at mid $40's.  Sounds great, for 1995, but my friend had like 8 years seniority and that was not going to work out with me, he always being above me and no real way to rise, so I quit after a couple months, even though that job is what I was trained to do.  90% of employees had chemistry degrees, but I hated the schedule, start work at 8:00am, break at 9:40, lunch at noon for one hour, break at 2:40, out at 5:00pm.  Everybody moved at the same pace, somebody kill me.
    I then tried here where I have been for the last almost 20 years, and the first year was still only as an operator, at $9.90/hr.  Of course, Wife might say, I planned this, I would say I have been lucky.  There have been +8 layoffs, I could've been taken by any of them, but here I am still.
    Same with our homes, we only left the apartment complex I lived in while at UT because I wanted a house, Wife was sure we couldn't afford it.  She was real sure we couldn't afford our current house, and she was almost right, as I have had to kill myself with the OT to stay in it.  I think the sale of our first home in a couple weeks will finally change the balance there, and leave us in a better position financially.
    Again, there was no five year plan, there was a Big Mando wanting a bigger piece of the American Dream and a willingness to work my ass off for it.  Plans are for dreamers, JUST DO IT!!!

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