I spent the day sifting dirt through a self-made screen back in to the hole for the garden bed, to get rid of the rocks and weeds. My technique developed throughout the work, and by the end I had it down to an efficient system. In the morning, I would carry a shovel of dirt to the screen, sift it through, and shake the rocks down to one edge of the screen. After a few shovel-fulls, I would tilt the screen up, gently wobble it towards a Bobcat, and lightly press the screen over the bucket until the rocks had fallen in. But I modified my process throughout the day, to increase efficiency. At the end, my process included a wheelbarrow of dirt I would move back and forth from the pile, so that I didn't have to walk back and forth every time to fill the shovel. I kept the screen directly in front of the Bobcat, so it just needed to be pushed towards the bucket and tilted up. It was a productive day as far as thinking through and streamling productivity.
I started the morning by playing with a Bobcat. Firewood needed to be moved off the porch, and a pile of rocks needed to be relocated, so I got to use a Bobcat to move stuff around. It was pretty fun. I then pulled up some weeds around a section of yard that will be re-landscaped after I leave. In the afternoon, I put together the garden bed using wood. It needed to be perfectly level and square, because the boss-man has a keen eye. While working, gusts of wind found their way through the vast expanse of forest surrounding me, barreling through the branches causing noises like a highway. It was a pretty cool sound.
I spent the morning putting together pieces I had built last week with new pieces, using rivets. I then drove a pallet of cinderblocks back to Truckee, where they had been purchased, to return them; we decided to use wood to build the garden beds instead. I finished up the day teaching my mentor how to use the Takeoff software so he can use it for his bidding and estimating once I leave.
There was a problem with one of the work-trucks, so I spent the morning taking it to a mechanic near the Tahoe Truckee Airport. In the afternoon, I worked more on a hole for the new garden bed, and downloaded a trial of some takeoff software for the roofing business. We're going to spend the weekend testing it out to see how well it works for the company, and I will likely begin building the raised bed for the garden out of cinderblocks.
For the first half of the day, I was supposed to be working in the metal shop. However, the slicer broke when we first started using it. While the boss-man began looking in to a new motor, I dug out the weeds from a large section of the yard, so that we can lay down some felt and wood chips at a later time. This took me to lunch. After lunch, I went back down to the metal shop. We loaded some sheet metal onto shelves, and another worker was able to fix the slicer; apparently, the only problem was a loose piece in the back. I spent the rest of the day making runners in the shop to fill an order for someone.
I spent six hours today working in the metal shop. I made a stockpile of a piece the roofing company uses, so that they would have the piece ready when they needed it. The reason making these pieces takes so long is that the tools in the shop aren't very advanced. The only electric tool I used today was an electric sheer, but even still there were portions of the pieces that required using regular sheers instead. In order to cut and bend the metal, all of the tools were manual. so cut big pieces, the tool requires jumping up and down on a big foot-pedal, to give some idea of the physical labor that's put in. I've been eating more than usual, and going to bed earlier as well.
I started this morning working in the metal shop, making pieces for a roofing project the company is working on. I then spent the rest of the day working on some projects for the house and rental house, digging a hole for a garden bed we will be making, setting up a printer in the office, and setting up a sound system and TV in the rental house. Later in the day, I attended my young cousin's baseball game. His team lost, and it was in part because of him. But everyone was smiling afterwards, so it's all okay.
Today was my first day of travel. I took a direct flight to Reno, then got picked up by my uncle and driven out to Lake Tahoe. We ran some errands, and I got a lay of the land. We also went over some projects I'll be working on for him over the next two weeks. Overall it was a slow day, but I'm looking forward to starting with some work tomorrow.
This week, traffic on Postmates really slowed down. I got very few orders, and spent a lot of time reading while waiting for another delivery. It was nice to spend time reading, and because I was in various places around San Diego, I got to find some cool places I hadn't been before, but I didn't make as much money either, which isn't as cool. While waiting at a restaurant for them to finish cooking the food, I struck up a conversation with the man next to me. He was working for GrubHub, another food delivery service. He told me how much he was making in a six-hour shift, and I realized I can't continue working for Postmates. He could make what I made in one week, in a single day. Luckily, this was the last week of Postmates for a while. I will be flying up to Lake Tahoe next week, to begin the next part of my Endersession.
What have I learned from Endersession so far that I can apply to life beyond high school? If the pay isn't worth your time, then you shouldn't continue working for someone. It's important to consider the value of your time, and whether or not a job, or anything else, is worth that time. In my first week of endersession I made over 30 deliveries with Postmates. It was easy to get started, with pickups being relatively close to drop offs. I could go in, let them know I was with Postmates, and they would hand me the food that had been ordered. I would deliver it to a house five to ten minutes away. Progressively throughout the week, however, it started to get a little more confusing. There were places where I had to order it myself, and pay with a prepaid card from Postmates. Some people wouldn't be specific enough in their orders, such as not picking a type of bread for their sandwich. One office ordered from a restaurant as a group, which meant I ordered fifteen meals. Stubborn teen that I am, I carried it to the car, and from the car to the office, in one load. The most interesting order I had was for a can of acetone from Home Depot. I didn't know until I got the order that someone could use Postmates to order items from places like Home Depot. they included in their order a picture of what they wanted, which helped when I went in to find it.
The most useful part of my week wasn't from working with Postmates. It was when spending time with a friend at his house. Following our return from getting coffee, he offered not to "get me", or to "pour me", but to "make me" some water. After filling the cup with ice and slivers of lemon and lime, and water, we added some strawberries, then went outside to pick some mint and basil leaves to toss in to the glass. Water, one of the most basic parts of life, became a celebration. It reminded me how important it is to enjoy and celebrate the little things in life. |