Don't quit your day job kid.

If you don't like the weather, wait 15 mins.

Ok, well I would apologize for the time between posts, but it feels hilarious to think there is anything like anticipation for my next screed. That being said it wasn’t just laziness, it was weather based. After something like 20 years as a desk jockey / design guy I found myself unable to secure another cushy pixel pusher job, so I had to revert to my native hustle, freelance grunt.

In the salad days of like a year ago, I paid someone to keep the lawn of the house in order. Once I lost that sweet sweet laptop class job, I had to make some adjustments. Ol’ boy who did the deed with the lawn needed some designin’ done, and I was happy to swap some of that for continued clipping of said grass.

About a month ago it started becoming increasingly clear that that old job, or something like it, may never come back to me. So I needed to put some money in my account to cover the bills. The owner of the lawncare place had me working with his wife on the branding and website and one day she mentioned the trouble they were having on finding plow guys for this winter. To her surprise I offered up my services.

Your humble narrator, and his embarrassing handywork (I got better).

While I had never driven a plow truck, I am a competent driver and was well versed in the ins and outs of various flavors cash-in-hand grunt work. So I figured until I found something that paid better this would be one way to make the donuts. Two days later I was in a truck at 3 AM squinting my way through a typical Michigan blizzard.

As far as this blog goes this was, in its way, fortuitous since the winner of the poll was a tie between advertising and shitty jobs as my next topic. I have about 2500 words down about one such job which was delivering drywall and drywall accessories. I figure it will take something like 5000 words to do it justice, and I plan on including some doodles since you all seem to like that.

But as I rode around all by my lonesome pushing cloud dander around and humping a shovel, it gave me time to think about what particular things I would jot down about many similar jobs I have had over the years.

Late nights in the snow is not without its charms and moments:

My field of fucks after 14 hours in a truck.

The end of route, filling the salter while salty.

The smell of diesel and gas station coffee was apparently the key to unlocking memories I needed to begin to describe the experience of actually working for a living. Not saying that design work wasn’t in fact work, it was to be sure. But you don’t have to put on pants, let alone carharts and longjohns to do it.

So that is a roundabout way of saying I am in fact working on the next post for those of you who care. I want to make it interesting enough to be worth the effort of reading it, so in between bouts of flurries and icy nights I will hammer the rest out. Wish me luck on the roads, as is customary, and I will be back in a ricky tick.