Building a better world - Cam's Journal

[Cam]

I think I am feeling a bit lost. As my personality type is one where I like having too many projects on the go at once, that's sort of how I've been coping.

So the current situation is fun: I am working 20 hours a week helping to run a volunteer bike program. Pay is $18/hour and it runs until the end of August. I met a girl not long ago while out at the bar and we get along really well. She's very witty, I haven't met someone in a very long time who matches my sense of humour so closely. I have mentioned my plans to homestead to her and I think it initially threw her off a bit but she sounds a lot more interested now. I don't know how rugged she is yet though, that is still to be determined. Homesteading can be fulfilling but it is full of crappy stuff figuratively and literally.

My sense of being directionless comes from the question of what to do after this bike repair job is done. Do some workaway style travelling in Quebec? That would help with my French and potentially teach me homesteading/permaculture skills if I help out on a farm or homestead. Or stay in town and take a mail carrier position with Canada post? It pays $22.60 per hour and it's all outdoor, physical work which I know I'd enjoy. I can handle any weather as I biked everywhere for a long time.

Do I start up some sort of at home welding business? Do I start up a repair cafe in my hometown? Do I put a heavier focus on becoming officially bilingual to open up remote job opportunities in Quebec (this is an idea from a guy on permies I'm chatting with who is on a very similar path to me. Little further along though, he just purchased his land further north). Hmmm.

I don't know if this is analysis paralysis or just having too many options or what, but it's tiring. Right now, I basically just jump from activity to activity. Little bit of aluminum welding here, then some french learning there. Little bit of dismantling old bikes down to their frames (a la atomic zombie, thanks jacob!). Little bit of exploration of stuff to manufacture at home.

In short, I'm all over the place. But it isn't as fun as it usually is, I think because I don't have any structure to it all. I feel like every day I'm jumping into something new. It's fuelled by my usual excitement for new hobbies and skills, but also running away from the uncertainty I'm feeling.

I think for me to function better I need to be able to structure my time better, or commit to something where it isn't easy to back out. Otherwise I sort of flounder. I still learn and get stuff done, but it's chaotic.

In terms of schooling, if I want to stay on the CDA path school will start in September 2024 - so I have a loooot of time before then. What to do what to do what do...

I did put an ad up on kijiji saying I can weld - steel, stainless and aluminum. One interested person with aluminum trailer ramps he wanted repaired. I asked for photos as he lives out of town. Just to see if 1) it's repairable and 2) if it is within my skillset. I'm cautious about jobs where the welds will be under heavy loads (i.e. a vehicle) or if the welds fail it could cause serious damage to property or people. He never got back though so I think it's off. But the ad is up!

My net worth is still sitting around $52K. Not climbing much as I'm only earning about $1200 a month right now. I am open to ideas!

The one about training for work that can be done remotely is interesting, and one I'd never considered until now.

[Sclass]

You’re young. Being a little scattered at this point is normal. Keep exploring. Things can gel pretty fast when the conditions are right.

[ertyu]

Also, on a broader level, this is how life is - uncertain. It's one of the things that's different after you get out of school. While you're in school, you know exactly what you'll be doing: today you'll do french homework and math homework, tomorrow you'll read lord of the flies, the day after tomorrow you'll give a biology presentation, and then on the 27th, there will be a test. You get a syllabus, the teacher tells you what to do and when, you do it, and you know exaclty what you'll do next; you'll pass from grade 8 to grade 9, and then from grade 9 to grade 10, and in the meantime, you'll do your homework.

It's extremely common to feel like you do in young adulthood. Most "normies" eliminate their own choices and close off their own possibilities precisely so they can avoid feeling like this. "Oops, gf's magically pregnant, Canada Post it is, I guess." Or they create some situation where they've got sunk cost and they tell themselves they can't possibly leave because of the sunk cost. Or they get in debt, and it's the debt that forces them to go for Canada Post, not the pregnant girlfriend. It's extremely good that you are feeling and facing this feeling of uncertainty because if you tried to suppress it or ignore it, you'd just act it out in one of the ways described above and then at 45 you'd leave your family and buy a red car from a vague compulsion to make up for something you never got to live through.

So I say stay with the uncertainty. Interrogate it: why is it something you don't want to feel? Why does that uncertainly need to be ran away from? What is it that you're really avoiding here?

Furthermore, why are you criticising yourself for jumping from activity to activity? You interpret this as floundering, as something -- inferior? What?? -- you think that how you're being isn't how you "should" be. Well, how "should" you be? Why should you be that way, who said that? Where did you pick up that idea? What will you avoid if you become how you should be? etcetera. Question tf out of that shit; out of the manure generated by the questioning, answers will emerge. I'd avoid trying to corner yourself into a situation you can't easily escape from just to escape the vague sensation that you aren't being how you should be. You've got your entire life to trap yourself in a course of action.

[Sclass]

@ertyu really well said. I am going to steal this for a person I’m mentoring. I am doing poorly at the moment and this is exactly what I needed to say. School and the institutionalized jobs that follow are very scripted and regimented. We have this hope that after graduation we will find ourselves but there is no guarantee.

Cam is really active in his search. His search is also taking place in the real world. That is wonderful. Today’s young guys have very real temptations to immerse themselves into virtual worlds like gaming and porn which may be a dead end. While forms of that existed when I was exploring it wasn’t as intense as what we have now.

[jacob]

Cam is really active in his search. His search is also taking place in the real world. That is wonderful. Today’s young guys have very real temptations to immerse themselves into virtual worlds like gaming and porn which may be a dead end. While forms of that existed when I was exploring it wasn’t as intense as what we have now.

My bolding.

To generalize, it's not just young guys and gaming and porn. It's easy to find internet validation for many other kinds of dreams that most likely lead nowhere for most people when tried out in the real world. Not to start too much of a war but self-sufficient balcony gardener, permaculture instructor, blogger/youtuber, facilitator/community organizer, spiritual guide, repair man, craft-seller, artist,... (basically anything that competes with volunteers and hobbyists)

OTOH, I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong ab initio with any of those pursuits as long as they're pursued as a side-business/hobby and not a foundation for "paying the bills" unless one really likes/needs the "struggle" (see the non-FI/semi-people arguments).

The easiest way to freedom is still in accumulating what is about $200k in today's money and this is most robustly done serving half a decade in the salt mines working full time.

The thing is to use the salt mines to buy one's freedom [from the salt mines]. This basically requires seeing that that freedom is there and that's life is not all salt mines. This must be done before committing to a lifetime of a salt-mining in any of the number of ways @ertuy described. The world is rather sneaky about this. It does not present freedom-from-work as an option. Instead it offers up a devil's bargain of materialism. You can have all this stuff---we'll even front you some to get properly addicted---if you just sign away the rest of your self on the dotted line, what say you? Don't you want the reward?

[grundomatic]

I struggled with figuring out what to do with myself in my 20's. You have things I didn't, though, and that's the ERE framework, along with the forum and MMG. I don't want to say I regret anything I did with all prior experiences making me who I am today and all, but my life might have turned out very differently. If the Canada Post job gives you movement+money+rugged resistance to cold, and you think it will leave you with enough energy for all (most? some?) of your other renaissance pursuits, do it. It's called the "good enough job".

[Bicycle7]

I find myself resonating with your experience the past 4 months or so Cam. I've been working very, very little besides some timber framing and bike repair with a lot of time for dispersed interests- a lot of what Jacob posted above- permaculture, gardening, spiritual pursuits, repair, and plenty of floundering. I too have a personality that creates an insatiable interest in everything around me, until something loses my interest. I've found this makes it difficult for me to climb a non-trivial amount up the S-curve with skills. I've been giving a lot of thought to how to apply the crow-bar method to skill development. For me, I'm coming around to the idea that a structured job with some opportunity for learning might be positive for me.

This comes to the idea of "lifetimes" Jacob talks about, How ERE folk might get up to 7 tries at different pursuits of mastery. I find this in a way reassuring, I can go down a path, even go deep and as long as I continue building out my base of skills, connections, etc., there will be opportunities in the future to branch in different directions.

[mathiverse]

I too have a personality that creates an insatiable interest in everything around me, until something loses my interest. I've found this makes it difficult for me to climb a non-trivial amount up the S-curve with skills. I've been giving a lot of thought to how to apply the crow-bar method to skill development. For me, I'm coming around to the idea that a structured job with some opportunity for learning might be positive for me.

Wow, same. So far in my time outside of a full time job, I rarely stay interested in a skill long enough to get very good. I'll define "very good" as, at minimum, a level where I no longer need to pay for the service because I can provide it myself (ie a level 0 in the model at this link: viewtopic.php?t=3063&start=100). I'm in the process of figuring out how to structure my lifestyle so that I make more progress on the skills I want to improve faster. One way is to get a job with a learning opportunity, but I would prefer to come up with my own structure that results in the same effect without having all of the overhead a job comes with.

Some effective tactics so far:
1. Limit what I can do by removing other options (eg internet site blockers, limiting what books I get from the library on a whim, stop ordering food so much, etc)
2. Set my own progress checking deadlines
3. Find interesting problems in the same area to motivate me to stay on the same activity
4. Find more engaging ways to think about the same area to motivate me to stay on the same activity
5. Work on fleshing out the connections between the future and my present actions to motivate me to stay on the same activity
6. Prioritize work by what fits best in that time (eg study hard stuff in the mornings because I'm freshest then and I have the most willpower which means I'm less likely to shirk a plan during that time period)

While writing that I noticed that the tactics are similar to:

1. Increase your dissatisfaction with present situation. [Number 2 of the above]
2. Strengthen your vision of future situation. [Numbers 3 and 4 of the above]
3. Build a plan to get from the present to the future. [Number 5 and 6 of the above]
4. Lower the perceived cost of the plan. [Number 1 of the above]

A job provides all of the four things (and so do classes for that matter), but you have less control over the vision and plan. I want to maintain control over the vision and plan for now since there isn't great alignment between my vision and plan preferences and the available vision/plans in job or class form.

[lightfruit55]

+1 to ertyu and jacob. @cam while younger, you have experienced more self-directing and agency than me. Many people, and especially those in my country who have been groomed to think and aspire to achieve specific tracks/professions, are equally, if not more lost and clueless than you are. I really admire your introspection (especially with the Ws and Ls you've faced so far) and courage to explore at such a young age. This courage is a lot harder to develop and also possibly less valuable as one ages, so keep on keepin' on with the exploration. That said, there is also great value (learning value in addition to capital accumulation) doing some time in the salt mines. I mean, it may be a grind but perhaps frame the normie 9-5 as an anthropological exploration of the standard corporate/material world. This can be one phase out of the many possible phases in your life.

@jacob what do you mean by "The easiest way to freedom is still in accumulating what is about $200k in today's money..."? Not sure if I understand the "$200k" reference or if it's figurative for something.

[grundomatic]

@lightfruit55

It is literal. A 3% annual return on $200,000 is $6,000, which is what one should be able to live off of once ERE has been internalized and one is efficient and skillful at living. If one can learn to do this (spend $6k a year), working even a median paying job provides so much money that it then becomes trivial to save that amount ($200k) and retire from working in order to make money.

[7Wannabe5]

Also true that $7000 is about the level of spending that equals “do no more than fair share of harm” in terms of planetary resource depletion. Since this might be seen as the core ethical basis for ERE, whether the $7000 is spent on porn& video games lifestyle vs. permaculture & polyamory lifestyle vs. Baptist missionary couple lifestyle is more towards “just aesthetics.”

[Cam]

Thank you everyone for your insights I appreciate all the input

It's extremely common to feel like you do in young adulthood. Most "normies" eliminate their own choices and close off their own possibilities precisely so they can avoid feeling like this. "Oops, gf's magically pregnant, Canada Post it is, I guess." Or they create some situation where they've got sunk cost and they tell themselves they can't possibly leave because of the sunk cost. Or they get in debt, and it's the debt that forces them to go for Canada Post, not the pregnant girlfriend. It's extremely good that you are feeling and facing this feeling of uncertainty because if you tried to suppress it or ignore it, you'd just act it out in one of the ways described above and then at 45 you'd leave your family and buy a red car from a vague compulsion to make up for something you never got to live through.

So I say stay with the uncertainty. Interrogate it: why is it something you don't want to feel? Why does that uncertainly need to be ran away from? What is it that you're really avoiding here?

Furthermore, why are you criticising yourself for jumping from activity to activity? You interpret this as floundering, as something -- inferior? What?? -- you think that how you're being isn't how you "should" be. Well, how "should" you be? Why should you be that way, who said that? Where did you pick up that idea? What will you avoid if you become how you should be? etcetera. Question tf out of that shit; out of the manure generated by the questioning, answers will emerge. I'd avoid trying to corner yourself into a situation you can't easily escape from just to escape the vague sensation that you aren't being how you should be. You've got your entire life to trap yourself in a course of action.

Thank you, ertyu. I see the grasping for solid ground in all my friends now that I think of it. The one that bought the huge truck he doesn't need so now he's 'gotta' work to pay for it. Or the one with two kids who proposed to his girlfriend of 6 months (I hope it works out, it's the 2nd or 3rd time he's gotten very committed very fast with a girl).

I will avoid trapping myself in a course of action if possible, though the urge is there. If I think about it though, I think it's coming a lot from the outside and not from my own wants. I love being pretty good at lots of stuff, it's why I gravitate so much to small town/rural living. I only get uncomfortable about a new pursuit when I tell my friends about it and they say, "another change?" They're never mean about it but I feel the implied pressure to 'just pick something already'.

@Sclass Thank you for the encouragement. I know I'll definitely stick with repair and seeing your posts on the forum provides me with plenty of motivation to push myself to try new stuff out!

@jacob I know I could accumulate that money rapidly working in one of the mines up north. The challenge for me is the scheduling they run on. The sites are usually quite remote, so they are fly-in/fly-out positions. Usually the schedules are 14 on/ 14 off or 7 on/7 off. It is possible to still have a social life with the schedules, but it's far more challenging.

@grundomatic Thank you! I was reading more about the Canada Post job and it looks as if nothing is guaranteed in terms of hours as it's a back-up position. Still an option, but it's on the backburner now because there are sooo many labourer positions paying $19-$22 an hour that guarantee full time employment. I like the idea of a 'good enough job.

@Bicycle7 It's nice to see I'm not the only one. I think jobs are a good way for me too to force myself to learn a lot about a particular skill. If I get into one of the property maintenance jobs I applied to I'll definitely be learning a whole lot about general repair! And yes the idea of different life times is a neat one. Being multi-talented isn't exactly 'efficient' but I think I'm one of very few people I know who can confidently apply to jobs in social service work and to jobs in the trades knowing I'm relatively qualified for both.

@mathiverse Again, glad I'm not the only one! Those are some great strategies for staying the course with a particular skill. I am definitely guilty of getting library books on a whim Fleshing out the connections between the future and my actions now often helps me stay on a particular activity. Knowing a particular skill will be super useful to me on a homestead/small farm is great motivation to push through the difficult parts of learning!

@lightfruit55 Thank you Yes there is real value in doing the very challenging work that pays well. I think what I'm leaning towards now it labourer stuff here in my hometown. Lots of labourer and maintenance positions available that pay between $19 and $23 an hour!

So I have lots of options by the looks of it now. I've applied to two maintenance positions with one more to apply to. And I think 3 labourer positions, one especially with the local hydro company that starts at $21 an hour. Time to fire out applications and see what comes up! I've already heard back from one company for a maintenance position which is good.

[grundomatic]

I will avoid trapping myself in a course of action if possible, though the urge is there. If I think about it though, I think it's coming a lot from the outside and not from my own wants. I love being pretty good at lots of stuff, it's why I gravitate so much to small town/rural living. I only get uncomfortable about a new pursuit when I tell my friends about it and they say, "another change?" They're never mean about it but I feel the implied pressure to 'just pick something already'.

The pressure from others and the environment is real, and it seems like this gets discounted often. What is it that @ertyu says? Strength ?

So you like books, and you have lots of interests? I'll give my usual suggestion of Barbara Sher's Refuse to Choose. If Jacob in Early Retirement Extreme is your professor explaining the philosophical why and the technical how of being a renaissance man, then Barbara is your grandmotherly high school counselor telling you that it's just fine that you are a scanner (her term) and it's ok not being like everyone else. It was that same same way for her! Oh and by the way she's developed these archetypes of different kinds of scanners and here are some tools and life models that work for the different types and also here are some stories about people that have done these very things oh and then here are a few more possibilities and things you could do for just good measure. Obviously a very different tone, but you might check it out if you think this sort of thing might be helpful to you. The good enough job is one of the models.

[Cam]

The pressure from others and the environment is real, and it seems like this gets discounted often. What is it that @ertyu says? Strength ?

So you like books, and you have lots of interests? I'll give my usual suggestion of Barbara Sher's Refuse to Choose. If Jacob in Early Retirement Extreme is your professor explaining the philosophical why and the technical how of being a renaissance man, then Barbara is your grandmotherly high school counselor telling you that it's just fine that you are a scanner (her term) and it's ok not being like everyone else. It was that same same way for her! Oh and by the way she's developed these archetypes of different kinds of scanners and here are some tools and life models that work for the different types and also here are some stories about people that have done these very things oh and then here are a few more possibilities and things you could do for just good measure. Obviously a very different tone, but you might check it out if you think this sort of thing might be helpful to you. The good enough job is one of the models.

Damn that book sounds like a blast, thank you for the suggestion! I'll see if it's at the library or available as an ebook.

[Cam]

I knew this month was going to be expensive. This month I earned $1850 and spent $1400. Ouch, but still an increase in NW. My big spends this month were:
White water rafting trip in August: $350. It should be a lot of fun. Only going with one other friend because scheduling was challenging, but it's gonna be a good time. I've never actually done white water rafting so I'm looking forward to it! It's a 3 day excursion with all meals included.

Going to see Hamilton in Toronto: $170 - costs for hotel, ticket, and meals. It was a lot of fun, we got back yesterday. Went with my girlfriend and her good friend who loves the play. Oh boy sometimes I forget I'm rather introverted, then I do a multi-day trip with people and I sure remember!!

Eating out: $170. This one pained me. I ate out a lot on the two trips with my girlfriend this month. I forget how normal people default to eating out. I've been rather insulated with my friend group for years now. The one friend is just super introverted so prefers just having a fire or tea with a few close friends (cheap!). The other friend has a mortgage and kids so he prefers just tea and cards at his house (cheap!). I did host a cards night at my house this month which was great. We got some deal at dominos for pizza. I paid, and everyone paid me their part after. So the night ended up costing just $8 for everyone. I know instead of resenting eating out I just need to introduce alternatives to my more spendy friends. Whenever I do they're always open to try...the spendy stuff is just an easy default.

Even with all the spending if I deposit my most recent paycheque today I'll be able to put over $1000 into my investments.

Now in exciting news: I might have a chance at an excellent job. I recently got an email from the director of a program for adults with disabilities that I've worked for a couple times. She said they have a couple contracts coming up if I'm interested. One of them is a community coordinator position that pays ~$44000 a year. So much higher than I'm used to. But the other contract (which they're considering me for after an informal chat last week) is financial sustainability officer which pays $55,000 a year. A part of the "interview" (haven't actually done one yet) was a test project.

I was asked create a streamlined process for accepting charitable donations. So basically, create templates for donation receipts that abide with all the tax laws while also being visually appealing. In addition I needed to write procedures docs explaining clearly how to fill out the forms for different types of donations (cash no advantage, cash w/ advantage, and non-cash gifts). I was given the task Wednesday evening and I had until Friday morning to get it in to them. Because I was leaving for Toronto Friday morning, I submitted everything Thursday night. She got back and said it was "great, exactly what she was looking for" and that I'd hear back from them this week.

The job came from a grant from the Ontario government. It's the first government grant they have ever received so it's quite exciting. Up until now all their funding has come from community fundraising. It's pretty impressive honestly. However part of the conditions of the grant was that they hire a financial sustainability officer. The way she described it, it's sort of designing and implementing processes for all the financial parts of the program. For example tracking income from grants and community donations, and spending on the other side. That way if they don't get another grant they'll at least have accurate, easy ways to keep track of their income and expenses. In addition to the designing stuff, I'd be an important part of running fundraising activities too.

Worst case I don't get it and I continue on applying. But if I do, it'd be exciting. It's far better pay than I'm used to. It's 37.5 hours a week (I think), but all day shifts so I have evenings and weekends for my own pursuits. And most importantly to me it's an amazing program. It started over a decade ago now as a response to there being nothing for folks with disabilities after they turned 18. I was a co-op student there in high school, and I worked there a couple summers too. It was the same program where I took over as the worker for the guy with severe autism for a day. Fingers crossed!

In terms of the rest of my life, it's going well! I got a hit from my kijiji welding ad. A guy wants a catalytic converter welded into his exhaust system. I told him I'm not set up well to work under cars, so he's pulling the exhaust off and dropping it off. It won't be for a little while yet, because he realized the configuration he wanted won't actually work so he's gotta get something else figured out.

On the romance side, I really like my girlfriend. It became 'official' at the end of June, and it's been a good time since! She knows my plan to homestead and I can tell she's really interested in it now because she brings it up a lot. She wants to improve her spending, and it's something we can work on. Right now she spends almost all of what she earns, and she has debt as well. Her fixed expenses aren't actually very much from what I can see, so the majority of the spending is on eating out/trip/concerts etc. She really enjoyed the cards night I hosted a few weeks ago. She still has no idea that my net worth is over $53K now, because I don't share that stuff with just anyone. I just know it's a not a good idea to let people know that I actually do have a good chunk of cash She knows I'm saving up for a land purchase so I'm sure she knows I have at least some savings.

We also did some repair together, and she said it was the most fun she'd had in a while! I got a rusty trenching shovel from my buddy who never used it, and her and I went through the whole restoration process. Got the wire wheel on the grinder, got her all suited up with the PPE, and showed her how to use the grinder to take all the rust and dirt off. I did the tough parts where kickback was nearly unavoidable, but she did a lot of the flat parts. Then I showed her how to use a flap wheel to resharpen the edge. Then we put some oil on it, and it looks great now. She keeps asking now when our next project is happening

I've gotten more seriously back into fasting, and it has showed. It's part of my treatment plan to improve the fatigue I've been dealing with since fall 2021 - most likely a form of long covid. I've now made the clear connection between sugar intake and my # of times waking up to pee at night. I know something is likely wrong with my liver or kidneys, and I think covid or one of the vaccines played a part. Blood tests in march didn't reveal much, but I'm going in for another round soon to clarify some stuff. I now eat far less sugar than I used to, and I sleep a lot better than I was. I also lost 7lbs rather quickly with the lack of sugar and stricter fasting schedule, and I definitely didn't get less muscular! I'm just sticking to a 16:8 schedule so nothing radical here.

I'm up to 10 consecutive pull ups now, and it's showing in my back muscles. The 'crash' that I used to experience after my intense workouts rarely happens anymore, which is so exciting. I'm actually beginning to get the endorphin rush that I used to (pre-fall 2021) and that I enjoy a lot.

August should be a cheaper month. I'll set a goal to have a little potluck with my friends instead of ordering in food. Great way to socialize, cheap for everyone, and it's a great variety of food!

[Sclass]

Cam I assume your client knows how to fit his exhaust system before taking it off the car. It needs to be clocked and scribed up really well if you aren’t going to tack it while it’s in place. Exhaust has a way of really going wrong and you only find out when you try to bolt it back in. I would strongly suggest going over to the client’s garage and tacking up the system in place with your wire welder. Then unbolt it and bring it home.

Great news on the girl. Youth rocks.

[Cam]

Thanks for the pointer on the exhaust Sclass I'll take you up on that. Just need to get my wire welder back in business. It's at the repair centre right now because the gun that came with it was faulty. There's no rush because the client is up north working for the next few weeks anyway.

I did get another lead on another job yesterday. Looks like two braces snapped off on a small wood splitter. He's gonna drop it off at my place today and I'm gonna see what I can do with it. If it's a simple 'weld it back on' procedure it'll be very simple, but if it turns out there's going to be more work involved I'll let him know before I go ahead with it. And if I think that no matter what I do it'll just break again pretty soon I'll tell him that too.

Thanks Sclass

[Cam]

Well September has arrived, and life is going well. I earned a little over $3200 in August and spent ~$700, giving me a 78% savings rate.

I did my first weld repair job and it went very well. I fixed up the braces on a wood splitter and earned $50 for it. The guy I did it for was very happy with the fix and he said he'd be spreading the word. My parents told me he is in fact very chatty so he wasn't lying The exhaust job is on hold as I haven't heard from the guy recently. He apparently tried fitting stuff up and it didn't work as he thought it would. I have my wire welder back in action now though so I am ready to tack stuff up if he does get back to me.

I also have a guy who needs a steel dock fixed up. I think I'll be going to look at the job next week to see what it's going to require. I told him right off the bat that I am not set up to do mobile work - meaning that I don't have a big generator to run my welder and equipment. He said he has power available down at the water so all is well. What I wanted to test out this week was how well my Mirage will work as a work vehicle. The answer? From what I can see, surprisingly well. With the back seats down, I was able to fit the following with room to spare:

Inverter stick welder and leads
Welding rods - 7018 and 6010
Welding PPE (gloves, helmet, respirator + cartridges)
Two angle grinders and wheels, face shield
Drill and bits
Two 25' extension cords
Fitting tools (speed square, soapstone, combination squares, measuring tape)
Hand tools (adjustable wrench, hammer, slag hammer)
All ten of my work clamps

Stuff I haven't considered:
Work ladder
Work surface (folding table?)

Everything was secured in totes, so I was actually able to drive around without worrying about a drill taking my head off if I got in an accident driving around. If I do this job and it works out well, I think this could be a viable way to do business. If you're reading this and shaking your head saying "Nooo Cam don't do it!!" Tell me why. I very well might be missing or not considering something here. But if I'm not missing anything serious, I think I could offer mobile welding services but on a "you provide the power" basis. This would allow me to offer much cheaper prices than everyone else while still making good money. No, my capabilities would be no where near that of an actual mobile welder with years of experience and a big truck with a generator and an oxy-acetylene setup. But there might be a niche there.

Now in very good news: I got the job at the program for adults with disabilities!! I start next Tuesday as their financial sustainability officer I know, very fancy sounding. I'll be brushing up on accounting basics this weekend. It's going to be weird actually earning good money (at least for me). I've been putting away money working 20 hour weeks, so jumping up to 35 or 37.5 hours per week at ~$25 an hour is gonna be a big jump! I know my net worth is gonna hit the $60K bench mark in just a couple months with that kind of earning.

As for the rest of my life? It's good! I'm keeping up with my strength workouts at our local outdoor gym. My girlfriend and I are still getting along great. One of my brothers got engaged, and the other one finally found a job after months of searching. I'm still going regularly for basketball with a couple friends and playing cards with another group. Life is looking up

[grundomatic]

The plumber I hired to fix what I couldn't said that he ran his plumbing business out of his Cadillac for 3-4 months until he saved enough for a work van, so such things aren't unheard of. Congratulations on the job!

[Jim]

Cam, it's a joy for me to read through your journal, especially with your welding gig work. When I was in my 20s I did a fair amount of welding work. My close friend ended up making a very successful business out of what we started together in our mid 20s. though I chose another path. We started out with an old ford ranger and an industrial Airco 3 phase behemoth that took up most of the bed. I recall rebuilding the truck suspension so it wasn't such a hazard to drive around on. Nowadays, you can do so much more with a much smaller machine!

Don't let anyone tell you that you can't run a mobile welding outfit out of a car. Being able to get work by undercutting the going rate is a good way to cut your teeth, but not a great long term plan. The only other advice I have is to not be afraid to make very high quotes on jobs you think might get complicated. If people don't want to pay you for a tough job, and it might become stressfull, there's a good chance it won't be worth doing.