Tonight I’ll be at the Habitat For Humanity San Fernando/Santa Clarita Valley’s annual “Builder’s Ball.” I’ve attended twice before as a guest (The Long-Suffering Wife was on the Board of Directors before I worked there) but this will be my first time working the event as a staff member.
Here’s a picture from the 2013 event:
I expect that I’ll be busy tonight, but probably not too busy to grab some better pictures than this. I guess we’ll know tomorrow night, won’t we?
Gotta go, duty calls!
Filed under Habitat For Humanity
There’s a new “thing” out there in the cultural zeitgeist, at least here in SoCal, where ordinary people with little or no artistic training (or talent) get together to drink wine and paint a picture. It can be done as a date night sort of thing, or a group can rent out the whole place for a couple hours for a team building type of thing.
The Long-Suffering Wife did it a while back with a group from her place of employment – she thought it was fantastic. I had my opportunity last night as we had our office Christmas party at one of these places.
The Long-Suffering Wife was correct. It was a lot of fun. It also helped that I was at a Christmas party with people I really enjoy working with in a company that I really like. And the wine was pretty good.
Big strokes, gobs of paint. It’s a bit like follow the leader or painting by numbers. Small, simple steps, with instructors wandering around to help – everyone’s was recognizable as coming from the “master” image we were copying, but they were all quite individual.
We’re using acrylics. It’s interesting to see how many people worry about doing it “right.” There is no “right.” You’re with friends, you’re drinking wine, chill and play with it!
My biggest problem was technical – the most fine, narrow lines I wanted to do were like using one of those super fat markers. I’m sure I would get it with practice.
Dabbing, however, I excelled at. (This is your surprised face…)
I was sorely tempted from the beginning to deliberately go off the rails, using the wrong colors and/or painting something completely different than everyone else was. (Next time, for sure!)
This is the one finished by our instructor, which is what we were trying for (in theory).
This is mine. Not great, but not bad since it’s about thirty-six years since I last painted. That’s the advantage to going off the rails – if no one knows what it’s supposed to look like, no one can tell you how much you missed the mark.
Finally, the walls are lined with hundreds of other pictures that you can paint in different classes, including this one. I kept asking which one was Morrissey, but the only person who got the joke was one of the instructors.
Kids these days!
Filed under Art, Habitat For Humanity, Paul, Photography
This is the article I’ve too embarrassed to write for over two and a half years.
While I’ve used this site as a place to have plenty of rants and to share oodles of personal information (hopefully not too personal), I’ve also tried to keep my bitching and ranting to somewhat “global” topics. Telemarketers. Cheap, disposable Christmas lights. People who drive like idiots. Politics! Airlines that give us lousy service. Ranting lunatics with a cause. Useless traffic signs. You know, that sort of thing.
It’s a fine line between ranting and whining. I think I give good rant. I’ve tried not to whine or be a real emotional buzzkill here. Or at least, when I do, I try hard to be vague.
When in doubt, mumble.
Once or twice over the past thirty months or so I’ve dropped hints and out of context comments that let on that “something’s up.” Those of you who are family or know me personally knew what I was talking about. Those of you who paid attention to the category tags probably had a pretty good hint.
Recently, more and more I’ve referred to the “400-pound gorilla,” as in the legendary and proverbial “400-pound gorilla in the room” which everyone ignores feverishly and no one speaks of. As I have been too embarrassed, frightened, and nervous to speak of mine.
Let me introduce you. It’s not a gorilla, it’s a Job. His name is Unemployment.
In January, 2013 the company I had been working for since 1985 (yep, that’s twenty-seven-plus years at one place) closed its doors. The company had done construction and property management, building houses, condos, HUD Section 8 assisted housing apartments, shopping centers, and commercial buildings. Many of these properties, particularly the HUD apartments and shopping centers, we held on to and managed. After forty-plus years together the President and Vice-President wanted to retire, so the whole portfolio was sold off for many millions of dollars in profit.
I was the company Controller, the number three person there, but a better job title would have been “jack-of-all-trades.” With a background in computer programming as well as accounting, and a college degree in physics (building nuclear weapons is cool but doesn’t pay, computer programming and accounting do), I ended up not only doing all of the accounting (with a small staff) but also the computer hardware, software, maintenance, training, not to mention all kinds of odd things that came up such as helping to design our new office space when we would move, coordinating those moves, and so on. Not to mention the towing tank drag tests on superhydrophobic coatings, but that’s a story for another day.
For reasons having to do with my father once being unemployed when I was a teen, my Catholic school upbringing (there it is again!), and just my general psychoses, being unemployed had always been a serious phobia of mine. There were a lot of sleepless nights as the end of the company’s days drew near, as well as visions of doom, gloom, and probably a rain of frogs and locusts falling from the sky with blood oozing from their eyes. As I said – it’s a phobia.
Then I was in it, up to my neck. Unemployed for the first time in my life. At a time when the economy still pretty much was in low gear, unemployment in California was at 9.7%, and we were grateful that it wasn’t still up above 12%.
Strike one.
At the time I was in my mid-fifties. Now, we all know that it’s illegal for an employer to discriminate against anyone because of their age. They’re not even supposed to ask how old you are. But in the real world, they can ask when you graduated from college and do the math. Or they can just look at you across the desk (or at your picture on your LinkedIn account) and be pretty sure you’re not in your twenties or thirties.
Strike two.
I had been at the same place, in the same job, for twenty-seven years. There were a lot of good reasons for that (more stories for another day) but in a society where that’s taken as a sign of something horrible being wrong with you, it can be a deal killer from the word “go” on a resume. It was common knowledge, everyone who has any regard for an actual career never stays the same place more than two or three years, right? If you’re not movin’, you’re losin’.
Strike three.
But there weren’t any options in February, 2012. The lottery folks kept not picking my magic numbers (bastards!) and any unknown rich uncles I have are apparently in perfect health.
I started my first job hunt in thirty-eight years, which was my first real job hunt ever.
You see, I got the Controller job because a friend worked there and got me an interview and a recommendation. I got the computer programmer job before that because my college roommate went off to grad school when we graduated. The college job I had working for Marriott was the last time that I had been actively hunting for a job. I was eighteen at the time (the unemployment rate then was 8% and rising, up from 5% at the beginning of the year), had just a high school diploma, and was looking for any minimum wage job I could find. This was going to be just a wee bit different.
I started learning about my enemy, doing research, taking classes. How to write a resume. How to write a better resume. How to apply online. How to find jobs online. How to use job boards. How to get unemployment benefits. How to interview. All of the do’s and don’t.
I had some severance pay. Then unemployment benefits. Then savings. Then retirement funds. Then?
I hoped sincerely that I could get something new in two or three months. That would let me still keep most of the severance package and have minimal financial impact. It could take four months. There might even be some long-term financial benefits! Okay, maybe five months.
Then it was eight.
Twelve.
Eighteen.
Two years. And counting.
As soon as the initial burst of shock and depression passed and the gung-ho optimism that followed was burnt to a cinder, I had to do something. Anything to get out of the routine, get out of the box, try to come up with some alternatives, find a way to not be the three-hundredth person in line for the same so-so jobs over and over and over and over. Isn’t that the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results?
In addition, remember this was a phobia of mine to begin with? So filling out applications every day and taking classes at the Employment Development Department and going to networking events and job fairs, all were like dipping me in honey and staking me to an anthill. Then, of course, there weren’t any results, so things started to get a bit bleak.
Almost in desperation, I started this blog.
I got a staff position as Finance Officer with the CAF SoCal Wing.
I got on Twitter and other social media sites.
I started applying to go to NASA Socials.
All of those choices probably saved me from the pit. I know that somewhere out there in the multiverses there are Pauls that gave up and are either watching “People’s Court” and soap operas while downing a pint of ice cream a day, drinking heavily, or both. But I dodged that bullet. None of those Pauls are me.
So that’s good! That’s great! I’m busy. I’m staying sharp. I’m getting out of the house. I’m meeting people. I’m doing some of the coolest things I’ve ever done!
But every day, the little Catholic school boy that still lives somewhere in my head reminds me that I’m a slacker without a job. And my bank account reminds me that there hasn’t been any income in months. The CAF gig is really cool and the side benefits can be fantastic, but it’s a strictly volunteer position. $0.00 annual income. (If I work hard and do well, they’ll double my salary.)
A lot of folks who know what’s going on have just assumed I’ve thrown in the towel and now consider myself to be retired. That is not true. As I tell any who will listen, I’m still too young and pretty for retirement. Almost universally, folks nod, smile, then walk away shaking their heads, convinced they are talking to a fool who will not face reality.
I still send out resumes online almost every day. I still fill out applications online all the time. I still look for something to get me back off of the unemployment roles, hopefully without putting me too low on the “underemployed” role. I’ve even expanded my search to locations out of state, such as Vermont (remember, family there), Indiana (friends and family there), Virginia (ditto), and Kansas City (one of the places I grew up). At this point, everything’s negotiable, including a move out of Los Angeles and out of California.
Not that the job hunt has been a complete shutout until now. In response to literally thousands of resumes and applications online, there have been hundreds of follow-up emails, phone calls, and phone interviews. There have been multiple tests for civil service jobs with municipal accounting departments. There have been dozens of interviews, and even a dozen or so second, third, and even fourth interviews.
Soooooooooo close a few times. But no joy.
Looking back at this blog, you can see where the ups were (mainly interviews and hopeful days) and then the downs (“Sorry, but…”) If I was off for “meetings” downtown, or better yet, “follow-up meetings,” it meant that we were getting close. Down to the final few candidates for the job. Close.
But “close” only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. And thermonuclear weapons, as my high school friend, Kevin MacNamara, always said.
So here we are, with an increasing number of “400-pound gorilla” comments, plus the cryptic comments of November 12th, 13th, 14th. What’s going on?
I am happy to say that as of next Monday I will again be gainfully employed and a productive member of society!
I will be the Finance Director for Habitat for Humanity, San Fernando / Santa Clarita Valleys, and it is a job that I really and looking forward to. It’s an organization I’m familiar with, that I and The Long-Suffering Wife have been involved with for years, that is staffed by great people who are doing wonderful things for our nation’s veterans.
The stress level two weeks ago was made even worse by the gods having their little fun and games with me after all this time. At that time, not only had I interviewed for the HFH job, but I had also interviewed for another accounting job which looked extremely hopeful. Within about twenty hours, after all of those months of job searching, resume blasting, cold calling, wild goose chasing, and fighting off the occasional bout of terror, I got not one, but two job offers.
Proof positive that God has a sense of humor.
That choice meant that I got to choose the job for a company which I care for much more, which has good people I already know to work with, and not to be overlooked, which is a 0:15 commute from home instead of a 2:15 commute. Each. Way. Yep, my estimate was that I would be spending 20+ hours a week commuting. If the HFH job hadn’t come up I would have done it, of course, but the commute would have been a royal pain. Plus, you know, almost everything else being better at HFH.
It must be fun to be brilliant, or incredibly lucky, or just skilled beyond belief, but here’s a victory for those of us who are just too stupid to give up.
Finally, my undying love to The Long-Suffering Wife who was there always and put up with me through this ordeal.
It’s good to have killed the beast. Now I never, ever want to use that “Job Hunt” category tag again!
Filed under Habitat For Humanity, Job Hunt, Paul
Long day, many dragons slain, but still, a long day. Long night, the annual Habitat For Humanity Builder’s Ball. (You may recall that The Long-Suffering Wife is on the board.) Got to shake the hand of a “Congress critter,” to use Jerry Pournelle’s old term. Early meeting and long day tomorrow with the monthly CAF staff meeting and two more meetings after that.
Have some beach pictures! The surf was not up on this day, “breakers” of one foot or less. But it was very sunny, warm, and peaceful. The sandpipers loved it.
Filed under CAF, Habitat For Humanity, Photography, Travel
Now that WLTSTF is in its second year, we’re starting to “swing through the lineup a second time.” As it were.
The Long Suffering Wife, as we recall, is on the Board of Directors for the local Habitat For Humanity chapter. Last year I wrote about how the physical challenges of the “Women’s Empowerment (WE) Build” pretty much kicked my ass. Today was this year’s WE Build event,which allowed many strong & powerful women (the best kind!) to get out there and hammer, saw, assemble, build, and paint. And this year there was a new torture to remind me how old and out of shape I might be. (“Might be” = “am.”)
The Long-Suffering Wife, resplendent in her pink hard hat!
Me, just looking goofy in mine.
The build is set up with about 95%+ women there, each assigned to a different area or task. The men are “Handy Hals” with the task of being go-fers, heavy lifters, and brute labor.
Last year we were at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, working on pieces (planters, fence sections, painting doors, etc) for the twelve homes in Sylmar which were being finished then.
This year we were on the actual construction site for the latest project, 87 homes in Santa Clarita. That’s a lot of homes!
The most special part of the work being done by the Santa Clarita – San Fernando Valley chapter of Habitat is that all of the homes are being built and sold to military veterans in need. That’s a great cause to support!
On the ridge overlooking the main street leading to the site, there will be a wall and memorial honoring our country’s fallen soldiers. I spent a good chunk of my day helping to plant eighteen or so trees on either side of the monument.
One site was laying cinder block for a retaining wall between different levels of the site. As you can see, each site has professional contractors there to give instructions, guidance, and keep everything safe — but the women volunteers are doing the work.
Another station was assembling, painting, and installing walls along the boundary between the site and a neighboring high school.
Another station was painting interior doors to be used when the houses get erected in a couple of months.
Another station was sealing and applying stucco to a retaining wall along the street. (There’s our memorial wall up on the ridge behind them!)
One station was painting the trim sections to go along with the interior doors.
Here’s the memorial wall being erected, with a great view.
And here’s what kicked my butt this year. I’m sure every little kid has looked at jackhammers and thought that they would be really cool to play with. (I’m talking both male and female kids – the women we were working with were all lining up to take their turn to at least say that they did it.) But “playing” with a jackhammer is a lot different than working with one is. Those things are freakin’ heavy (approx 100 lbs) and it’s backbreaking, exhausting work. (Don’t let the smile fool you!)
If there’s a Habitat For Humanity group in your area, get in touch with them and see when they’ve got a build that you can help with. It can be hard work, but it’s well worth it.
Again, as it happened last year, I’m going to see if I can stay awake thorough the Kings’ hockey game tonight. (Or if they can get their act together after a pretty lousy first period.) GO KINGS!
Filed under Habitat For Humanity, LA Kings, Paul, Photography, Ronnie
Back in May, I wrote about an event we participated in for the local Habitat For Humanity chapter. It was a WE (Women’s Empowerment) Build and I got to go be a “Handy Andy” (token guy, aka brute labor) because The Long Suffering Wife is on the board.
Today we got to participate in a much less strenuous event. The Habitat For Humanity San Fernando/Santa Clarita Valleys organization specializes in building homes for veterans. They are in the process of building a tract of twelve “Habitat For Heroes” homes in Sylmar, CA, and today was the groundbreaking for a tract of eighty-seven “Habitat For Heroes” homes in Santa Clarita, CA. (This, by the way, is huge — I was told today that it’s the largest Habitat For Humanity community ever built in the US.)
In addition to the groundbreaking ceremony, there was a great BBQ (free to active military and veterans) and a USO show. Plus an art show, booths from various veterans and military assistance groups, booths from Habitat’s corporate sponsors and partners, and so on. All of the food, entertainment, and support items were donated by our generous sponsors and partners, so all of the funds raised will go to help build those houses.
The Long Suffering Wife and I were helping to staff a table where visitors could get information about the process of applying for an opportunity to buy one of these homes, as well as a table where we had information on our local ReStore.
Opening ceremonies, with Peter Gravett of CalVet. In the background you can see all of the corporate sponsors that are helping to make today’s event and the construction of these houses happen.
It was a decent turnout for the groundbreaking ceremonies, although even more people came later for the BBQ and show. A huge accident (which we just skirted around ourselves) on a nearby freeway caused a lot of people to be delayed. Life in LA…
The groundbreaking ceremony itself, golden shovels and all. Many of those on the right side are veteran and military families that have already been approved to purchase homes in this tract.
Radio Disney was there, with lots of music and games for kids. Other groups had face painting, crafts, and other family-friendly activities.
Rattler’s Bar-B-Que provided much of the food. We like BBQ. A lot. We really, really liked Rattler’s BBQ.
The USO tour had a pair of stand-up comics (Erik Knowles and Justin Wood), the Cal Arts Jazz Trio, and actress Melora Hardin (“Monk”, “The Office”) singing with the Late Night Jazz Orchestra.
Here’s the true star of the show, the property as preliminary grading has been started…
…and how it’s going to look in a year or so.
The weather was great, the people were a joy to be with, the food was fantastic, the show was excellent, and all in all it was a wonderful way to spend the day. I wish you all could have been there with us.
(Of course, now it’s almost 19:00 and I have yet to start my NaNoWriMo writing for the day. Good thing that I’m way ahead of my projected word count pace. Mama said there’d be days like this.)
Filed under Habitat For Humanity, Photography
Ronnie is on the Board of Directors for the local Habitat For Humanity organization. Today they had their annual Women’s Empowerment (WE) Build in which they had a lot of homebuilding-related construction activity set up to allow women to get out there and hammer, saw, assemble, build, and paint.
It was a big gathering at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, nearly 250 volunteers strong, building fencing panels, fence gates, garden planter boxes, and more for the homes that Habitat is building for low-income veterans and their families.
We all started the day (after getting our shirts and pink hard hats) with some breakfast, speeches from the day’s guests and hosts, a safety briefing, and a chance to buy some raffle tickets for the dozen or so gift and trip packages that had been donated. Then it was time to get to work!
The pro contractors and builders who are the job leaders had set up some ingenious jigs enabling volunteers to use standard-sized lumber stock (donated by Home Depot) to easily assemble and build (above top) large outdoor fencing panels which could then be painted (above bottom, with Ronnie wielding a paint brush).
Other building pros and project leaders gave women lessons on the use of drills, table saws, and chop saws. Once lumber was cut, jigs were there to assemble the cut lumber pieces into fence gates (above top) and planter boxes (above bottom).
A goal of the WE Build is to provide “an opportunity for women to learn construction techniques in a supportive environment”, while also giving volunteers a chance to help build homes for low-income families. In the case of the San Fernando / Santa Clarita Valleys chapter of Habitat, the communities being built are for low-income families of veterans (87 in Santa Clarita and 12 in Sylmar).
At lunch there were three great speakers talking about their experiences as women in non-traditional roles. Millie Diaz Taylor is a WW2 veteran from the WAVES, and she was completely feisty and entertaining. (Good thing I’m married, Millie’s a hoot!) Lindsay Rhodes is an NFL Network reporter and host, speaking about being a woman in a predominantly male field. Dr. Sharon Langenbeck was a project manager at JPL for 18 yeas after being the first female Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. from the University of Misouri, and among other things, her teams built Spirit and Opportunity.
As a volunteer, I think it’s wonderful how the local community supports Habitat and their efforts. The food for the day was donated by Maria’s Italian Kitchen, Dink’s New York Diner, Salt Creek Grill, and Kokalita. Lumber and supplies were donated by Home Depot and Lowes. The tent and facilities were donated by SCV Rental Center, and Burrtec donated the trash bins and removal. Kaiser Permanente donated sunscreen. Entertainment was provided by local radio station KHTS. The site for the work was donated by College of the Canyons. And, of course, hundreds of volunteers donated their day and their sweat.
And where did my sweat and epic workout come in? While the WE Build is designed as a huge opportunity for women, men are welcome as well. But the simple fact is that only about 10% of the volunteers at the WE Build are men, with women doing 99% of the building, nailing, sawing, assembly, and painting. The men are there to say “Yes, Ma’am! I can do that!”, assist when needed and do the heavy lifting, hauling materials around, moving partially finished products from assembly to painting, and in the end putting the finished products on trucks for transport.
My arms and back got a workout like I haven’t gotten in quite a while. Those fencing panels must weigh well over 100 pounds, and the planters are even heavier. And we lifted a hundred or more of them over and over and over…
I feel like the proverbial “rented mule”. But in a good way.
I’m going to see if I can stay awake thorough the Kings’ hockey game tonight. GO KINGS!
Filed under Habitat For Humanity, Ronnie
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