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- Jan 18, 2009
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- Location
- Greenfield, Tennessee 38230
My dad was my hero, and growing up it seemed there was nothing he couldn't or wouldn't do. Some of the best advice he ever gave me was "Learn how to do everything you can so you won't have to pay or trust someone else to do it." He was also a patient and wonderful teacher, instilling core values like hard work, honesty and integrity while passing on a great deal of the knowledge, how-to and common sense that's gotten me to this point in my life.
A lot that's been said already really hits home, especially about aging / aching and having more work waiting once you walk in the door from the "real" job.
An F3 wiped out the south and some of the west walls of my metal shop building in 2011 putting me out of business for five months, mainly time spent awaiting the materials to rebuild it for much longer than it took the insurance payment to arrive.
Billy avoids ladders like The Plague so you know whose azz was up there. It might look like I knew what I was doing but it was the first roof I ever installed, metal or shingle. Now ten years since, it's better insulated and hasn't leaked once.
I still climb up on the roofs for yearly inspections and the occasional large branch. We rebuilt our 40'x8' deck last September (including my very first concrete slab wooooo!) and those 16"x10"x16' beams nearly did me in.
With the next birthday being #56, I can't say with any certainty that I'd do all of that roof work willingly again now -- especially 16-foot long tin sections -- except for HAVING TO (because I'll have to work at least through lunch on the day I keel over).
The only advice dad never gave me was financial, and I'm proving now to be just like him in almost every way.
A lot that's been said already really hits home, especially about aging / aching and having more work waiting once you walk in the door from the "real" job.
An F3 wiped out the south and some of the west walls of my metal shop building in 2011 putting me out of business for five months, mainly time spent awaiting the materials to rebuild it for much longer than it took the insurance payment to arrive.
Billy avoids ladders like The Plague so you know whose azz was up there. It might look like I knew what I was doing but it was the first roof I ever installed, metal or shingle. Now ten years since, it's better insulated and hasn't leaked once.
I still climb up on the roofs for yearly inspections and the occasional large branch. We rebuilt our 40'x8' deck last September (including my very first concrete slab wooooo!) and those 16"x10"x16' beams nearly did me in.
With the next birthday being #56, I can't say with any certainty that I'd do all of that roof work willingly again now -- especially 16-foot long tin sections -- except for HAVING TO (because I'll have to work at least through lunch on the day I keel over).
The only advice dad never gave me was financial, and I'm proving now to be just like him in almost every way.
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