AboutMe

So, here I am in the heart of Georgia spinning my wood into bowls and pens, working at Geico, losing weight real quick with the surgery (estimate from the surgeon is 100 pounds by Oct 1 2005!) and beginning to live finally :)

August 1 2005 - Life hiccupped again, and I am no longer living in Warner Robins, and no longer working for Geico. I met a girl who lives in Columbus GA, and moved here. I am looking for work in Columbus now, hoping to get on at the Post Office eventually to take advantage of the 17 years Federal time I have, if the pay is right. I like my new house and neighborhood and town so much more than where I was, so that is a good thing!
December 5th, 2005 - Started work at U Haul, Management trainee. I have lost 117 pounds so far...

January 20th, 2006 - Yet another hiccup in life... I got promoted to Area Field Manager at U Haul, and the area I was given is the 8 counties surrounding the Savannah Georgia area.... I found a house there, and Lisa and myself are moving there as we speak... err, read :) I am looking forward to this new challenge, and feel that I am going to do really well at this new job. We will see!

September 19th, 2006 - Been a long time since I updated this page! ... forgot all about it actually. I married Lisa Dawn Willmschen on June 24th, 2006 at the Rosehill Church of Christ in Columbus Ga. The entire family then went to Orlando and we honeymooned at Disneyworld!
July 17th we both were able to get transfers out of the Savannah area, and we now live in Monroe Ga, about 30 miles east of Atlanta.

February 3rd, 2007 - January we moved to Savannah, hated it. July moved to Monroe GA (East Atlanta area) worked for the worst jerk I have ever had the displeasure of encountering my entire life, quit U Haul, moved back to Columbus GA on December 2006.

February 26th, 2007 - Started working for Frito-Lay.

January 14th 2008 - Quit Frito-Lay, and accepted a position as Instructor with Sea School... again! The only company I have ever worked for that I miss. I start teaching again in Destin Florida on the 19th of January, and am really looking forward to this. Here's the story... my wife Lisa was given the option of applying for a transfer to one of the new stores that Publix is building in Orange Beach Alabama. She put in for it, so I knew that we would be moving to that area eventually, probably around May or so. I called Sea School, and they said they would love to have me back! I will have to stay in motels and commute a little, but it will work fine for a few months until Lisa gets here transfer. In the meantime, I will teach, and look for a place to live.

The saga continues… I will try to shorten this, but it will be tough as it is a long story…

I was scheduled to teach in Tallahassee a couple of Saturdays ago, and as usual the business manager "CC" booked me into the worst motel in the whole area. I was literally the only white person there, and the only person over 20 years old, just to set the stage for you... I am sorry if this makes me sound like a racist, but put a 53 year old white man in a motel occupied by a couple of hundred black youngsters and you will get the picture… and as the night progressed bus load after bus load of college kids arrived - apparently there was a large track meet that weekend. Kids running around banging on the doors and windows, mine included, jumping from the railing onto the landing, screaming at each other, yelling, squealing tires in the parking lot, boom boxes blasting... the list could go on and on... and the poor little girl running the night shift had no way to begin to control any of this.

Totally fed up, I thought I should try and make a move since it wasn't getting any better, and was actually getting worse. Trucks full of sporting equipment were arriving, more kids every few minutes... out of control. The one adult I was able to find and talk to said that the regular coaches would not be arriving until the morning; he was a substitute and was "doing what he could" ... which was nothing at all.

I went online and started calling the motels in Sea Schools "price range" which, according to CC is less that $70. They were all full, and the desk clerks said it wasn't any quieter there and one said he had already had to call the police twice. I called the more expensive motels, and they were all full.

I called CC - she said "I don't know anything about Tallahassee" and "I don't know what to tell you" - great... how many times has this school sent instructors to teach in Tallahassee over the past 30 years?? … And she doesn’t know anything?? No idea if there are any other motels within an hour or so away?

I called the husband and wife owners of Sea Schools - they said "Go to another motel" and "I don't know anything about Tallahassee" and “I don’t know what to tell you” I asked if it was possible to just cancel the class, since it was only 5 students, and reschedule for the next weekend when there wasn’t a track meet in town… they never even considered it… just “no”

So, no help from Sea School, and no place to stay in Tallahassee that would improve the situation, and the motel becoming so crazy that it was frightening (I had to tell some kids to get off my truck.. they had lowered the tailgate and were using it as a seat) I checked out, told them to refund the credit card, and started driving looking for a place farther out on I-10. I had taken 2 Tylenol PM’s and had drank Nyquil trying to knock myself out so I could stay there and teach in the morning, so driving around wasn’t on my agenda. After 70 miles I was at Hwy 231 north, it was 2am, I had checked 3 motels, all full, and I was exhausted and disgusted, and being about 2 hours from home I went home. I got home about 5am.

That morning, after about 2 hours sleep, I called CC and told her what had happened and wanted to talk to her about having Dana fill in, being as he is only 1 1/2 hours away, notifying students that the instructor was going to be late, etc. She screamed at me on the phone "I can't believe you did that!... GOODBYE!" and hung up and wouldn’t answer her phone. I called Ron, and he proceeded to chew me out and tell me that "I don't care about the instructors, I care about the students" and other great stuff like "You should have slept in your car" .... which is illegal, but I guess if you don't care about your employees that doesn't matter. He also said that “you were planning on cancelling this class all the time weren’t you” … I told him “It would have been a lot easier to just call in sick from my house or tell you that I had car trouble if I was planning that.. I sure wouldn’t have driven all the way to Panama City, picked up the teaching supplies, and then driven all the way to Tallahassee” (you dumbass… didn’t add that though)

I am blown away by the total lack of concern and no support at all... and then blame me for everything. Ron said "Well, *I* would have done something" and I said "yea, what???" and he said "I don't know, but something!" ... uh huh. Easy to criticize when it's not your ass out driving around some place you know nothing about at 2am and you're exhausted.

So… they stopped paying me… no calls, nothing.. just cut off my pay…

I prayed that I would get the new job... and I did. it keeps me here in Columbus, I don't have to move, I don't have to change churches, and I wont have to constantly miss everything because I am on the road... which has been a major factor in all of this... and after this last episode I simply cannot deal with motels or these people at that company at all any more.

I got the job, and it is going well. I am also waiting on an application for a Civil Service job, and will continue to pursue this for the security it will offer.

Custom WoodCrafts

A little about me...