08-08-08 turned out to be a lucky day for me as well.
Luck just fell into my lap, out of the blue.
My current Boss has a friend who runs a production welding company just up the road from our shop. He builds parts for Ford Motor Co. both Detroit and Windsor, builds parts for Harley Davidson, and also has some Military accounts. His driver of 25 years had to quit because of health reasons. I can keep driving for my current Boss...who I haul flatbeds of steel for. We are an Extrusion Tool & Die company. Run a Pete 379 with straight flatbed, and sometimes tag on a pup. Our runs are mostly to Ohio and the rest intrastate. Occasionally, I run to Pennsylvania and Virginia hauling inconel, carbide and molly inserts, W303, and H-13 scrap. We're thinking of selling to a company in Texas now. Most of the scrap we sell goes overseas.
This new job will be a couple runs a week mostly to Detroit, or Port Huron, Windsor, or Cleveland. They have a new Kenworth T-600 coffin sleeper with 35,000 miles on it, and currently use a covered wagon. They will be buying a new Curtainside very soon.
Looks like I'll be able to keep driving for my current Boss, and now instead of filling out the week working in the shop, I'll be taking these other runs. I'll probably work about 32 or so hours a week each for both companies, making double the bennies, and getting in extra hours some weeks when the need arises. All flatbed steel.
Easy 12 mile commute to work on country roads for me. I usually see one car and a dozen deer. Even my current job fell in my lap. After all those applications and resumes...the jobs I ended up with came to me out of the blue.
I quit running Reefer a year ago, and took hauling flatbeds of our local fruit harvest. I was determined to find work that would still give me 1200+ dollars a week, and yet let me work locally.
The fruit harvest was seasonal, and I knew in a couple months, I'd be needing another job. I broke two ribs just a couple weeks before my flatbedding would have ended strapping apple totes, so I went full-time Fire/Rescue last October. I was planning to retire from my Fire/Rescue in April, which I did, after 40 years of service. Thats when this Extrusion Company hired me. The job just dropped out of the sky.
I was afraid if I didn't get what I needed to make as well as the driving I wanted to be doing, I'd have to go back to OTR by winter. Things just fell into place, and 08-08-08 was a lucky day for me as well.
