After getting out of Retail I decided I needed to go back to college and get my degree. All be it I was essentially starting over but I just got had to do something to get better work. Luckily that came fast.
I was doing my GERs at the university and working from home doing small contract IT work for extra money. in 2003 I officially opened my own business. And did things legally. My big break was when I was doing work for a native organization that frequently sent me up to the north slope for services, and maintenance of their aging computer network. 2 weeks on 2 weeks off during the summer months and occasional 4 day weeks when I was in college. Not too bad. This did mean I cut classes back to part time student status. But as a result I also saw my grade improve with the added time for studies AND having money coming in.
Working both the Pipeline and pump stations was a real education in the real world dangers of arctic living. With a few hundred miles between pump stations and the remote location, it was all about survivability. Lots of training on what to do if you go off road, if you sink on the ice road, if your rig breaks down and no traffic for assistance. Basically you wait for something to come or you die. Lets face it up there if something goes wrong your done for.
Personally things were never better. I had my family I had a close group of friends that were as close as family and I was able to provide nice things to them cause I was working and doing well for the first time in my life. The activity was good for me, as was the companionship of friends both at work and at home. At this point I was convinced things were going to continue, and my bosses gave me every indication that they would for some time.
A few years go by like this. Mom is actually able to get surgery from inheritance for her gastric bypass, and she was doing better at long last, and was even able to travel, which was something she rarely did when she was heavy. For the most part I was doing well all around, I could come and go as I pleased traveling with mom back east. And I finally did get my degree in 2004. Which was a fight in and of itself because it was all of 1 class that they had not offered for 3 semesters that was keeping many of us from graduating. After going to the Dean with this complaint and even offering to teach the class myself if I had too, we got the last credits we needed. Officially I'm class of 2005 but I didnt walk cause I got degree in Dec 2004.
I thought things were going great, till the market for IT services really started to CRASH... And I don't just mean because everyone hated Vista and wanted to just stay with what they had (XP) rather then do expensive system wide upgrades throughout the business.
Right around here is when everything started catching up with us. Property taxes on 4 properties in 3 states. Expenditures that kept hitting us on an aging array of vehicles we own as a family. My uncles bad investments and expenses catching up to him in retirement. And my mother new lifestyle to which she had become accustomed too. One part time self employed IT tech and a quickly ending annuity payout was depleting fast. And Jobs were not coming as easily as they once did. partially because I did tell many people to just stay with what they had professionally, and made that work as good as it was going to get. So much so in many ways I became redundant.
By 2008 I needed to find full time work. I finally did join a team in Anchorage that was similar to what I did already, but had more people to depend on and a larger client list then I had. I didn't like some of the practices they employed but went into the job knowing I could do 80% of what they were asking of me, and that I would be quick to learn the rest. Time became a thing of the past. indeed that year and a half went by SO SO fast. and my personal life disappeared. Friends and family mostly dropped away in favor of lots and lots of overtime.
I think that's where I will leave this. Yes I am omitting the some stuff but I hope to expand on that next time when I talk about the reoccurance of the depression I fell into when my Uncle and grandparents died. Also I kinda skipped over my Fathers death as well, cause... well its complicated and I'll talk about it more then..
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