Razor Edge For Real

Year round work guy talked a lot with no getting down to business, so rather than wait for him to get his act together, I took whatever job I could find. Second shift putting together gnarly boots by hand at a boot factory in NE Portland. Been making these crazed out ones that are used for fighting wildfires... Heavy duty. I work with people from 32 different countries. People from deep Russia to Kenya. I'm the only fluent english speaking person on the floor and most of the folks I work with speak all different languages too, so we communicate by this made up sign language to get the work done. At first, I was just hyped to have a job, making some money with some benefits. But it's straight up inspiring and has become a discovery of what else there is out there beyond the usual search. The zone evolves more and more man... Feeling it.

BANG

N A T E L I N G not in Portland today.

BOOM

N A T E L I N G in Portland tomorrow

Straight Through

On some razor's edge type of stuff right about now. Got a good lead for the week of the 18th to hook up with a gig that has year round work to sub me out for a lot of cabinet refinishing work. Pay is 10% of contracts between 8 and 16 grand. Each job is about 3 to 5 days worth. Which is more than I pay myself usually so that's rad. I'm going for that to be the regular and do Holdfast shop jobs on the side for a minute until the crazy days go away. November, December and January have been brutal up here for real, the writing is on the wall. Makes me think of the warning label on chainsaws where they show a picture of a dude sitting out on a branch while cutting the branch off of the tree with the "don't do this" red circle and a line through it. Play it smart, remember how to fish, you know...