Traveling the American Road

Looking back I can see how I was entitled and spoiled when I was young.

This led to some behavior issues, because I was a brat used to getting my own way. I got into a lot of trouble at school throughout the years, but when I was in 10th grade I was expelled permanently. I was no longer welcome in the Sioux Falls school district. My parents were not sympathetic, and told me if I wasn’t getting an education, then I had to get a job. I was very fortunate that my Aunt Sue was looking out for me. Sue ran a small HVAC repair company in Sioux Falls. In fact the catch phrase she used in her marketing campaign was “Sue from Sioux Falls” which is pretty catchy. Although she wasn’t pleased about having to teach me all the basics of heating and cooling repair, Aunt Sue did her best to give me the skills I needed to survive. No one was going to take care of me, and unless I wanted to wind up homeless on the bitterly cold streets of Sioux Falls, I needed to find a way to make money. Sue let me sleep on a cot in the stockroom of the HVAC repair shop, and that was how I survived for a few months. Even though I was still learning, with my help Aunt Sue was able to expand her business, and to repairs in new neighborhoods around Sioux Falls, so we both made a lot of extra money. One day I hope to get my HVAC certification, like Sue.
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I got the name of a local heating in AC repair and installation company from one of my coworkers.

The St.

Petersburg Heating and AC repair and installation company installed a couple of ductless heaters for one of my buddies at work. When I was looking for someone to give me a new estimate on a central air conditioning system, my coworker mentioned the name of the business. He wrote down the name and the phone number on the back of a business card that he had tucked away in his wallet. The business card wasn’t from the St. Petersburg heating and AC company, which is why he wrote the information on the back of the card. Later that night when I was talking to my wife about the new central air conditioning system, I mentioned the name of the business that my coworker had mentioned earlier that day. My wife said the name sounded like a company in St Petersburg that she wrote down earlier. The companies turned out to be exactly the same. When my wife looked up the company, she saw that they had five star ratings for customer service. Everyone that used the company had something nice to say and that is a company that you want to do business with. When I was referred the same company by my buddy at work, I decided to contact the St Petersburg Heating in AC company. They came out to our home and gave us a free estimate on the new equipment and didn’t try to pressure us to buy anything at all.

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Traditionally speaking, this part of Missouri is a hotbed for athletic talent.

Local schools are legendary for the athletes they have produced, many of whom went on to successful careers in college and professional sports.

Because of my size and strength as a child, my Dad was sure I would end up a Springfield sports icon. Dad was wrong about that. Thanks to a random car accident I was injured, and although I can move around just fine these days, any dreams of a sports career were dead in the water. With such a high level of competition in Springfield, there was no way I could continue, because I would never be 100% again. Did you know that as of the last US census, there were 67 different towns named Springfield? I like to think that ours in Missouri is the best Springfield of them all when it comes to sports. I had to make a choice about my future, and my guidance counselor suggested I look into HVAC work. Since my grades were poor, and I was rough and tough, he thought that the construction industry in Springfield would be a great place for me to start a career. A skilled tradesperson, like a plumber, a roofer, or an HVAC tech, can make great money here, because the demand for new construction is always high in Springfield and the surrounding areas. Truth be told I never thought I was good enough to go pro, or even to get a football scholarship at any of the Springfield colleges. I’ll do great as an HVAC tech.

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HVAC was never intended to be my career.

Just after high school I was determined to work with animals, so I started working as a veterinary tech while I debated going to school for veterinary medicine.

I came to Evansville because I thought the Mesker Park Zoo would be an amazing place to work and get some experience in the field. Little did I know that the Mesker Park Zoo had incredibly high standards, and many of their techs were already vet students. Since I had no experience yet, the only job they had for me was cleaning up animal poop. This was not why I had moved to Evansville! I couldn’t afford to quit the job, but I did get motivated to start taking night classes at the Evansville community college program in HVAC repair. The area around Evansville had been experiencing a lot of growth in the last few years, and I read an article online about how local contractors needed more HVAC specialists. Because I already had several college classes under my belt, I adapted very easily to the HVAC program. Within a few weeks I had used my local contacts to secure a part-time job with an Evansaville contractor, so I could start getting some field experience. In a little bit of irony, one of the first HVAC repair jobs I went on was to one of the animal enclosures at the Evansville Mesker Park Zoo! If anything, that day confirmed that I had made the right choice, and that my future in Evansville was in HVAC work.

 

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Uncle Mike wasn’t just helping me get a career in the HVAC industry, he was also helping himself, because he had more work than he could handle alone

When I dropped out of high school, my parents were very upset. In a town like Lee’s Summit good jobs don’t just grow on trees, and without an education or a skill it’s hard to build a career. This is a city that gets bigger and more competitive every year, so without even the most basic education, I should have been doomed. Then I got an offer from my Uncle Mike, who was a small business owner in Lee’s Summit. If I wasn’t going to school, it meant I had a lot of extra time for work, and Uncle Mike always had a lot of that. At first it was about making money, then I came to realize that the HVAC industry in Lee’s Summit was thriving, and this was a chance to start a real career. This city was first established over 150 years ago, and it has been steadily growing ever since. What started off as a few hundred settlers has grown into a thriving city of well over 100,000, which means the construction industry in Lee’s Summit is always looking for new people. Uncle Mike wasn’t just helping me get a career in the HVAC industry, he was also helping himself, because he had more work than he could handle alone. I worked with him, learning everything I could about heating and cooling systems, for over 2 years before I finally went to a Lee’s Summit city college and enrolled in formal HVAC certification classes. Since I had so much experience, the program was a breeze!

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Tuesday morning I had a repair at the beaches.

The store for the AC repair center is located in downtown Jacksonville.

I started there in the morning and I drove all the way to the beaches which took about 35 minutes. I worked on the repair all morning and did not finish until lunch time. I grabbed a snack at a nearby store, because I was supposed to help a co-worker with a mini split AC installation job in southside. My boss called me while I was eating and told me to drive to the West side. That was all the way on the other side of Jacksonville and I did not want to go to the AC repair. I grumbled and told my boss to find someone else. The guy hung up the phone and called me a couple of minutes later. He told me there was someone else to handle the repair on the west side. I thought that he was going to be fine, but he told me to go home after that. He wasn’t joking around. The next day I came to work and my boss told me that I was going to any repair that he schedules. The guy sent me home early because I was complaining about driving from the beaches to the West side. I should have kept my mouth shut, because now I;m on the guys radar. I definitely learned my lesson. I’ve only been here for a couple of months but I guess this particular Jacksonville AC repair business isn’t going to put up with picking and choosing my own jobs.
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My grandmother moved to a nursing home in Birmingham and she was there for 6 months.

While she was in the nursing home, no one looked at her home or took care of the place. It’s that empty and the air conditioner didn’t run either. During the summer months there was a lot of heat and humidity. Humidity caused mold to grow in the garage. When my grandmother passed away in the nursing home, my mom was willed the Birmingham house. My mom and I went to the house to check on things and that’s when we discovered the problems. During the time that my grandmother was in the nursing home, my mom believed that there was air conditioning in the house and power. Neither one of those things ended up being true. My mom and I spent two weeks cleaning the property of the mold and mildew. We contacted a local HVAC company in Birmingham and rented a dehumidifier to get rid of the excess indoor moisture. The rates for renting a dehumidifier were much more reasonable than buying a machine for the house. The dehumidifier worked very well and it was very easy to use. The HVAC company technician brought a machine and set it up in the kitchen. We made sure that their garage door was open and turned on a fan. In less than 72 hours, the relative humidity inside of the house was 20% lower than the previous week. After lots of scrubbing and tlc, the house finally looks great. It’s on the market and we’re open to any good offers on the place.

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My parents had dreams of me going to a Division A school to play sports, maybe even end up in the Football Hall of Fame, which is located right here in South Bend.

I never got good grades, mostly because I never paid attention, but so long as I was athletic and good at sports, nobody seemed to care about my grades.

Then I blew out my knee during practice, and the doctors told me I would never return to full strength and flexibility. I could no longer rely on sports, and I sucked at getting an education, so what could I do? One of the coaches gave me the contact info for a small heating and cooling service in South Bend that was looking for strong young workers. If I am being honest I don’t think I ever would have been good enough to play ball for Notre Dame, so maybe this accident was for the best. I came to learn that the HVAC industry in South Bend is highly in demand, which means good jobs and good pay! The fact I didn’t have good grades didn’t matter, so long as I showed up, worked hard, and did my best to learn the nuance of HVAC repair. My size played a big factor, because there is a lot of heavy lifting in this line of work, and with all the new construction in South Bend we never got a day off. South Bend is one of the great cities in America to be a sports fan, so between that and my burgeoning career, I am very happy right now.

 

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When I turned 18 I told my parents I was leaving town and moving to Tuscaloosa to become a pro wrestler.

They both laughed uproariously at me, and then wished me luck.

I have been obsessed with pro wrestling all my life, and for good reason – Alabama is traditionally a hotbed for wrestling shows, and classic performers. I grew up watching guys like Bobby Eaton, John Tatum, Moondog Rex, and Dennis Condry tear down the house in places like the Tuscaloosa colosseum. Now that I was old enough, I wanted to try my hand at it, so Tuscaloosa seemed like the best place to go. First I found a wrestling school, run by Bob Owens, then I found a job in an HVAC warehouse lifting heavy equipment all day. This was actually the best of both worlds, because spending a day in a hot, humid Tuscaloosa warehouse is better than hitting the gym. Between the HVAC warehouse and the wrestling ring, I cut a lot of weight and really got into great physical condition. At the end of the day, it came down to money. It turns out the HVAC contractor who owned the warehouse liked my work ethic, and offered me a full time position in his Tuskaloosa offices. Taking that job would mean no more extra time for training to be a wrestler, but if I want to live in Tuscaloosa for good, then I need to find a legit job. I think I will take the job in the Tuscaloosa offices, and keep training in the ring on weekends.

 

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You can laugh if you want to, but I moved here to Plano, Texas because I wanted to train to become a professional wrestler.

There is an art to the physicality of pro wrestling, and I knew that Plano was home to an excellent training academy.

You would have to keep your head buried in the sand to not know about the long history of wild pro wrestlers from Texas. One of those old-timers settled down in Plano and opened his own school. It was hard work, but I loved every minute of it. Since I had to pay from training, plus my other bills, I had to work full-time at a local Plano heating and cooling dealership. It was grunt work, manual labor, and I moved heavy equipment around the warehouse and into the work vans. At night I drove outside of Plano to the farm where the wrestling ring was set up. This was a period of time that tested my endurance, because neither of these facilities had air conditioning. I spent all day and all night sweating and struggling in the sticky heat of a Plano summer. It was difficult, but I shed a lot of pounds and got into monster condition, which helped me in the wrestling ring and the warehouse! Over the next few months I wrestled in front of small crowds in Plano and the surrounding areas, putting on spot shows for very little pay. Eventually I stopped wrestling, and started working more at the HVAC warehouse. I liked wrestling, but I liked making money even more.

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