After The "Envelopement"

Not All Who Wander Are Lost

After we got back from "enveloping" I called someone to find out what was happening with the strike. Found out the bastards settled the strike while I was gone and I had to go back to work. At the time I was working as Package and Wrap, which meant I was wrapping the ceiling panels. (Wrapping Xmas presents reminded me of when I worked as Package and Wrap. The Old Lady [she became The Old Lady because at the time there was the saying "Dirty Old Men need love too" and she kept saying "Dirty Old Ladies need love too"!! I became The S.O. {the B is silent} because she didn't feel like calling me her husband] has me wrap most of the presents because of my having done wrapping as a professional.) When I was doing the wrapping, I lost my fingerprints because my fingers were worn smooth by the kraft paper we used.

Anywho, sometime later after we went back to work they posted a job for tester in the lab. I put in for it and had to take a test for the job. It came down to two of us for the job. There was one opening and one position would be on a trial basis. They were putting in a relief schedule as that was one of the things negotiated in the new contract. I was told because I had less seniority than the other guy that if they decided the relief schedule wasn't working I'd have to go back to my old job. Well, six months later the other guy had gone from tester to inspector and I was working steady days as a relief tester.

Because I was now "married" we looked around for housing as my place on "The Ranch" wasn't a comfortable place to live in the winter. Looked at a couple houses which I couldn't get financing for and some single wide trailers. Finally bought a new 12x60  trailer (The Old Lady called it "The Shoebox" from the time we got it until I pulled it out and dismantled it) by refinancing my car for the down payment. (The local bank wanted me to mortgage the property in addition to the trailer. Finally got a loan from D&N with just the trailer as collateral.) It was late in the fall when the trailer was finally delivered up to "The Ranch". Got the power and water and septic hooked up. Because it was late in the fall, I bought a bunch of straw bales to put around the bottom of trailer to block it off as I didn't have time to build skirting. Turned out that was probably the warmest winter the whole time we lived in the trailer.

Had trouble getting a large propane tank as there seemed to be a shortage of them at the time. Finally got one and was able to heat the place. I don't think 100# cylinders would have been very good for heating the place. They wouldn't have lasted long.

This is where we lived for the next 6 years.