I just completed an exhaustive application for Penske truck rentals. I applied for the job of Hiker. That would mean I’d be one of the guys who moves around equipment to different locations. It’d be a cool driving job that wouldn’t keep me away from home, and it’d beat the hell out of becoming a drone in a warehouse (not that I’ve gotten any nibbles in that area anyway).
I don’t know why, but I gave these people my employment history going back to 1984. Yes. I’m that old. The only jobs that count, really, are the driving jobs I’ve had since 1999. Every other place I ever worked has gone out of business.
That’s what caused me problems in 1998 when Mara and I moved to Ware Shoals, SC. Every place I’d ever worked had gone out of business. So there I was at 33 years old, with no verifiable work history. Who the hell was going to hire me? I finally wound up going through an employment agency and working for peanuts. Staying perpetually close to starvation is one of the things that nudged me into CDL training and becoming a truck driver. Basically, I had to start over.
That’s the frustrating thing for me here in Saint Petersburg. Thanks to that bogus speeding ticket that I, like an idiot, did not challenge, I am now unemployable as a truck driver. That was fine for me at the time. I was sick of truck driving, and tired of being a ghost in a box that just wandered around the country. I didn’t take the time to consider what I might do instead. So now I’m down here in Florida, I can’t get a truck driving job, and I have no verifiable work history except for the truck driving. Hehe. Am I a dumbass, or what?
Well, hopefully Penske will give me a nod. Or at least talk to me. I’m a nice guy. Really. It’s amazing to me that if you’re 42 years old, a high school dropout with no verifiable work history other than eight years of truck driving, with a speeding ticket on your record that prevents you from being a truck driver, that you can’t find a job. I mean … geez, people. What do they want from me?
Please note amused sarcasm. I realize what my situation is. I just don’t know what to do to resolve it. I haven’t received a nibble from any of the job applications I’ve submitted. I’m very close to calling an employment agency and submitting myself to the degradation of taking whatever peanuts they might be willing to toss my way.
Anyone know where I can get a job playing a bass guitar? That’s really the only remaining skill that I have, ya know. But I’m damned good at it!
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A Different Kind of Hiker
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