This is the first entry...

I build tugboats. Me, imagine that.

I've been asked how I got started building tugboats by a reader here on textnovel.com .... I got started last year (2008) when the Local Union started a VIP Program which stands for Veterans In Piping, to help the Veterans of this Great Country. I was an In Home Caregiver at the time looking for more hours to work in order to earn more money than I happened to earn each month, and getting further behind. I went to the unemployment office to update my resume and search for more employment. By the way, they have renamed the unemployment office to "Re-Employment" office as of last year here in Washington (state).

While there, I saw the Veterans Rep, and he told me that caregiving was a dead end. That I wouldn't get anywhere financially as a CareGiver. Then he told me about this program for veterans. But mind you, it wasn't a paying program. ... that lasted four and a half months, and it was an opportunity to change career along with lifestyle. If I was interested, I had only two days to decide and call this lady at Ft. Lewis who was involved and let her know. Then she'd give me information on when and where.

So ... July 24th, 2008 found me at the United Association - Local 26.

They explained the program they wanted to birth, and then all of us were interviewed. They had more people to go through the next few days before final selection. I left the Union Hall and went straight to the hospital/medical center that did ua's for them. I was already commited to this program. I just knew that I'd be there! I didn't need to wait a week for a letter telling me yay or nay. This was mine!

 I got the call and the letter.  

Then it snowballed from there. Busy, fast-paced from August 4th, 2008 on. Two weeks in Transition Today Tomorrow with Judae Bost'n. Then sixteen weeks in the Welding shop 8 hour days, 40 hour weeks with Mike Stull, and George Glassman. I'm the only woman in the first group of seventeen Veterans selected. Therefore, I represented All women here.

I graduated the program in December, and got hired December 16th at the shipyard and indentured at the Union. Doing one year probationary period, then I will be initiated into the union in January 2010.

Ogden Nash  - "The trouble with a kitten is that when it grows up, it's always a cat."

September 29th, A.M.
This past Saturday, I did Fire Watch an entire eight hours on the Boston Towing tugboat we're building. Put fire cloth over the two engines in the engine room so the filters and hoses didn't catch on fire from the welding sparks. Also, let co-workers know that we had a welder welding the stacks up above so they didn't walk or stand where the sparks of molten metal fall down on top of them.
 
Then on Sunday, I did about half the day as Fire Watch, and the other half of the eight hour shift I worked in the shop (fab) preparing the pipe hangers to hold up the four inch ID (inside diameter) schedule 80 pipe on the port side of the tug. We use the sch 80 on the outside of the tugboat (very heavy) as it is out in the weather.
 
And yesterday (Monday), I worked on the Navy tugboat with the Journeyman Pipe Fitter, Mike Biles. I learned how to set the 90 elbow, and the 45 degree elbows on the offset when working with a welder... use a welding rod to make a template so you can see the way you are running the pipe so as not to get turned around and having to re-do the work. (Which no one likes having to re-do all that work).

After work (Monday), I went to class at the Union Hall in Lacey.

Charles de Gaulle  - "The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs."

Joan Crawford  - "I, Joan Crawford, I believe in the dollar. Everything I earn, I spend."