Small towns will surprise you with things to photograph. Abilene is a community of roughly 125,000. On the surface, their doest seem to be much. You see Abilene is a quirky little community, the migration path provides a varied selection of birds to photograph. Birds I didn’t think I would have the chance to personally see let alone photograph. Cranes, Egrets, and Herons are my favorites. But that’s just Birds.
In moving back to Abilene Texas I made the decision to involve myself in the community. I re-joined the VFW and I’m a lifetime member now. I’ve also become a Texas Master Naturalist (Hill Country Chapter).I attended a 5 month class through the Texas A&M University and The County Extension Office. The class was taught by individuals who had master degrees in things like astronomy entomology, soil and geology citizen science & interpretation. Just to name a few subjects covered. The text book along was 5 pounds.
I have found may things to take photos of from birds to buildings to cars. I enjoy it immensely it gets me out of the house and into the great out doors. So as this blog progresses Ill post pics and a something about it
You’re going on a cross-country trip. Airplane, train, bus, car, or bike?
I take cars. I have taken cars when I had the leisure Time to enjoy the scenery along the way. I only take airplanes when I’m in a hurry, usually that means I’m going to a funeral.
For quite some time I’ve been on the fence ,what to do about my job. I don’t really like. It was a job . It was paying the bills and that’s about it.
It wasn’t a hard job. I was driving a motorcoach, picking up people and taking them to Tesla. Then in the afternoon picking up one of my groups and take them home and be done. I likened the job to an over glorified school bus driver split shift and all.. it was easy but stressful traveling interstate 80 4 times a day. No matter if it was sunny, warm cold, snowy, rainy, we did. It .
I won’t name the company no point. When you drive a big vehicle like that, you need a commercial drivers license, at least B with passenger endorsement and air brakes now if you have an A license with the aforementioned endorsements. You also can drive one of these. With your B license this is the top of your weight class that you can drive.
I was lucky enough to have a Monday through Friday schedule while I only cleared a little over 37 hours a week. My supervisor made sure that I would get 40. I’m thankful for that but the quality of life work balance isn’t there I was always getting called and asked if I would work the weekends, and sometimes I would and I might go two weeks before I would get a Saturday or a Sunday let alone a weekend off. There was a time with what I earned per hour was a lot of money, even if it you were doing a split shift, but in these economic times it isn’t. For a change school bus drivers are making more.
The problems of finding drivers with an A or B license starts with what they make per hour then you add the kind of shift that it is, and for some people that’s enough. But for me, and I think I’m speak for others, the corporate culture is another component.
In many of my experiences. They never seem to get all three together. It seems to be a struggle for the companies to do that.. well, you may have contracts that make you money in order to fulfill them. You need the drivers to do it. If the drivers aren’t happy, then there’s a problem. The general work gets done but there’s a fine for the work, not being done exactly as the contract says. And the driver doesn’t really care. The people got picked up the people that home he pulls the bus and in parks day is over.. when a company doesn’t care about the drivers equal laterally, across-the-board discontents sets in.
Have some drivers seem to be more privileged than others. They’re not doing the same work any differently than the other guy though. The new driver gets discouraged and sees that there is no upward mobility no advancement available. The new driver may last six months some less the company doesn’t get it..
Instead of trying to change some thing, because the corporate culture won’t allow it and it’s a battle I’d rather not fight I put my two week notice in. I have one week left what brought me to this decision was a post I read called. MISSED OPPORTUNITIES, a Blog by fabfourblog
I found myself identifying with it in my case it was that I was letting other people dictate the outcome of my life and that I needed to take that step and take control of it sink or swim. I also am a photographer, and so the whole concept struck home with me. But still it wasn’t an overnight decision.. change is scary. So this coming Monday I start the countdown five days the relief has already sat in.
Raven's Space 