Arent there some people here from Illinois? Is the rest of IL, like around Chicago and up north, as boring as the southern and central parts? I think Id like to visit Chicago someday, just for the hell of it for a couple days, but thats about all I could handle.
that place, is more fucking miserable than I ever imagined, at least where Iv been lately. Ive been going out for a few days at a time here lately every week or two because thats where the coal business is booming. IL coal is full blast because its all steam coal and the coal here is metallurgical coal, so I go where the business is I guess. Godamn, especially after you come out of Kentucky, the rest of the way is absolutely miserable to drive. Its even worse than Ohio as far as cornfields go. Its pretty wild really, youll be driving out, and not see anything but corn for miles and miles and hours and hours, then all of the sudden off in the distance, youll see a big coal tipple or a prep plant. The coal is just a long ass ways under the ground, so they dig a slope like 2000 feet long to get to it.
They have a lot of trouble getting experienced miners and stuff around there, so they offer good money to move out there. Hell, a company i deal with (the company that had he mine collapse and got guys killed a while back) offered me a Maintenance Supervisor job (basically I would be over all the equipment. My job to get the equipment fixed and keep the mine running, and watching budget. All machine decisions would be ultimately be mine. Kind of the head of he blue collar side of the company) I get a call every now and then from them offering it, started at 70k a year, and the latest is 110k. They could offer me a fucking half a million a year and I wouldnt take a job out there. By god, I may not have finished school with a shiny college degree, but i know equipment, and I know business, from learning the hard way on our own. That, and my dad and I have built this company from scratch, going from 1 shop employee 6 years ago and a measly 2 bay shop, to 20 today and 16 bays. We've built 2 new shops since then. Thats not bad in 6 years. But Ive come too far along to just go somewhere else. And hell, Im happy. I need to work on enjoying life a little more and not working as much, but ill worry about that later. After normal work days, I contract myself out now too lol. Instead of these companies calling a service guy from the other companies and paying a few hundred an hour when a machine goes down, they call me and I go underground in the evenings and troubleshoot and fix the machine on my own for a lot less money than they would pay. I love the look on the older miners faces when a 24 year old shows up to fix a machine for them, when they couldnt do it. Its like a, bullshit, this fucking kid is gonna do my job for me? Yep, he is. For some reason, I just kind of, understand how the systems work, the hydraulics, mechanics, etc. I dont really have to study it to learn it like shit in school, I just see it once, and it sticks with me. Everything ties together, all the hydraulics and everything work together, and if you can put the pieces together, its easy. Then to troubleshoot a down machine, you just kind of take where the problem is, and put the puzzle together. Its a challenge, I enjoy it. Finally finding shit I enjoy, and Im good at, unlike school. Its actually pretty fucking satisfying
I dunno, im bored and started talking. Ive been away from here for a while. Just kind of, forgot about checking here one day and never came back. Fucking busy ><
so how is everyone doing? Hope all is well? I dont feel like filtering through all the threads and the 99% bickering and arguing to the 1% non arguing posts to see how anyones been doing