Member occupations, or lack of....

Wingedwheel

Wingedwheel

If it wasn’t broke before, let me try it…
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With such a broad base of members as I read some of the replies and see a really wide range of skills here and it makes me wonder just what some of the members do. I'm pretty sure 2m is a rocket scientist and a few of the other guys have to be or were engineers also. Howz about everyone sound off about what you really do. I'll start, Union Carpenter. I run big commercial crews around the Detroit area.
 
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I work in transportation & logistics for one of the country's largest scrap metal recycling companies. Been in and around transportation and trucking my whole life.
 
I've been a blue collar guy my whole life. Straight out of high school , I went to welding school and became a certified welder. At age 18 , I was working for an Arizona copper mine doing heavy equipment repair, working with guys 2 and 3 times my age. Various construction welding jobs followed that, I was a pipe welder for a while , I worked for a trucking company building truck beds and trailers.
For the last 31 years I have been a US Postal employee, started out working nights in a huge mail sorting facility,
Then I carried mail for 15 years. I rode a bike like this. ( This is my good friend Dan)
image.jpeg

About 10 years ago I moved into building maintenance.
However, I just submitted my retirement paperwork. In 90 days I will be retired!!!!!
A little nervous, A LOT excited! Plus more time to work on my bike!
 
A long and winding road....I started out as a truck driver and then got a job in a tool & die shop as a draftsman. There was a smarmy little prick of an engineer in the office and I got sick of being bossed around by him - so I went to engineering school. After my degree I worked as a oil field wireline logging engineer for Schlumberger in Nigeria for a while but got sick so I came home and did a masters and then worked for a big equipment firm as a service engineer. We were getting married and there were no jobs for Mrs. MaxPete so I quit and she put me through a PhD (from fiance to financier ;)).
Sooo, I wound up as an engineering prof and industry consultant - but when I grow up, I want to go back to trucking. It's been a good deal of fun - but I'm tired and thinking about packing it in sometime soon.
 
MaxPete said:
A long and winding road......
Click to expand...
Mailman said:
... We are all such a mixed bag of experiences...
Click to expand...

No joke. I think we've got a little bit of everything in here.

MaxPete said:
...I worked as a oil field wireline logging engineer for Schlumberger in Nigeria ...
Click to expand...

And, maybe some close encounters. Around 1981, I spent about a month in Houston and wrote the 1st generation of the CAD software used by Schlumberger to design their unique hybrid "Chip on Board" circuits (very narrow and long boards) used in their "downhole" probes. Sound familiar, Pete?
 
2M We might have crossed paths at some point. I got out of the Navy in the early 80's where I worked on the prototype AEGIS weapons system and went back to my hometown of Houston. Things were on the downturn then and it was hard for a young tech to find a job so I got into construction with a friend of mine and really enjoyed it. Went back to school and got my degree in Bio-Med computers but found I really liked what I was doing so I stuck with it. Moved to MI in '93 and here I still am.
 
2M I remember Northline Honda. In '72 I was still a snot-nosed kid riding mini-bikes through Farmers fields around the Tomball area. My Dad was an industrial Electrician/Maintenance tech for Dupont and we moved to the Nederland/Port Arthur area where I lived until I left for the Navy.
 
I dropped out of college in my 3rd semester to work for the phone company. The one that has a wire and wireless side to it. Two companies separated by a common name. I'm on the wire side. Started as a long distance operator (the voice with a smile), moved to accounting/computer room, then (27 years ago),outside field technician. After 38-1/2 years combined, I'm ready to retire. Then I'll have more time to work on motorcycles!
 
MaxPete said:
A long and winding road....I started out as a truck driver and then got a job in a tool & die shop as a draftsman. There was a smarmy little prick of an engineer in the office and I got sick of being bossed around by him - so I went to engineering school. After my degree I worked as a oil field wireline logging engineer for Schlumberger in Nigeria for a while but got sick so I came home and did a masters and then worked for a big equipment firm as a service engineer. We were getting married and there were no jobs for Mrs. MaxPete so I quit and she put me through a PhD (from fiance to financier ;)).
Sooo, I wound up as an engineering prof and industry consultant - but when I grow up, I want to go back to trucking. It's been a good deal of fun - but I'm tired and thinking about packing it in sometime soon.
Click to expand...
I knew you had to be an engineer.
 
I am a male registered nurse.For the past 41 years.I work in ICU.I was a corpsman in the navy 4 years before that.I grew up as a carpenter's son so I can do most anything in residential construction.I never did wiring though.That transferred over to this forum. I got my first motorcycle in 1972.My first love in bikes was the new 1972 650.I never owned one until 2 months ago_One of my bucket list dream bikes.Soon it will be running.

I think it would also be interesting to see what the peoles screen names mean.Mine is a hard one.JK. max pete, why max pete? Is that your real name?
 
TwoManyXS1Bs said:
No joke. I think we've got a little bit of everything in here.



And, maybe some close encounters. Around 1981, I spent about a month in Houston and wrote the 1st generation of the CAD software used by Schlumberger to design their unique hybrid "Chip on Board" circuits (very narrow and long boards) used in their "downhole" probes. Sound familiar, Pete?
Click to expand...

Ooooh yes. I ran one of the first Cyber Service Units (CSUs) in West Africa in the fall of 1981! The CSUs were controlled by duplicated PDP-11 mini computers that weighed about 40 lb each and were rack-mounted - so you had to take the term "mini" with a grain of salt. We had 2-3 CSU trucks and about 4 CSU offshore cabins as the company was transitioning from the old galvanometer cameras to the CSU plus the newer generation of downhole tools. The CSU installations and the trucks got a whole new suite of digital downhole tools (possibly with your board technology in them). I liked the digital tools better because they were more reliable than the older generation stuff - but if something did go wrong, you were definitely out of business because we didn't have the capability to troubleshoot or change boards in the rig doghouse. The electrical engineering folks seemed to like the older stuff better because they could often take a malfunctioning tool apart on the rig and fix it. I simply didn't have the electrical background to do that - so I opted for modern reliability instead.

NAME: When I was in high school, my friends sometimes called me "Maximum Pete" (my real name is Peter) because when I take something on - I try to do it "to the max". I have always used "MaxPete" as an online name since then because I can remember it.
 
As a toddler, my parents thought my first word was "Cow". They thought this was VERY cute, until they finally realised I was saying "Car." I was obsessed with cars, and by age 15 I had no drivers license, but I had two VW bugs. First picture is at age 16, pulling an engine for the first time, and rebuilding it. I wanted nothing but to be a mechanic, and I started buying m-bikes (and more bugs, Ghias, Buses). In the early 80's I was still souping up those aircooled engines (second pic, note the Triumph Bonneville at the right; currently, it sits in my living room) and doing body work on cars. And involved with a pit crew of a circle track dirt modified race car tea m. Intense interest in the sciences at University in the 70's almost lead to a career in mechanical engineering, but I sucked at math, and was eventually trained as a clinical psychologist. I worked in psychiatric hospitals and the like for 40 years doing psych evaluations, psychotherapy, and professional witness work in court trials. Until a couple years ago when retirement brought me back to what I really wanted to do back in the beginning, to be a motorcycle mechanic.

IMG_0010.jpg
IMG_0014.jpg


Remember when oil came in round cans?
 
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Mailman said:
I've been a blue collar guy my whole life. Straight out of high school , I went to welding school and became a certified welder. At age 18 , I was working for an Arizona copper mine doing heavy equipment repair, working with guys 2 and 3 times my age. Various construction welding jobs followed that, I was a pipe welder for a while , I worked for a trucking company building truck beds and trailers.
For the last 31 years I have been a US Postal employee, started out working nights in a huge mail sorting facility,
Then I carried mail for 15 years. I rode a bike like this. ( This is my good friend Dan)
View attachment 101763
About 10 years ago I moved into building maintenance.
However, I just submitted my retirement paperwork. In 90 days I will be retired!!!!!
A little nervous, A LOT excited! Plus more time to work on my bike!
Click to expand...
Congratulations for your upcoming retirement !
That will be a big day, no doubt.

Is that mail bike an old Schwinn? They were classics.
 

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