63 and looking for a job.

[Jetronic]

Originally Posted By: BrocLuno
20KM is like 10 miles right? So that ain't even a commute... Commutes here are hours long and 50 miles minimum

I'd take any job within a 50KM radious that was interesting, paid decent and had benefits. Jeez, I have to have time to drink my morning beverage (tea, cocoa, whatever) and eat a donut en route. I also need to see the hills and the weather and get my head set for the day. Unless I was walking or riding a pedal bike, I would not have time...

I tried eating a donut and drinking on a pedal bike once - didn't work

12 miles.

I live 2 miles from work, but somehow I manage to put 20 miles on the odo before turning into the carpark. I need my zen moment aswell. Coffee however I have at home.

 

[Jetronic]

Originally Posted By: Mr Nice
60's is a great time to retire and enjoy the next 15 years.


Only if you want to retire. I see ilk as someone who enjoys what he does, and I must say I do aswell at times (not so much at other times, but it's usually not related to the actual work).

It all depends what your collegues are like. Do you know any at either job?

 

[jcwit]

I'm 72 and could go to work Monday morning if I wanted to.

 

[Silk]

I was looking for The Pushbike Song Shannow when I saw the confusion, but I thought it was Mungo Jerry - who woulda thought it was an Aussie band? A quad bike is not a leisure vehicle in New Zealand, it's a work vehicle, and every farmer has at least one, and they are used very, very hard.

Quote:
The Mitsubishi dealer is closing down? Wow!


We have lost a lot of work in town - mines closing, restructuring the power station and inept management for a start. But we got a visit from a bigwig in Japan, and they don't like our old building on the main road that runs the length of the country. It would cost millions to rebuild, but the town is being bypassed in 3 or 4 years, so it would be pointless. This company was a big player in town, with 60 employees at one stage, and they owned 16 houses to put them in. Chrysler, Rootes, and then they put Fuso on the map, converting to Detroit and Roadranger from new at the factory here, and making them twin steer too. Even the car branch would've been humming...and the boat shop. The truck shop is now a seperate company, and they will keep the Ag shop down the road going. The main operation of the company is further north in Pukekohe.

I can't retire on a government pension until I'm 65, and wouldn't be able to survive on that, so will try to keep working as long as I can. The lighter ATV work would be good for an old fella.

I'm going for the bike shop, because he offered me a job on the spot, the other guy has been dithering for a week. I've worked there before, after I sold my shop in 2007. The new owner thought he could turn the place around, but after 5 months 3 of us were just standing around. He never did get it on it's feet, but the new owner has turned it around in a couple of years, the large showroom, yard and workshop just packed with bikes. He's been in the game before, and sold, now he's into it again, just bought another shop in a town 40km away, and also runs an ATV dismantling yard in another town.

That's the plan at this stage.

 

[Silk]

Originally Posted By: Jetronic

It all depends what your collegues are like. Do you know any at either job?


A couple in the bike shop for sure, others maybe. One was the apprentice when I was there, he later left to work at a Sthil shop in the closest city south, he's come back to be the small engine man. Another used to come in after school and sweep the floors in a short skirt, she later was a parts trainee, left to work in the Harley shop in the city, and has come back to run the parts department. I think this guy knows how to get the best out of people, and also that local is first choice.

 

[Cujet]

I work in the aviation world, which is chock a block full of young and inexperienced people. Older technicians are often the only ones who have seen particular problems before, and know how to handle them. I started to understand the immense value of experience in our flight department.

Just two days ago, 4 young guys at Gulfstream Aerospace towed our G550 with the nose wheel steering scissors attached. (a big mistake) They turned the nose tires too far and damaged the steering unit. Right before departure too. Ugh, inexperience. To make matters worse, 3 of the 4 were fired. The one riding the brakes was in the cockpit and had no involvement in the situation.

 

[firemachine69]

That brown... Stuff... Can't make that s*** up!

 

[CT8]

Originally Posted By: zzyzzx
In the US, the only job you are going to get at 63 or older is:

I am not qualified.

 

[Mr Nice]

Cujet,

How much will that repair cost ?

 

[Cujet]

Originally Posted By: Mr Nice
Cujet,

How much will that repair cost ?


Free! Gulfstream pays for it. Otherwise parts would be about $60k

 

[hpb]

Good choice I reckon Silk. Hope it all goes well for you. I'll bet all those quad bikes are gonna be covered in cow poo, like the ones around here!

Regarding businesses closing down in your region, it's the same situation in many towns here too. Lots of empty shops around. But it ebbs and flows, it only takes a new mineral deposit being discovered, or an offshore gas find, a big engineering contract, etc. and suddenly things are booming again. I grew up in a mining town, and when the mine closed, all the houses were trucked out, buildings were knocked down, and the bush eventually reclaimed the streets. You drive through there now and there's virtually no evidence of people ever having inhabited the area.

 

[Silk]

Yes, there are mining towns that have disapeared here too, one is the open cast mine...there was so much coal under the town they just moved it. Rotowaro, means Lake of Coal. In the big restructer of this country in the late '80's, the west side of town where the workers lived was almost deserted, it was cheaper to buy a place here than build one anywhere else, so houses were bought, moved to another town, there were empty sections everywhere. My daughter and partner bought a couple and put a new house on very cheap. The house we live in would've been a managers home, a bit flasher than a workers place. But still, what we call a State House, or it used to be. We were busy at work over summer looking after vehicles for the company doing the expressway bypass - we were working on more BT50's than Tritons. But now it's winter, the worksites are just mud, so we have lost that work too.

Quad bikes covered in cow poo? It's even worse in calving season when they come in with an afterbirth wrapped around the axle! You can spend half an hour waterblasting the bike down, bring it in to work on....and it's still covered in mud. And then you are working on a wet bike. The owner is snowed in down country...looks like I'll be talking to both of them on monday, should a guy my age be putting the screws in, or just grabbing a job?

 

[hpb]

Assuming the wage being offered is fair, I'd just take the job. After a few months, when they wonder how they ever survived without you, that's when you start mentioning a raise!

Afterbirth on the axle - yuck!!

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: hpb
Afterbirth on the axle - yuck!!


was down in Melbourne during the week and wandering through Chinatown to see what I could see.

Placental face creams...

 

[Silk]

Originally Posted By: hpb
Afterbirth on the axle - yuck!!


About as much fun as someone bringing in a chainsaw for a spruce up....and finding they'd used it to cut up a beast. Ah, the fun of a rural lifestyle....

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: Silk
About as much fun as someone bringing in a chainsaw for a spruce up....and finding they'd used it to cut up a beast. Ah, the fun of a rural lifestyle....


That was one of my fave Footrot Flats scenes...Wal carving a beast with a chainsaw, and Dog lying in the "sawdust" mouth open.

 

[SR5]

I was once worked on a farm in the tropics and every morning I would hop on my pushbike and ride to work past the other farms. One day, passing the usual paddock full of cows, I noticed one had dropped dead. Laying on it's back, 4 legs stiff in the air. On riding home for the day, it only had three legs and a clean cut stump.

Those farmers don't waste much, probably used for dog food. Maybe by the owner, maybe by someone driving by.

 

[Blaze]

I just ran into a guy at Lowe's. He was 73 and had to go back to work because of medical bills. He just got slapped with a $40,000.00 doosy from cancer treatment. Evidently he didn't have a very good medicare plan or something??...Not sure there.

 

[Silk]

Well it's official, I start on monday. I just got a call from the other guy, and had to turn down his offer...not bad for someone ''over the hill.'' I'll shift my tools down to the other end of town on friday.

 

[SR5]

Silk, congratulations on your new job !!!