Summers Over, School Starts

I just can't say how excited I am that school actually started again. I was deathly sick of working in the sun at the Insurance Auto Auction. I honestly thought that I was going to get brain damage standing in the sun for that long burning my head.

I'm not going to say that it is the hardest job in the world, because it by far isn't. There isn't much stress involved or much thinking. It was good for my Physical appearance, not that I needed any help, but it was like working in a Sauna everyday sweating off the pounds.

I can say that I am glad to not be cutting up my hands, arms, or elbows from the glad and the razor blade scrappers. I sometimes think its a bad idea to give me a scrapper or a knife because I always end up cutting myself. It seems that I just don't know knife safety or something. No matter how many times I cut myself I still do it again and again. I am careful, but I just an KLUTZY.

So since school started today, I had my first class Fluid Mechanics. Interesting? I'm not sure, it seems something I can learn from but we have a long ways to go before I actually see if this is something that I like.

Do I have enough money to buy books or anything at this point. NOPE. I actually requested a Short Term Advance from my loans today so that I could buy books and pay my rent at the end of the month. Now, normally this wouldn't be an issue except that my loan money is going to be delayed up to a month due to something called a professional judgment form. I would explain it but my fingers are telling me to call it a day.

TGIF

I have been pretty exhausted this week as I think I'm getting quite tired of working out in the Heat everyday.

Today I left at 3pm instead of 5 so that I could drive all the way across town to pick up a form that I need to fill out and send back in. This way I call appeal my decline of my Fed.Pell Grant. Basically, last years income determines this years finances. This is usually a pretty good gauge of the amount you will make unless you are supporting yourself and become a full time student then this is completely wrong to do.

I left my great job at WAMU bank so that I could pursue my education and I have never made much if any money since doing so. So, I am trying to pick up as much grant money as I possibly can as getting help from anyone in the area is next to impossible especially when it comes to money.

I guess that just brings up another point? Are we in a recession or what? No one wants to buy anything, and the interest rates are still low as they have ever been. Homes are all for sale but barely any are selling. Gas prices are Sky High, and Food Prices are Going up too.

Soon I won't even be able to buy a Gallon of Milk at the grocery store. I think our country has a lot more to worry about then the War Overseas.

To get back to what I was getting at, Paper Work from UCF is always difficult and adding anything can and probably will delay my MONEY dispersment for my Loans. This makes it extreamly difficult for these changes every Fall semester. I guess like Rocky Balboa says, life is about how hard you can get hit and get back up again.

Another Really Hot and Difficult Day

So Today was getting close to one of the hottest days on record for this time of year here in Orlando Florida. I think it was Newsworthy of 96 degrees or so and the record for this time of year is 97 I believe.

I got to spend about 7 hours in it today as I spent the day wrapping cars and securing the keys. The sun can be really extreme when there is no clouds over head. Here in Orlando Florida, there is only 100 rainy days on average per year, and this year we are probably only going to get about 70 or so.

Some of the rain they are getting in the Midwest would be really great to have in Florida.

Since the 80's they have had this water restriction in place due to Florida Not having enough water to drink or to water our plants with. I know this gets confusing considering we are surrounded by water. There are so many freshwater lakes and streams and even rivers he in Florida that it just surprises me that we have such restrictions.

Well, back to the extreme heat. I have a towel that I wear on my head just to block the sun from hitting my ears and neck as I don't feel like getting anymore sunburns or skin cancer. I apply sun-screen every morning before I go to work like I'm a life guard or something.

Today I drank so much water but it just couldn't cut the heat. With the humidity level generally hovering around 50% the heat feels even hotter then it really is. I think the Feels like temperature was about 110 degrees today and I totally agree with that as It completely wears me out and I'm barely able to run home and type up my Daily Life Blog.

Day 9, Working Even Harder

I went to work at the Insurance Auto Auction again today, and boy was it hot out today.

I spent the most of my time today reheating cars in the lot to tighten up the shrink wrap. Now, when the sun beats down and the Propane Heat Shrink gun is blaring its ugly head, It gets really hot.

I have spent many days outside just hanging out in the sun, sometimes for fun. But, this heat treatment today was almost as bad as being stuck inside of a team mascot outfit for a baseball game, and that's hot.

I asked what the purpose of the HOLD cars and the big shrink wrapping was all about today, and the answer I go didn't really surprise me considering the look of these destroyed cars. As I was answered, these cars are held because they are under investigation, investigation of Death or serious injury to the passenger. Among these cars included a burnt Mercedes Clk430, A Dodge Neon SRT4, a Chevy Cobalt, Ford Super Duty, and the list goes on.

This type of thing makes me wonder what really happened to these people, and reminds me that I'm glad that I didn't purchase the 2007 Cobalt, as I almost did in January. Not that the car is bad, Like I said it is under investigation, but if you have ever seen the movie "Fight Club" that really explains why insurance companies put these things under investigation. If the cost of recall is less then the cost of allowing the car to be driven then a recall is made, if the cost of being sued is less then the Recall then there is no recall.

That kind of makes you think, there are a few people with the power out there and its a good thing to to stay away from first year auto's due to the possibility of recalls or... no recalls.

To finish my Day out it rained and I had to move in a few nice Mercedes for the Monday morning auction, one was a 99 SL600 V12, and it was a really nice ride. I just don't know why its at this auction, it must have been a donation car.

Working Hard Today - IAA

Today was the 8Th day that I have been working for the Insurance Auto Auction, IAA. I capitalized the name so that you know that's actually the name of the business and not just where I was working. At this auto auction I have been driving cars through the bidding area, shrink wrapping open windows, fixing flat tires, jump starting auto's, tying up keys, sweeping floors, trimming trees, and even dusting.

On the 8Th day I went into work at 8am like I normally do, but this time I didn't really have anyone yet to report to. Since I am a temporary employee for the summer and a college student, the selection of places that I can work is pretty slimming. My boss showed up about 30 minutes later so I just stood around for 30 minutes. I really hate this because I feel useless and really want something to do.

After my boss finally arrived he told me that I needed to sweep the big bay area then help some other people out in the Yard. The Yard is where we keep the cars that are arriving departing, broken, fixed, driving... etc. The bay is where the cars roll through for the auction and were we put the cars that we are wrapping, and the motorcycles.

So the Sweeping took me about 2-3 hours, that must give you some sort of idea on how big this bay area actually is. I'm not the kind of person to just do a quick once over because I feel that if you do something you you should do it right the first time so that someone doesn't have to come back and do it again for you. Before I could get to the big broom sweeper all the cars had to be removed from the bay area. They use these big giant tractor looking things with huge forks on the front. Yes they are forklifts, but the only way to describe them is using the John Deer Reference.

So In the middle of my sweeping I was asked to stop and help out the guy in the yard securing Keys and shrink wrapping up the windows of the vehicles that don't go up or are broken out. There is allot of this, after all this is called the Insurance Auto Auction so most all of the cars are Totalled Vehicles. In the middle of that I get someone asking me to go break off some emblems from a few Geico cars, Trail Blazers to be exact, and give them to the Geico Guy in the office.

Now when I was in the middle of that I was asked to help find some cars that were in the yard because they needed to be moved up to the front for loading.

Finally I fished all of those tasks and I think is was about 12 or so, so I went to lunch. 1 hour. After Lunch I was asked to do a quick finish up on the sweeping job. As I mentioned earlier I don't really like doing things half way, but I went ahead and did it the way I had been asked.

Then I was asked to cover and Heat Wrap some cars for Hold. Now I have no idea why we are holding cars that are Totalled. I can see why we shrink wrap them, but not for hold. I learned a new technique using a Propane Heat guy to shrink wrap a car.

The first car was a pretty easy car to do, it was pretty much fully intact and didn't have a bunch of sharp edges or anything to pierce the Plastic Heat Wrap so it went pretty smoothly.

The second car on the other hand had no rear axle, the roof was caved in and the front window was shattered. There was a big dent in the side were is looked like the vehicle had been smashed. I started to look for a Vin number on this vehicle and couldn't open the drivers door, or see in the front window due to the busted glass every where. So I was told to just get the stock number and have one of the associates look it up for me in the front.

First I took the big giant plastic sheeting and fanned it over the car, pulled in in a few different Directions and - SLICE... I cut my Finger. There was a shard of glass sticking up that I couldn't see once I put this Big White Plastic sheet over it I was done for. At that Point I looked at my finger and thought, wow, I could have sliced that right off. But instead I only took a cut about an inch wide and and about and eighth deep. I went cleaned it up and grabbed a finger band aid so that I didn't bleed all over the place. Finished up with the Car, Using I heat gun to shrink up the plastic and tying the whole thing in place with wax twine.

So I finished that vehicle and then had to do another. This time the vehicle wasn't much of a vehicle at all it looked more like a totalled wreck that I'm pretty sure not many people would have survived. Toyota Camry, which I couldn't tell until I looked at the twisted mangled trunk that was about in the middle of this Garbage Heap of Metal. I twined it Wrapped it and Heat Gunned it... Next Thing I knew, it was 5pm and time to go home.