Posted by Clint Dixon on Tuesday, October 14, 2003 at 8:52PM :
In Reply to: What do all you do for a living???? posted by dave on Tuesday, October 14, 2003 at 11:21AM :
I live on 2 acres of land with a corn field behind me and another across the road. I have neighbors to both sides of me as we are situated on a 20 acre field that was divided up in the early '70s to build single family dwellings. Our line of 7 homes is located a mile outside of the place I grew up: Reynolds, Illinois, which has a population of about 500 people, a bank, 2 bars, a church, and a Casey's General Store. From there it is 13 miles in any direction to larger towns. In between are more corn fields, other small vilages, and random groupings of homes like ours. The county has put a stop to this kind of random building which is a good thing as far as I am concerned. It is now cost prohibitive, as a tract of farm land can only be sectioned off one time for one new home. Otherwise, a subdivision has to be created with curbs and gutters, sewer, well, etc.
I have a 40 mile drive to my job in the Quad Cities, a group of towns with a population totaling about 400,000 people. (Best drive all day - on the way home that is!) There, I am a mechanical designer employed by an engineering firm that contracts for just about anyone who would rather not deal with hiring enough of their own people to handle the workload. A lot of our work comes from companies several states away. It is a lot more stresfull than I ever thought it would be when I went back to school and left the machine shops. I do, on occasion, get a chance to apply my skills to the design of reproduction Power-Wagon parts. It gives me some spending cash, but more importantly, a creative release, and a chance to work on something "worthwhile".
I am lucky in that the neighbors have never complained about my Power-Wagons, it is nice and quiet here, and you can drive all day and never be on any road but gravel or dirt if you like.
Advice to all: Get out of town!
Clint
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