Been a little bit since I posted anything on here. There are a couple for that. For the last couple weeks, I had been working 50-60 plus hour, 7 day work weeks. No weekends or time off. This didn’t leave a lot of time to write or really do anything. Well, that’s over now, but not because the work load got lighter. Instead, it’s because I got fired.
Yes, I got fired, and I was only a year away from being able to get my Journeyman Plumbing license. To make this worse, it was really sudden. No warning. Just kinda happened. I was also fired by my father. It literally couldn’t get much worse than this, but life has a way of just getting worse.
I had been feeling sorta weird all day, then after about 8 hours in, I got dizzy and collapsed. I didn’t pass out, but I did hit the ground hard. My theory was that the humidity and the sun had gotten too me. I managed to get myself to the shade, and decided to rest for a little while. While I was resting, my father pulls up. He sees me sitting instead of working, and I guess this set him off. He was already in a bad mood, and decided to take it out on me.
See, I was at his/my house, which is also the place where we keep all the material for the plumbing business. There was this huge pile of plastic fittings, thousands of them, that he wanted me to separate. It had taken days to get as far as I did, which wasn’t far enough. He thought it should’ve taken a few hours to separate literal thousands of fittings into separate and neat piles. This, was of course, bullshit, but it didn’t matter. I was too slow. Too slow to be his employee.
He started yelling at me and threatened to fire me. This caused us to fight. I already wasn’t feeling good, so my tolerance for bullshit was running low. I wasn’t going to be made to feel worthless without sticking up for myself. Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything. Maybe then I would still have a job.
After we fought, he fired me, then stormed off. I walked away from him, angry and tense, and that’s when I noticed that I wasn’t feeling great. I collapsed again. I fell flat on my face, and I know that he saw. He didn’t say a word, or rush to my aid. Instead, I heard him stop, his feet shuffle, then he got in his truck and drove away.
I laid there for maybe 15-30 minutes. Finally got enough strength back to pull myself into the shop so I could rest in the shade again. I laid on the concrete shop floor for over an hour before I could get up. This was not the greatest end to a day. While I laid there, my thoughts raced about what I was supposed to do now. Everything seems so bleak with no hope in sight.
I didn’t just lose a job. I lost my back up plan. Working for the family company was my fall back plan. If everything went south, I could always fall back on plumbing. Dad did, and so did my brother, but I guess I’m not as good as them. Not fast enough.
I also have only one car that my wife uses to go to her job out of town. We live in a small town of 1,100 people. There aren’t exactly a lot of job openings, and even then, not a lot of jobs that I can keep. I can’t go out of town because I have no vehicle. Can’t get another car because we don’t have enough money. We’re screwed.
I also get sick a lot. Besides having Autism, anxiety, and myriad of other problems, my immune system is almost non existent, due to the fact that my body has stopped making it’s own testosterone. The meds that I take to counteract all of this crap also make me more likely to get heat exhaustion/ heat stroke, which I’ve had twice before. This is one of the reasons as to why I’m slower than most others on the job site, but that doesn’t matter anymore.
On top of all of this, we don’t have anywhere else that we can go. My wife and I are basically squatting in my dad’s house. This wouldn’t be bad if it was finished. It’s completely open to the elements. Only one 186 square foot room is dried in. Most of the walls aren’t insulated, just a single layer of sheet rock, so it’s either incredibly cold or hot. Not the best living conditions. A towel is stuffed under the door to keep bugs, snakes, and other animals from getting in. Constantly getting bitten by something at night. We have running water, but have no kitchen or way to wash clothes, dishes, etc. Barely have enough room to be comfortable. Not exactly the best living conditions. The house has been like this for years, which is why my dad doesn’t even live here. He’s lived with his girlfriend for years, so he doesn’t have to deal with any of this, but that doesn’t help us.
I hope that I can concentrate on this site, my writing, and my YouTube channel during the downtime, but I just don’t know. I don’t have a lot of drive anymore. Guess my depression is back, which makes sense. Hopefully, if I can press on, I could get some freelance writing work. That would help pay for the internet and utilities, but my hopes aren’t to high.
I know that this was a depressing story, but y’all deserve to know what’s been going on. I didn’t give up on this site. Life has just done it’s best to kick me down. If I try my best, maybe I can get back up, but either way, that’s what’s I’ve been up too.
Have a blessed day.
The Autistic Cowboy 