Capt. Mooron wrote:

A month on the next contract and by then hopefully one of our bids
should be successful and I'll be staying for another project. I'm
hoping to keep working until April and then drive my friend's truck
from Yellowknife to Halifax before the Mackenzie Ice Bridge closes...
that's usually around April15th.

You'll be hoping for cold weather in April, then? :-) Good luck with the
on-going contract - can't beat an extension if it pays well, especially if
the work's interesting/fun.


That should net me the 50K I need to live the rest of the year without
having to work....

That's a tidy wee haul for a few months. :-) Looking for some more work
myself - my last bagful of cash is depleted. I normally do IT, but I've been
gradually moving into CAD work in the construction industry. (IT has become
too specialised around here for an all-rounder, and there are too many
specialist bods chasing the jobs after IT redundancies at the big financial
houses.)

Last construction job was drawing layouts for two million yellow dots to a
*very* precise brief - pin-point accurate positioning on irregular,
sorta-ovoid, sectional windows up to 30m long and 3-4m high. They were
screen printed onto the glazing (inside laminated glass) for a seriously
bendy building (Selfridge's new flagship department store in Birmingham). I
semi-automated the drawing process by making ACAD and Rhino jump through
hoops. (That was the key skill that got me the contract - automation and
coding is kinda outwith the average construction draftsman's skillset).

Then I did loads of 3D brackets to hold the glass to the building - worked
purely to a Rhino model of the structure - not a right angle anywhere, no
flat surfaces to be had apart from the floors and the glazing panels. The
main contractor worked to the same model and made the building by spraying
concrete onto a huge reinforcing steel mesh. The brackets went where they
were supposed to, the glass went onto the brackets, and it all fitted
together. All effectively tele-worked - I've never seen the building in the
flesh. *Damned* interesting stuff. :-)


... and I can collect pogey for 6 months as well to
offset my bar tab.

I had to look up "pogey" and found out it's a Brit term - never heard it
round these 'ere parts. :-)


--
Wally
www.artbywally.com