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Painting a mural at the Cat plant in Pontiac today -- big picture of a fuel injector. I'm going to try to sneak headphones in. I was told the last time I was there, that I couldn't listen to my Walkman, what a crock. If you ever want to be thankful you have your own business, spend a day or two inside an industrial plant. They're like little cities, with all these rules. I was kicked out one time for wearing shorts. The money's good, but the environment sucks. No matter what it's like outside it's always the same inside factories. There's this droan, and surely some a--hole who'll make the usual comment such as, "It must be nice to not have to work for a living."
I've got to get myself syched up here. Well here goes nothin'............. See ya!
-------------------- Bill Diaz Diaz Sign Art Pontiac IL www.diazsignart.com Posts: 2107 | From: Pontiac, IL | Registered: Dec 2001
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Hi Bill! I do vinyl crap (dry-erase charts)and sometimes painting at a huge glass plant near Pittsburgh. I have even painted big signs in their woodshop because they were too large for my truck. It is always the same...the roar of the machinery, rattling bottles, the smell of engine grease, molten glass shooting out of the ceiling pipes, some head honcho hollering on the PA system, and the weird time bell chimes every hour. The whole time I am there I thank God that I am self-employed. Sure, I would love to be in a union and have the great retirement & health benefits, but the workers are all like faceless drones bustling over a bee hive. The monotony would kill me. Sometimes I add a bit of levity by wearing a really bizarre or sexy outfit, but it is hard to look cute when you have to wear a cap and safety glasses. I got sent home once for wearing tennis shoes. The fellas get excited when they know I'm working that day, because I tease them. I like to think I add just a wee bit of life to the place. When I am up on a scissors lift, I have to have an employee with me at all times. This can be bad if it is someone with no sense of humor or worse, a constant commentary. You know, all the moldy oldies: "you must have a steady hand" "I can't draw a straight line" ad nauseum. Then when I go back home, tired but the mistress of my own destiny, I crack open a beer with a square G on the bottom...made at Glenshaw Glass. Thank God for signs. Love- JILL
-------------------- That is like a Mr. Potato Head with all the pieces in the wrong place. -Russ McMullin Posts: 8834 | From: Butler, PA, USA | Registered: Jan 2001
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I'm with ya, Jill. You're on display the whole time. I'm tryin' to get up the nerve to go back for day 2. The mural's almost done. It's all brushed and blended in, now I need to go back and add some airbrush highlights to make the metal sparkle. We have about 50 some murals out there and tried to take some pictures several years ago, but they had to examine our camera. Jane went out there with a guy who wanted to make sure we weren't spying on their operation. We'll never do that again. Just to get checked in and walk forever to get where you want to go is a half day.
You're scissor lift story is extreme, but I'm not surprised they would pay somebody to be up there with you. Here's what happen to me yesterday, though. I hadn't been out there for 10 years, and they had planned on letting me use a scissor lift, probably to reduce the cost of the mural. I complained about having to bring scaffold in. Now you know they have all kinds of man-lifts out there, because you can see them just sitting around. So when I got there my contact asked if I had a scissor lift license. I go "huh!" She told me if I didn't I was going to have to get a crash course and take a test. Mercy!!!!!!!!!!!
So we waited for this guy to get to the site, and he never shows. Several phone calls later and several inquires later by suits wanting to know why the guy with the visitor tag on is just sitting around. Finally I grabbed one of them and pleaded with him to let me get started. Now they all have cell phones and lap tops which was the biggest change I noticed in my 10 year absence, so this guy puffed out his chest and said I'll get to the bottom of this, Mr. Diaz. 10 minutes latter, a call came back requesting my contact and me to walk to the safety department for this course. That was another 1/2 hour and then another 10 minutes just instructing me how how to put on the safety harness. I told the guy I expected to get an "A" on the test. It's another 10 minute walk to and from the site. I asked the contact why they didn't have golf carts like the other factories -- I got a big lecture on safety. It was noon before I got started. I worked til 9pm through another shift change, more gaulking, more "Why are they doin' that?" I've learned to double my usual price for these projects.
You can throw benefits and good wages out the door. The wages will dwindle to squat after they go on another strike. I would gladly pay to not have to work in such an environment. As I get older I just want to work in the shop and do the smaller projects, and thank my lucky stars that I'm S E L F E M P L O Y E D!!!!!!!!!! Day 2, here we come.
[ December 19, 2003, 10:35 AM: Message edited by: Bill Diaz ]
-------------------- Bill Diaz Diaz Sign Art Pontiac IL www.diazsignart.com Posts: 2107 | From: Pontiac, IL | Registered: Dec 2001
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Well, with all the trouble Bill had getting started I wouldn't blame him for not trying for a photo. I have a feeling it was up to his usual high standards.
After the little I've been around Bill & his work, at the Atlanta meet & their gathering last weekend, it doesn't take long before one knows they are rubbing elbows with an exceptionally creative and able Sign Painter. It is Bill's high standard of quality and ability that makes me want to see this mural.
-------------------- Dave Parr Sign Painter USA Posts: 709 | From: USA | Registered: May 2003
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THANK you, Dave! Yeah, I like him too. I think I'll keep him! hehehehe As far as the photos go, security in Caterpillar is unbelieveable! I tried to go in there a few years ago to get pictures of the murals we already did. WHAT a hassle!~ They think we are spies! We are going to take picutres of their machinery and send it to another company and then they can make fuel injectors too?!? Anyway I finally got approval, after all kinds paper work and then when I did get in there with a camera, they had to inspect the camera and I had to have an "escort" every where I went! I'm sort of onery (like Jill) and I was thinking of all kinds of silly things like just stopping in the middle of an aisle and doing a "random shooting" with my camera while flailing my arms wildly and yelling "look out, I'm shooting the plant" , but we want to be able to go back to do more murals! He has one more to do after the new year, so after that one is up, I might go thru the hassle of getting in there again with a camera and get them both.
-------------------- Jane Diaz Diaz Sign Art 628 W. Lincoln Ave. Pontiac, Il. 61764 815-844-7024 www.diazsignart.com Posts: 4102 | From: Pontiac, IL USA | Registered: Feb 1999
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I work for a lot of the factories around here, and most of them are inspecting cell phones now, to see if they take pictures. If so, you have to leave it at the guard shack before entering. Most of them have me sign papers annually stating that I will not TELL anyone what I have seen inside. I just add a few $$ for each little rule that comes along, and keep smiling while working. The only thing I really don't like is having to go outside the fence to have a smoke.
BTW... Jill,
I like to wear sexy outfits when I work in the factories too, as nearly 69% of the population in these places is female.
-------------------- Don Hulsey Strokes by DON signs Utica, KY 270-275-9552 sbdsigns@aol.com
I've always been crazy... but it's kept me from going insane. Posts: 2274 | From: Utica, KY U.S.A. | Registered: Jan 1999
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Ya get a picture Bill, ... 
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THANK you, Dave! Yeah, I like him too. I think I'll keep him! hehehehe
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