So, do you really? I grew up in Plano, Texas during the 70's & 80's. My summers were spent on a hog farm in Oklahoma shoveling pig shit. Yes, from the time I was 8 until my early 20's I prayed for extended tournament baseball so that my time on that farm would be shortened. I learned a lot more there than the fact that pig crap is one of the nastiest smells on earth. I learned how to work.
By the time I was 19 I was an ASE Certified Master Technician working for a GM dealership. I made over $50,000.00 a year before I was 20. By my 25th birthday I was making close to $80,000.00. I dropped out of high school to do all of that. I am an automotive electronics expert. I have three pages worth of GM training classes to prove it.
My earnings provided me with a lot. I had a 12 piece Pearl drum set with Zildjian and Istanbul cymbals. I had a Peavey PA system with JBL speakers and over 20 Shure and Sennheiser microphones. I played in several different bands. I got a lot of free drinks. I did a lot of drugs. I enjoyed it, for a while. Then I didn't.
I have countless felony convictions in Texas. Between 1989 and 2000 I had 10 years of probation for two separate drug charges. Late in 1999 I did 6 months state jail for UUMV. I went to the store in my dad's car and decided to get some cocaine instead. They reported me missing and the DA decided I wasn't authorized to use the vehicle. It was a good thing. I would have been dead most likely had I not been in jail. I was a junkie. My $100K a year job bought a lot of cocaine. It was killing me, but I couldn't stop. My drums and PA were gone, traded off for money or drugs...
For me, a drug test was put the drugs out on the table and I'll tell you what they are. If I didn't know one, I'd try it and let you know.
I moved to Chicago in late 2000 and lived with a psycho. I was a service manager for an independent shop. I hired people, I fired people, I trained 4 different high school students the proper way to repair cars. Two of them had graduated high school in 2001 and had made over $40,000 that year. One of them owns his own shop in Aurora, Illinois and is doing quite well. The other was killed in Afghanistan several years later. I moved back to Texas in the summer of 2002. My boss gave me a $5,000.00 check the day I left. He offered to double it for me to stay. I loved the job, but not Chicago.
In 10 months of work of 2002 I made just under $100K. But bad habits are hard to break. I went on a 4 day binge of smoking crack cocaine in the fall of 2003. I had bought $50 worth in West Dallas about 5 minutes before a cop tried to pull me over. I kept smoking the crack while driving the speed limit and rolling thru stop signs. I found my way to the highway and went on a 120 mile chase from Dallas to Denton, back to Ft. Worth, and then back to Denton before my car stopped in a ditch nose first. I spent 20 months in state jail for Evading Arrest in a Motor Vehicle and possession of cocaine.
I was free for another two years, from 2005 to 2007. All of my money had been wasted away. I had no hope for a job in a shop now. I stayed at times at my parents, trying to take care of my aging father who had suffered multiple strokes, and dealing with an addiction problem that is
HELL. For the most part, I lived on the streets of Dallas. I smoked crack. I took cars that people left their keys in. I ate food out of dumpsters behind McDonald's. I obtained a mini van from another crackhead in 2007, and I knew of a new subdivision being built in Denton County. I was going to take all of the copper that was laid out for the plumbing for two new houses. I never got there. When pulled over, a crumb of crack cocaine was found on the console. I served 21 months of a 4 year sentence. While in jail I went to a class for addicts. I listened and learned. I applied that which I learned. I haven't touched any crack, meth, speed, etc. since then. I was released to Dallas County jail from TDCJ in late 2008 on a bench warrant. I received time served for a guilty plea for another felony.
I got out 8 years ago this Friday, December 23rd. I had a total of $1.85 to my name, pants that were 4 inches too short and 6 inches too big in the waist. I had a plastic bag with paperwork and a Bible in it. I bummed a lighter and a pack of cigs at a bus stop. I had a choice. I could walk across that bridge into West Dallas, or I could sleep under a bridge. I slept under the bridge. It was 23 degrees that night. I finally got hold of my brother in Irving on Christmas Eve. For some reason, the parole department didn't have a place I was supposed to be released to. It was a pain in the ass, but I went to a halfway house in Temple, Texas. I worked for $8 an hour. I got out of there and rented half a duplex for $450 a month. I worked for another place for $10 an hour. I got some side jobs. I bought tools. I bid on a roofing job and hired some helpers. I didn't have a truck or a car. In 2010 I went into business with another guy. Three months later I dissolved it. He was buying hydrocodone from a guy at Sunday School. By now I had a good truck, a load of landscaping tools and a crew of 6. I leased a shop. I sold the business to a manager for $10,000.00 from an initial investment of $800.00.
I met a woman in 2012 and we moved to Port Lavaca in 2013. We got married in 2014. I sold my business down there to an employee for $5,000.00. I have employed over 40 people in the last 5 years. I am not hireable in my profession because of my record. I do not cry about it. I go out and work. I buy broke down cars and fix them. I build trailers. I cut down trees and mill the wood for use in projects or carve things in it. I have built my own coffin. When I die, I will be placed in it. I will be dressed in my Sooners road jersey with my cross around my neck.
Anything else you want to know?
