In an effort to capture the months past on this blog, I will be sharing the highlights of each season starting with the winter months of 2012-13 after our fun trip to SEMA in Vegas.
Days after returning home from Vegas, I was driving to Pullman for an on-site interview at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories. Backing up a little - The Friday before we left for SEMA, an architectural drafting position opened at SEL and my resume was submitted. Tuesday, while in Vegas, I received a call asking for an interview. When I was out of town and couldn't make it, they arranged a phone interview the next day instead. That went surprisingly well, trying to conduct it in a noisy hallway of "the world's premier automotive aftermarket specialty products trade-only event." Trouble was, the call came in an hour earlier than expected because we thought we were in Mountain Time since we were so far south of home. Nope! Vegas is in Pacific Time. Now we know...
Anyhow, I started a new job at SEL the Monday after Thanksgiving! I spent 2 months in Pullman, finishing a drawing set for an addition to the manufacturing facility in Lewiston. Then in February, they needed to fill a position for a project manager on the construction site and decided to train me into it. It's been a great adventure and an unbeatable learning experience. There is absolutely nothing like watching your drawings turn into a building - all the while you are working under a skilled construction manager to coordinate the schedule, learn how to wade through the bidding process, document the progress, and field questions from the contractors. Days fly by, and I get to wear my hard hat and get up close and personal with 'my' building every single day. *Writing this in September, and I'm still giddy :)*
In the midst of all that excitement, we celebrated Christmas and then Andy moved down to Lewiston for a week to learn body work from master Luke, and turn his vision for the Dodge hot rod into reality. There were many, many long days and nights of welding and grinding...
...followed by hours and hours and hours of filling, sanding, filling, sanding, priming, sanding, filling, sanding, sanding, sanding...
...masking, painting and more painting. Picking out the paint colors was an adventure too! The concept had always been flat, dark green and shiny copper. When it came time to paint, there was no flattener in town. Soooo, we went with sparkly green AND copper. Talk about nervous Andyman! But, look! Isn't it beautiful sitting there ready to be final assembled? Luke did the spraying and Andy came up with and taped off all the scallop/panel designs just as he'd imagined years ago when this truck was still a handful of parts in the weeds.
We also got to go on a tour of the Freund's home and business shops this past winter. Russ, the fellow talking in the photo, is an incredible builder and one of the most genuine people you'll meet. What a guy, and what a collection of cars and stories to soak up in one afternoon!
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