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As Dom pointed out in another OT forum, I am a luthier. A luthier builds or repairs string instruments. My wife and I run a small retail store in a restored turn of the century building. My main focus is on repair and restoration, as well as sales of violin family instruments, bows, and accessories. I have been doing this work for more than 35 years, and have been self-employed for almost 28 years. I also play violin, and perform in area symphonies, as well as a playing in a string quartet which performs at weddings and other events. I never was an outdoor type person until I got involved in geocaching, but now I truly enjoy my time away from work.
@Timberline Echoes wrote:
Another area I work in is writing and my first novel has just been published. It will officially be released on April 21. You can check out more at http://www.publishamerica.com and type in “Rejected to Accepted” to find out more about the book. There is a $3 discount if you order before the release.
Geocaching incorporates well into my life passions.
TEWill you be signing copies of the book?
I am a training specialist in Supported Employment. Also known as a job coach. I work with folks with barriers (disabilities). I go with them to various job sites around a 5/6 county area in south central/south eastern Wisconsin and help them be successful on the job. I can do pretty much any entry level job out there. I’ve also had some really interesting experiences. I have built garbage disposals, driven tractors, and made sandwiches for Bill Murray (yes, that Bill Murray). I work with a wide range of barriers and face a lot of challenges and delights on a daily basis. And then there’s also lots of paperwork……
My job means that I have to be available to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Yes, I’ve done some 3rd shift jobs. And no, I don’t know my work schedule for the next week until Friday (sometimes Sunday) before the Monday of the new week.
I also have a gig as an instructor at our local Madison Area Technical College campus. My class is geocaching, and there is a possibility that I might actually have a full class this semester (yay!) It’s just a one day, 3 hour thing.
I’m pretty much only home in the evenings — when I don’t have to work. I gotta get in my lovin’ to all my pets (2 dogs, 3 cats). And when I’m not at home or work, I am at the gym. I am now training for triathalons (it’s a long term goal mind you). Oh yeah, and then there’s that reviewing thing….
So I get to go to all sort of towns, and when time allows, I get to do some geocaching. I’m good with maps. Work can be a puzzle for me at times, but I like the challenge, so I like to try puzzle caches (can’t always figure them all out, but when I get started on one, I’m likely to work on it until I can figure it out.) I’ve solved a bunch of puzzles, but just haven’t gotten to the area to find the cache yet. But I like to just get out and find caches — as a sort of relief from a frankly pretty demanding and often stressful job. I like to cache whenever I can fit it in.
Does my job fit my caching style?……I don’t know. It probably fits my lifestyle — kind of erratic and in intense bursts.
Bec
Well, this is a loaded question!
For my Full time Job, I work on Networking Copiers,Printers, and Scanners. Do repairs of the machines themselves as well.
For part time, I do Two way radio work. Spend alot of time at Various Government/Public Safety Dispatch Centers, and at tower sites.
Justin
I am a regional Territory Sales Manager and a sanitarian for a chemical company specializing in food manufacturing facilities. We help to insure the food you eat is safe for human consumption.
Lisa and I have also reopened our Newdae Photography studio (our passion and previous life) which is the biggest reason we have slowed our caching down to almost non-existent!
Don’t really take the time to solve puzzles and we rarely plan our geocaching trips. We are a bit more spontaneous and take the little time we have to just go somewhere and find em! We hope to be back in the game soon!
@zuma wrote:
Hey all,
The conversation on puzzle caches got me thinking of how our other experiences in life, especially our work might influence why we cache, or how we cache, or what kinds of caches we like.
Anyway, this thread is to inquire as to what kind of work you do, and if it impacts your caching style.
zuma
I’ve been working for the county for the past 12 years. Currently the District Attorney is my boss, but my job is a little over half funded by the Department of Justice. I assist victims and witnesses of crimes, from notification, restitution, victim impact statements, attending court, trials, etc. Any kind of crime you can imagine – burglary, battery, disorderly conduct, sexual assault, domestic abuse, homicide… Reading the case files and some of the trials and cases can be pretty intense…so caching is a great creative outlet when I have the time to go…which hasn’t been lately…because besides the full time county job, I’ve been the Treasurer for our Township for the past 8 years…so I am the evil tax collector during the months of December and January, so I’m consumed by numbers and financial stuff those months and before our monthly meetings to get the numbers together. I’m looking forward to getting back to the geocaching game…hopefully sooner rather than later…because my free time is extremely limited…and we are rural and there aren’t many caches here…I’m surprised puzzle caches haven’t been popping up in the area 🙂
I am a structural engineer — I design buildings, mostly in SE Wisconsin. I basically make sure that stuff doesn’t fall down or otherwise behave badly.
I work as a geographic information systems (GIS) specialist for an Indian tribe up here. GIS is kind of a mix of map making (cartography) and database management. Each feature in the digital maps that I create have information tied to it in a database behind the scenes.
An example would be a layer that has all the houses on the reservation. For each house, we have information such as who lives there, the address, resident’s ages, sex, square footage of the house, year built, and a lot of other categories. Using this information we could easily query and create to find out which houses were built before 1960 or anything else you would like to know. We have the ability to do this for just about everything on the reservation.
Basically, I make maps for a living, and yes I get to play with a several thousand dollar GPS unit almost every day for my job.
yes I get to play with a several thousand dollar GPS unit almost every day for my job
but does it do a better job of finding tupperware in the woods?
Frizz, I’m wondering if you’ve met our niece (also Timberline Echoes’ niece), who now lives in DePere and is a gifted violinist. She’s 18 and I’m guessing she’s with the symphony there, too. Her instructor is at Lawrence and she’s waiting to hear back from colleges for next year.
We won’t talk about our own kids. 🙁 We live vicariously through our nieces’ and nephews’ accomplishments these days. Our younger son played violin for a few years and he and Gina went to Suzuki camp together when they were about 9. They are just two weeks apart in age, but light year’s difference in their musical skills!
I’m currently working as Maintenance Foreman for a Real Estate company. Carpentry, electrical, plumbing, the works. I took on this position after finding that Bankers hours no longer meant short hours with holiday’s off.
I worked as Branch Manager for TCF Bank in Shorewood WI until one day I realized i was missing everything I wanted to experience as my son was growing up. I mentioned this to my landlord at the time, and she offered me a job working right where I live. It took a few months for it to sink in before I made the switch. It was a big change from $uits and laptop$, to steel-toes and hammers I’m sure you can imagine.
At the time it sounded like a great idea. I did, and still do get to spend a lot more time with my son, but, working where you live has it’s drawbacks. Like my employer won’t let me live off-site, and the wife and I have been ready to buy a house for six years.
So, in August, we are both starting back to school. Debbie is taking her placement exams as I type. She will be getting her degree with hopes of working with underprivileged children. Either ones with physical abuse histories, or drug and alcohol issues.
I will be attending Gateway at the Racine campus off of Hwy H. I will be working towards my degree in engineering starting with CAD, but only attending part time, while I continue working full time. Gateway has gone to a trimester schedule now, so degrees will come quicker than they used to, but will still take me forever. But it will be worth it in the end.
How does this all relate to puzzles? I don’t get to use my brain at work much, because my job became kind of routine after a while. One you build a wall, or replace a water heater, or re-wire an apartment so many times, it just gets monotonous. Puzzles keep my brain active. Not just geocaching puzzles, any kind of puzzles. The biggest puzzle of all, the theory of everything, is what keeps my brain in check most of the time. Then there is caching.
Will you be signing copies of the book?
Yes, and unlike Sterling Sharp it will be more than once a year… and no extra charge… 😆
TEWell Gusty Winds, thats me, is a sock puppet hiding a real geocacher from an employer 😯
@Gusty Winds wrote:
Well Gusty Winds, thats me, is a sock puppet hiding a real geocacher from an employer 😯
crap i wish I’d have thought of that.
A project coordinator for a growing energy conservation company … we work with the state’s energy conservation program and similar programs for local utilities.
If I could make a living at it, I’d write and direct interactive mystery plays … but since I don’t make money doing that, I guess I’m stuck calling it a hobby that I don’t do often any more.
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