So where was I? Going crazy, huh? Yep that's me, bored to tears and stressed out! However I do have big hopes that the Obama administration is trying to fix things for me and everybody else like me who has been out of work or is looking forward to being laid-off. His plan to overhall our infrastructure is work that is right up my alley, schools, hospitals, bridges that is predominantly the work that union carpenters do, so I have my fingers crossed that some of that will come our way.
In 1991 when I moved back from Whidbey Island Wa. I signed on with the union and was lucky enough to get put to work on the Allen Pavillion at the Oregon Shakespearean Festival, which was a huge job. We remodeled the outdoor Elizabethan theatre and put a state of the art dome over it. It was such a high profile job that it was covered in Time magazine and the picture that they published just happened to be some of the work I'd done in reassembling the wings to the stage. Nothing really fancy, nevertheless.
From Shakespeare I got to follow the same company to the Crater Lake Lodge, and worked on that remodel, which was very involved, for 3 years. While there I was interviewed by a tv station from Portland Oregon and shared my views on the importance of restoring and saving those old historical buildings. I also expressed my astonishment that such a building could be built with only hand tools. Quite impressive!