HOM: Time For Change

Lyn's schedule at Sears and mine at C&C didn't give us much time together. When she left for work I was sleeping and when I got off work she was asleep. I'd given up on the bedroom and was sleeping on the old couch in my den upstairs, partly because of the way our schedules worked and partly because I liked the solitude. Even with both of us making pretty good money, we were always broke and the friction over finances and Becky kept getting worse. I may have had enough seniority to move to day shift but that wasn't an attractive option. The DSF & I were NOT friends. Too, I didn't see any jobs at the mill I'd like to move up to. The deck offered a fair amount of variety, but running a lathe or a Cat looked like it would bore me to death. I might have been able to shift over to the maintenance department, but millwrights and electricians tended to put in seventy hour weeks. They made a lot of money but had no time to enjoy it. Physically, the deck work kept me in fair shape, but by the time I got home I had to put my feet up till they stopped aching before I could sleep, and my back bothered me. Old man Campbell, Clay Thomason's father in law, died, and after a little family power struggle the mill went up for sale. I started putting a lot of thought into leaving the mill, but I wasn't sure where to go. Going to work at most places would involve a pay cut and starting over again at the bottom. I hoped that working a regular shift and spending more time with Lyn would help the marriage and stop our drifting apart. I was tired of working for other people, even though I'd had a succession of great bosses, and started looking at alternatives. I talked to Dad about farming with him, but he said there wasn't enough money to support both families. I spent a lot of time whining to Jerry, and we started talking about my going into the book business with him. I'd been collecting and trading gun & hunting books for a long time and we thought a partnership might work out pretty well, adding a mail order and gun show business to the basic book store. It would also give both of us a lot more free time. This would be a major change and would require some sacrifices, so I talked it over with a lot of people I respected. Mom & Dad said it was my life & my decision, they'd back me in whatever. Lois thought it was a good idea. Gordon was gone, but I thought he would approve. I talked to Pastor Jones at the church, and he was quite enthusiastic in backing me. The only dissenting voices came from back east, from Lyn's parents. They thought it was a horrible idea and started pelting me with statistics on the failure rate of small businesses. TBC (Me) (Blacktail Books)