Hopefully Raj doesn’t know about my blog or he’ll be upset that you all know this before he does. Raj is no longer going be an estimator. After a very long training to be an estimator, Raj will be a laborer.
This doesn’t mean there won’t be anymore Raj stories or that the series will end, between Aaron’s and myself we have plenty of stories to write about for a while.
Un-fucking-believable.
That’s one word hyphenate came flying our of my mouth when my truck stalled while I was on the freeway, not once but three times..
This morning I get in the truck and before I even leave the office the truck misfires. I enter the street and it misfires again and then seemingly fixed itself. I’ve had old trucks in the past and sometimes there’s just a build up of gunk that comes loose and blocks a port or injector but eventually makes it was out the tail pipe like nothing ever happened.. My work truck is not old though, it’s actually pretty fucking new. The problem is letting Raj drive it. My theory is the dumb ass didn’t read the sticker on the gas cap and in the cab that says “GASOLINE ONLY” and filled it up with diesel..
By the time I make it to a gas station the tank is almost empty, so I figure if it was bad gas, I’m just going to fill up with chevron premium, and that sound fix everything. I get about an hour out of Bakersfield before the truck starts misfiring again and then stalls. The engine completely stops and will not restart so I pull off and wait for about 10 min, trying to start it every minute or so with no luck. It finely starts back up and I know Tipton is about 5 miles down the road, I’m going to try to make it to a gas station and have someone else come take this POS home, but not without it dying again 2 more times.. So here I sit, and I’ll be here about an hour.. While Aaron brings me another truck and limps home with this one..
To6day, Raj and I had the same routes only completely different.
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Today I talked to one of the guys from the office and found out why Raj took such a long time yesterday; it was a range. For those of you who don’t know, presently when you install a range, you need to also install a foot guide. A foot guide is a little latch you drill into the concrete and then secure with a bolt. The instillation of this devise before the range takes about 5 minutes, maybe 10 if the floor is tile.
Let’s briefly go over how I would have installed this range.
Using this math Raj should have taken 10 minutes if he’s done it before, which I’m sure he hasn’t. In that case it should have taken him maybe 20 or 30 minutes. He was at that house for 2.5 hours.. After an hour and a half Aaron for a call from Raj. Long story short he spent and hour with a wood bit and completely drained the battery of his drill trying to drill through the tile. The 4″ wood drill bit that was on the drill is now only 1″ long. After all that he finely went to home depot like he was told to do and bought a concrete bit..
Today Raj went out by himself for the whole route! Woot! I was cheering for him… His route consisted of driving to Fresno ( 2 hours ), 4 stops ( 1 hour ) and drive home ( 2 hours ). I average 6 minutes at a house, so I figure 15 is generous enough… Raj is still not back to the office and his gps puts him another hour and a half out.. Giving him an average of 1.25 hours per stop!
To put this into perspective I went to Fresno with him, did 14 bids and 3 termite reports and will back back at the office an hour before Raj.
I don’t have a lot of time to write about this one but I do need to post this!
Last night after our routes, Raj and I happened to be in the office at the same time.
Following months of bitching to the owners, we finely got a new estimator.
After Sarah and I got married I started working for a SAM contractor as an estimator. My friend Aaron is the only other estimator at this very large contractor that serves 2/3 of all foreclosures in the Southern valley in Cali. Aaron and I sometimes work 12-14hour days, so since about June we’ve basically been begging for more help. Two weeks ago we hired Robert (here on referred to as Raj). Raj is in his early 20′s, dropped out of high school, and has been a paperboy for the last 4-5 years.
