@scubapuppy My first job was house painting for my step-father. I loathed they guy, because he was a determined drunk with tendencies toward rage, but I really liked painting houses, even caulking and glazing. I think I just resonate with hands on work. The $4/hour cash he paid me helped me buy my first good stereo at age 13 (really improved on the crappy piece I had from my paper route money - - nothing close to a real job, given the poor financial reward that offered!).
Since 19 years of age, I have been involved in manufacturing mechanical rubber goods. I started as a line worker molding stuff on the 3rd shift to get my way through an expensive college, but later ended up in the Lab doing physical testing. Out of boredom, I started reading up on rubber formulation design, and I started fixing a number of the problem materials we molded out on the floor. Turned out, I was pretty handy at it. I added a degree in Mechanical Engineering with a Material Science emphasis to my resume, which helped marry science to decent intuition and problem solving skills. I eventually got recruited to another company, and after 15 years there I bought it from the 2nd generation family owner, and have been running it for 20 years now. All along, all of my bonus money has been fair game to put toward audio equipment - - how's that for an understanding spouse!
Still doing the rubber thing, and still enjoying it. But retirement is getting close, with a likely long taper-off doing formulation consulting for the firm after selling it to another young buck engineer.
