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Favorite Customers and Jobs
1986-1990
Pat Morressey is my all time favorite customer. I painted her house a couple times. Did minor repairs and fixed up the yard a bit. The yard was mostly crushed sea shell from the beach, sea grapes, and cactus.

When I did landscaping around her home, (a bunglow on the beach) she tried to be there to work around the house as well. We worked and talked, and worked some more. She was not afraid to get her hands dirty, and I thought of her as a person of good character.

Pat owns a store in Sarasota Florida called, "Twice as Nice". I was traveling through the area last year and couldn't find it, the streets all changed after civic improvements. (and I didn't have time to look)

I was sad to see the Bunglow was replace by something more modern. I still remember. Many good days, doing good work, with good company. No complaints here.

When things are critical and you have to succeed, I advice you not to trust or rely on other people or other businesses. Example:

When I first arrived in Florida I hired an answering service to handle first contact with the costumer.

Nobody called me for work. Anonomously I called to check on the answering service's responses to customer quiries, and they proved not to be doing their job.

I at first relied on them and it could have caused me to fail. Sometimes you have to deal with other people. Just remember, it might not be as important to them as it is to you.

1986
I put an add in a couple of local papers. One of the first people to call was an artist named Richard Oxley.

He is world renoun and has paintings in American Embassys all over the world. (or so I remember)

He wanted me to put up this Totem Pole. It stands in front of his art studio.

1987
A couple of months later, I remodeled a studio apartment, in back of this Art Studio, and moved in.

I lived there fixing up the place (about 8 months) until the next Michigan Deer Season (Nov.15).

After the hunt and back in Florida, I rented a house in Sarasota. I lived there for 2 years. Moved less then a mile to a bigger house and lived there for another year.

These houses were great. Well located for business, and less then 2 miles from Siesta Key. World class beaches just a bike ride away. The hardest part about work is resisting the sunshine.

1988
"The Pearl" is the name of a mansion on Longboat Key. I was hired to paint, inside and out. Do some minor repairs, and cut back on the mangrove swamp.

Times passed now. (I can't remember anymore.) But,it must of taken 4 to 6 months to finish. We were doing other work at different location for the same customer.

As you can see, I had to use an extention ladder to get to the top of the walls. I had alittle trouble getting around the inside waterfountain, you see behind me.
We had to reseal the river-rock around the Pool, (which we used to cool off). The bar was closed, I scraped it and put about 8 (eight) coat of varnish on.
My brother John moved to Florida that summer. One of his jobs was to refinish every door in the House.

I had 2 brothers, one cousin and an uncle move to Florida, at one time or another, to work with me.

This Rattle Snake was hanging out in the yard. The customer found him first and asked if I'd remove him. Beleive me when I say that I was very careful.
1989
The Bradenton, Sarasota area is a nice area. I lived and worked there for 4 years and experienced alot. Business was good, so I was able to experiment some.

I ran an add in the paper listing a wide variety of qualifications and experiences. I was looking for more of an assistant type position. And it worked.

I was a medic in the Army (peace time). I had some medical training in college. AT one time I'd considered becoming an License Practical Nurse, (until I desided that I couldn't stand the pain and suffering). And I worked as a Nurses Aid in a geriatric hospital.

The woman who hired me lived in the same house as her elderly parents. Her father was bed ridden and the mother was weak. There were house keepers and nurses came in every couple days. But more help was needed in getting the parents around.

An interesting business the woman had. She developed grants for the Federal Government. The one she was working on at the time, was for a school program, that put children, parents, and teacher in contact with there counterparts in other countries. Russia was always in the picture. I got to meet some important people, including the head of the Department of Education in Florida.

I was able to get the father up out of bed and walking around. At least he could walk behind his wife in a wheel chair. He would use the chair for support, and I was there to help.

The job didn't last long, because the father had to finally be hospitalized. It was worth the time, for the experience. I learned alot about the Federal Grant programs, and, it was also satisfying to help the father become amblitory. (Even for just a short while.)

Building was/is easier and more to my liking. I am more of a private person, and like the independance of working alone. As I think about it now, I pretty much stayed with Building, Repairing, or Maintaining. In those things I control.

Variety came for me in what I built and where.

Patrick E. Wakeford


Carpenter,Writer,Philosopher

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HOT LINKS

Dragon Country

Rambling Dragon

Rambling Dragon Wrapper

Dragon Rapper

Vagabond Dragon

Misanthropic Dragon

Patrick E. Wakeford

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(50 different destinations).

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