“My dad passed away in June. He was at home. It was just a few days after Father’s Day. He had been dealing with cancer for eight years. This time, it was the final K.O.

“It was also roughly a month before he was able to retire officially. In a sense, at least to me, that was adding insult to injury.

“It’s been hard, for my sisters and my mom especially. She told me that she’s cried herself to sleep. That’s how much it hurts. They were married 41 years.

“I’ve been looking for a job. The last place I worked was 7-Eleven. That guy let me go due to my being too slow. One day he just said, ‘OK, you’re off the schedule,’ and that was it. He didn’t bother to discuss things with me like, ‘Any way I can help you out with this?’ I’m still agitated about that.

“I’ve applied for other jobs since then. I’m just trying to stay positive and keep my spirits up by saying, ‘Everything will be OK. Just keep on trucking. You’re not the only one going through this.’ It hasn’t been easy, but I’ve just got to keep trying.”

— Kevin Alford, 38, who’s living life with autism

Related:

• Autism isn’t keeping him from enjoying life

The post Trying to keep spirits up after losing father, job appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“I made up my mind when I was young that I was going to retire early. And I did it. I retired last August after 33 years with LyondellBassell, just as I was fixing to turn 57.

“Never been married. No kids. But I was married to my job, I believe. I was one of those guys that liked money. Others my age wanted off all the time to run around, goof off, and waste money. Not me. I wanted to make money. So I always volunteered to take their shifts. I worked holidays. I was an overtime freak.

“And I tried to play things smart by investing in everything I could out there. I wanted to pay everything off as soon as possible. I didn’t want to have any bills. I didn’t want to owe anything to credit or loan companies. In the end, I pretty much accomplished what I set out to do.

“When I was going to work, I would leave the house by about 4 in the morning. It’s still no different. Most days, I’m up at 3:30 or 4. I get a little something to eat, and then I take off on my bike. I love riding when it’s dark out and hardly anybody’s around.

“I ride seven days a week. I go all over town. I cross the Hartman Bridge sometimes and ride in La Porte, or go down to Morgan’s Point. I’m a member of the Dirty Bay BMX Riders, so we’ll ride together. I’ve done the MS 350 to Austin for multiple sclerosis.

“When you’re riding this bike here, it’s like riding a Cadillac. You lean your back against it, and just kind of lose yourself. It relaxes me.

“I never know where I’m going to go or what I’m going to do. But I have my cell phone with me. I always have money on me. I have things to drink and eat. I have all kinds of tools and patch kits if I ever have a flat. I have lots of music. And I ride until I decide I want to stop somewhere.

“I’m not as young as I used to be, so I work out every day. Matter of fact, I just got done doing all my pushups and squats out there on that floating dock. I do them at home, too, and I work out on a punching bag.

“I live life day by day. I wake up in the morning, kick the dirt off me, and see what the good lord offers me.”

— Jerry Puckett

Jerry and his partner have a shop where they build quarter-mile hot rods and custom bikes.

The post Retirement plan pays off for bike enthusiast appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“You see where you found me. I’m here at a basketball court, shooting hoops, listening to music. In the past, I probably would have been at a friend’s house, figuring out how I’m going to make my next buck. Or I would have been somewhere smoking weed with my friends, trying to figure out where the chicks are for tonight.

“But now I know they can strip that freedom from me at any time. Now, whenever I get pulled over by cops, it’s no longer, ‘Hey, put your hands up.’ It’s automatically weapons drawn, because I’m a felon. So all the decisions I make are based upon that.

“Now when my friend hits me up and asks if I want to go to a bar, I’m like, ‘I’m cool. I’m going to be at the house.’ Now when my friend asks, ‘Hey, bro, you want to make some money?’ I’m like, ‘No, I’m cool. I got a job.’

“A lot of that is hard to break because of the connection you have with these people. Since the playground, I’ve been with these guys. So for them, it’s like I’m turning my back on them. But I’m trying to look out for me.

“They may not understand that. But it’s because they’ve never been put in the position I was in. They didn’t get everything stripped from them in 2.5 seconds. And it’s hard to come back from that.

“Right now, I’m unemployed. If you have a theft on your record, it’s especially hard. They don’t know if they can put trust in you. That’s totally understandable. I can’t be mad at that. I mean, I put myself in that position.

“Even though it’s been hard for me to find a job, I’ve been blessed to have people in my life who are not constantly saying, ‘You need to find a job. You need to find a job.’ Instead, I have people telling me, ‘You need to find what you love, and do that. You need to find what you want to do in this life, and you need to do that. You need to find your niche, whatever that is, and follow it.’

“Right now, as a 24-year-old, I’m still trying to find myself. Trying to find where I can fit in as a productive member of society.”

— Sergio Yepez

Related:

• Staying strong key to surviving in jail

• Gang tattoos lead to jail confrontations

The post Finding a job, while trying to find himself appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“I went walking today, and I found this beat-up basketball over there in the grass. I thought, I may as well see if I can still shoot.

“I played sports in high school, basketball and football. It’s been a while, though. I’m 56. I didn’t think I could do it anymore. But I surprised myself. I’m moving parts that haven’t moved in years.

“I’ve got this little knee problem from years ago. I slipped and fell at work. I never did try to file or anything. I figured it would work itself out. But it’s catching up to me in my old age. That’s why I keep moving. That’s why I’m out here exercising. If I stop, it gets stiff. Then I can barely do anything. I’m about 50-50 with it. I could have been 75 and above without it. But I can handle it. I can maintain. It’s just part of life. You’ve got to go with the flow. I have to because I’m still working.

“I work in cooling towers at the plants. It’s definitely hard work. Especially at my age. Everybody asks me, ‘What are you doing still working at this?’ Hey, I need to work. I didn’t go to college. If you don’t go to college, you’ve got to go to work. That’s what I try to preach to my grandkids. Hey, go to school. But they don’t always want to listen. I guess they just have to learn that on their own.”

— Walter Gonzales

The post ‘I’m moving parts that haven’t moved in years’ appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“My dad is from a family of 12 in Matamoros, Mexico. There were six women and six men. But my grandpa would always bring my father to go cut grass, track cows, trench out ditches — anything that had to do with the ranch. Sun up to sun down. Through the years, he came to realize that my grandpa was teaching him the value of hard work. If you have nothing else, you know you can always go to work and make things happen.

“My father has been involved in construction for years. He’s gone from industrial to commercial, wherever the work takes him. He’s always been a hands-on, hard-working man. If he doesn’t know how to do something, he learns. That’s something he’s passed on to me. He says, ‘Son, you’ve got to be wise. You’ve got your hands and your feet, and you’re smart. Try it. If it doesn’t work out, just relax, take a second look, and find a different way to try again.’

“In Spanish he says, ‘No pasa nada,’ which means ‘nothing happens.’ That’s a good way to approach life, whether it’s how to do something at work or how to interact with others. Sometimes you run into difficult people. But you’ve got to find a constructive way to speak to them and work with them. If one way doesn’t work, no sweat. No pasa nada. Think of a different way to handle the situation and try again.

“I’ve learned so much from my dad, just like he learned from his father. I love my last name. I just want to make a difference, like he has, and honor my family legacy.”

— Louis Soria

The post Son proud of family work ethic appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“We’re a combined family. He has seven kids from his previous marriage and I have two. I also have custody of my two grandkids, so together we have 11. Eight of them live at home.

“After being off almost a whole year, we’re both blessed to be working now. I mean, we’re still struggling. Because of 2020, I think lots of people are going to be struggling for a while. We’re slowly creeping back up to the surface. Right now, we’re trying to hang on to our home.

“Like everyone else, we had some issues during the winter storm. We were without power for two days. So we lit a bonfire in our firepit, and the neighbors came over. We sat outside around the fire and talked. We lit candles. The kids played hide and seek in the dark. Our fireplace has gas, so that really helped. We turned it on, and all the kids slept in the living room to stay warm.

“We were without water for five days. So we were going to our neighbor’s house to shower, and we were using her pool to flush the toilets. She lives by herself, and she didn’t know how to light her fireplace. So we did that for her, and we helped flush her toilets and stuff. We were going back and forth a lot, helping each other. Our neighborhood is pretty great that way.

“My husband, Michael, isn’t a plumber, but he’s pretty handy. I always pick at him because it seems like he hoards stuff in the garage. But it actually came in handy this time. He was able to help out several people in our community with their plumbing issues, including a neighbor who’s a veteran. Seeing him come home from work at 6 p.m., suiting up and helping people without his hand out asking for something in return, I literally fell in love with him all over again.”

— Shannon Moore

Shannon and Michael got married on Nov. 16, 2019. They have yet to take their honeymoon cruise, which has been canceled three times due to the pandemic.

The post ‘I literally fell in love with him all over again’ appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“The pandemic hit the gig worker very hard. Normally, as a magician, I would be wrapping up a busy season of magic shows for parties. But no parties means no need for entertainment.

“I usually perform for the Houston Children’s Museum and for private children’s birthday parties. When those all had to be canceled, I felt bad for the kids. So I adapted by offering free streaming magic shows via Zoom.

“I set up my laptop in my living room with a webcam to create the feel of being in the living room of the kids watching online. It worked well, but I initially hated it. After I made some tweaks to the show, they got a lot better and a lot more fun to perform.

“Magicians set up online groups to offer each other advice on hardware and material that would play well in a streaming environment. A small investment for additional equipment made my shows a lot better for streaming, and I opened up performances for adult audiences.

“With this new medium comes new techniques. I can take advantage of the one angle all viewers have while watching the streaming shows.

“Through the new online communities for magicians, I’ve made many new friends from all over the world. I’ve had the opportunity to share my knowledge by teaching other magicians tricks, techniques and other ways to make their performances even better. This also opened up more sales for me, as I’m a creator of magic with several products that I sell through an online distributor.

“The silver lining in this new world that we live in has been the chance to get creative, learn new techniques, and expand my services for online shows and training other magicians. Fortunately, I have a day job so the economic impact has not been as devastating for me as it has for many full-time gig workers.”

— Jamie Salinas

The post Magician adapts to online shows during pandemic appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“I’m from Kosovo. I grew up on a farm in the countryside. You had to listen to what your daddy told you. I got up early to feed the cows. I worked hard every day. When I was 18 or 19, I started working at a brick factory in Slovenia. Then I hurt my hands a little bit. The doctor said I couldn’t work. I had a friend, and I said to him, ‘You want to go to the United States?’ He said, ‘How?’ I said, ‘It’s not going to be easy. But we can try.’

“I loved to watch cowboy movies on TV. They showed the United States a lot. I saw the fighting in Vietnam and things like that. All the time I had this in my head, that I wanted to come to the United States. And I did.

“I started in Chicago. I worked in a restaurant. I washed dishes and cleaned restrooms. I worked 12 hours a day. It didn’t bother me. It was my job. I did that for a year. Then I had a friend in Louisiana. He worked on an oyster boat. He said I could make more money. I said, ‘OK,’ and I went to Louisiana. I worked as a deckhand. I made good money. Then I moved to Texas. I had my own oyster boat. I ran it for almost 30 years. I had two deckhands. It was a hard job. You’re gone from home a lot, sometimes eight or nine nights. You’re out there working in the rain and the cold. But I did it for my family.

“I love this country. I appreciate the United States, a thousand times, for giving me the opportunity to enjoy this life. The way I look at it, God is number one, the United States is number two. That’s all I can tell you. People can say what they want. A lot of countries hate our guts. I don’t care. They’re jealous. United States economy is number one. United States power is number one. Nobody can mess with us. They can say what they want. United States has the best in the world. I love my country.”

— Jimmy Saciri

Related:

• Complications from diabetes takes ‘a good woman’

The post ‘God is number one, the United States is number two’ appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“The first job I ever had was as an ambulance attendant when I was 16 years old. Then I started driving a wrecker. When I got tired of that, I drove a truck over the road for the rest of my life. I loved it. I enjoyed seeing the countryside. I did it for over 40 years. Been to 48 states and Canada.

“The first time I went to Canada, the guy said, ‘Do you have any guns or dope?’ I told him, ‘Yes, sir,’ and I pulled out my Browning Hi-Power pistol, unloaded it, emptied the clip, and gave it to him. He said I could pick it up on the way back into the country. I think that was in 1969.

“I’ve always owned guns. I can’t outrun nobody. I can’t hit nobody hard enough to make them stop doing what they’re doing. But the only time I ever pointed a gun at someone is when a guy stuck his head in my pickup truck while I was sitting at a red light. When he did that, I stuck my gun in the end of his nose and told him to get out.”

What did he do?
“He got out. Buddy, I’m not looking to kill nobody. But if it comes to me or them … It’s that simple. Hopefully, I don’t ever have to fire a shot, except at the range.”

— Victor Earnest

The post Longtime gun owner: ‘I’m not looking to kill nobody’ appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“For about eight years, I had this job that took me all over the country. At first it was fun, getting to travel and see different places. But when you’re away from home and family Monday through Friday, working indoors sometimes 10 to 12 hours a day, and living out of a hotel room week after week, you start to get burned out.

“The road doesn’t really have anything for you. You’ve been to every restaurant. You’ve been eating all these bad foods and you’re gaining more weight. Then when you get back home, you’re distant from your family. It’s Friday night, and before you know it, it’s Sunday already and you’re getting ready to leave again. 

“I was feeling really stressed at work because they put me in some leadership roles, which I didn’t really want. I don’t like to tell people what to do. I prefer to be just a worker, a team player. But it became all about income and grossing and worrying about revenue. It got to the point where one time when I was flying out, my nose started bleeding. I’d never had a nosebleed in my life, and it was gushing for like an hour. I guess it was just the stress of everything.

“That’s when I thought, I’ve got to get out of here. I’ve got to make a change. I mean, I was making decent money. But to me, it’s not all about the money. It’s not all about chasing that dollar. It’s about happiness. I want to be doing something that makes me happy.”

— Ashley Parris

Ashley, 39, is in between jobs right now, but hopes to pursue life as a photographer for fun and profit.

Related:

• Extrovert/introvert feeling disconnected these days

The post Career change in the works after life on the road appeared first on The Baytown Project.