The Thin Tuna Sandwich Story

Doing moving jobs, with the physical involved, you have to be able to manage your time properly in order to be more efficient. It's not only about the physical piece though, there are also different aspects involved like; space recognition, it's a must that you pay attention to the condition of the area you are working in, and whether it's said or not we all want a decent tip. Sometimes depending on the job, we might want a more than decent tip.

Take a few nights ago for example. My two uncles and I did a job for this "big-time lawyer" firm in Rockville, MD, and I tell you not one piece of furniture was less than 60 pounds. We worked with these people from 6 am to 12 pm that night, did I mention it was a Friday? We didn't even get a tip, but I did get a thin tuna sandwich and some juice from the nearby 7/11. Anyway, at this point, I realized that there would be days like this, the more prepared I came the better. It wasn't all bad though, I did get some entertainment, my uncles need their own show. They've both been in the business for 15 years plus so just like brothers a lot of the time arguments would arise, one minute it was who had the most time effective strategies for moving people's furniture, the next minute it was "remember that time we gave you that wedgie that went halfway up your back?" it almost made me feel like I wasn't at work.

Of course, I wasn't yet the savant due to the fact that I had far fewer years of experience on the job than my uncles, but back to this job with the law firm. Things were being moved and pretty soon hunger ensued, we hadn't eaten since those thin tuna sandwiches earlier that day. Taking testosterone mixing it with hunger and putting them in the same room is the exact recipe for frustration and disaster. Raymond (my uncle) started to feel like I wasn't packing the truck fast enough, I felt like he was overpacking the elevator as a means to rush through the job, DJ (my uncle) was busy calculating the chances of us getting a tip before we shut down for the night. I mean, he would literally go through an entire analysis of the person we were doing a job for to determine if they would be giving us a tip or not, he had it all the way down to the way they parked their car. A true people reader, the strange part is a lot of the time he would be right. Never based on race or anything like that though, he isn't that kind of person.

At this point in the night getting ready to shut down, our routine is all dollies, drop cloths, and tools go in the back of the truck along with the cooler we kept back there for jobs that encourage hunger strikes. Over the course of time that I have been on the roster for these moving jobs, we would often get certain requests from different customers. For this particular job, Dan; the guy we were working for that night had a specific request regarding a table that he held near and dear to himself. The only request was "when moving this table, please, double wrap it, don't let it fall, and no scratches" said Dan. Would you believe that table was one of the only pieces of furniture that did end up with a scatch? Underestimating how heavy it was it hit the ground on the way out. Dan was pretty understanding, he had done moving jobs before and realized that sometimes mistakes on these kinds of jobs are inevitable. "It's ok, it's barely noticeable", says Dan. It really wasn't bad.

We all shook hands, Uncle DJ wrote a check for the damages and we commenced to shut down for the night, or should I say morning by the time we got finished. The law firm happened to be in the middle of a shopping district, you could smell food being cooked from the kitchens of nearby restaurants and, you could see what I called a parade of all my favorite foreign cars driving up and down the avenue.

Sitting in the truck waiting for Uncle DJ to finish filling out the paperwork I noticed this all-black Audi across the street. I sat staring at it for a while before I saw someone finally open the driver's door to get out. It was a man, who seemed to carry himself in an affable manner. He stood by his car for a while as if to take a moment to embrace his surroundings. Shortly after he started walking to the truck which at this point I was sitting outside of to get some air as if he had gotten some good news. As he gets closer I put out this al Capone cigarillo I had bought from 7/11.

He introduces himself; "Hi, how are you? My name is Lyle Rivas", says the man. "Nice to meet you, my name is Daz", I replied. He looked around and says, "I noticed you guys getting to it out here, your hard work will reward you", says Lyle. My first thought was, man only if he knew. Anyways, "Well it's been a rough one and the paycheck is barely worth the back injuries, and the small fortune spent on Epsom salt", I replied then laughed. From there Lyle goes on to tell me he used to do the exact same job and said that I reminded him of himself. After hearing that, I felt encouraged to ask him what he currently does to make a living for himself. He goes on to tell me, "While I was working for the moving company that I now own, I was making investments into the foreign exchange trading currencies, while also putting money aside to make real estate investments." says Lyle. He even had his own fabric printing company. Basically, with more than one source of income, he was able to gain enough capital to buy out the company he formerly worked for, change the name, and now it's his. "So who's in charge of this operation?" asks Lyle. I pointed to Uncle DJ as he just happened to be walking out of the law firm with the finished paperwork in his hand. Lyle introduces himself.

Lyle was looking for some subcontractors, and since Uncle DJ had his own truck, equipment, and what Lyle felt was a worthy work ethic, he was a perfect candidate. Within maybe a month he had us startup with his company, which provided us with benefits and much better compensation. We even ended up with some generous customers who were not shy of giving us great tips, and even better I gained a new mentor. That Tuna sandwich might not have been so bad after all.