You thought you’d get $50 for free by coming here, right? Well if you didn’t enter my

Butter nub

giveaway, then it ain’t going to happen for you!

If you did enter the giveaway, then guess what? We’ve got a winner!

Congratulations, Kathleen from the Frugal Portland blog. You win!

Everyone else? Be jealous. Be very jealous.

Harass is a big word, maybe it should be “holla at chicks” instead. And why do blue collar dudes, like myself, holla at chicks?

We just want to let you know that you’re hot.

That’s pretty much it. So if you’re a chick and you’re out and a construction worker gives you a holler, you can react anyway you want to him, but in your head, you should probably take the compliment. We’re letting you know that you’re a fine lookin’ woman.

You’re welcome.

What I Usually Say

When I’m at a job site and there’s 10s of workers all lined up along the street on lunch break and a cute chick walks by, I don’t say anything. They’re getting stared at and called at by a whole bunch of dudes, it’s probably a bit much for her, so I try to not even look at her.

When it’s a small job site or not that many dudes are around, I usually say, “Hey beautiful.” Sometimes they say nothing and keep walking, and sometimes they say, “Hey handsome.” And that’s pretty much it. If they don’t respond to me and ignore me, I don’t do anything about it. That’s their choice and they have the freedom of speech just like me.

When Construction Workers Cross the Line

There’s one ethnic group in specific that I think crosses the line more often than anyone else. They get aggressive sometimes with the whistling and kissy noises. I think it’s kinda gross, but I don’t say anything. My line might not be someone else’s line.

And unless one is outright attacked, a woman can take care of herself.

What if it Was My Daughter?

If I was walking with one of my daughters and some dude whistled, I’d get pissed. Mostly because I’m right there, are you an idiot?!

If one of my daughters was walking alone and got holla’d at, it doesn’t bother me. They can handle themselves. They’re big girls now.

Why Don’t White Collar Dudes Holla at Chicks?

I don’t see dudes in business suits hollering at hot chicks, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t in their off time. And if they don’t, I don’t know why, maybe they don’t have any nuts and don’t know how to talk to chicks. Hard to say.

How many people have I offended with this post? If you think I’m a tool for hollering at cute chicks, you’ve got free speech and can tell me in the comments, I won’t filter you out. And if you think it’s radical to the max, you can let me know that too.

Ron Curell

Today is a guest post written by Ronald J. Curell. Ron is a retired blue collar man, and is a carpenter, father, hardware worker, and grandfather.

Now you’ll have to take a second and remember the days not that long ago when cell phones and GPS didn’t exist.

Imagine it…

“Where is the job at?” I asked into the phone.

“Right on the corner, near the light,” the annoyed voice said, “where are you?”

“On the pay phone at the gas station on that corner,” I responded. This was before cell phones.

“Well turn around and look.”  Across the highway and a little behind the fast food joint, there was the job we were going to.

Or imagine this…

A different summer when we were doing some remolding on Bay City schools, the guy who I was working for said, “Follow me to the job.” After a dozen turns and down this street and that, we arrived at the school. He left and I worked all day. When it was time to go home I realized, “Where in the world was I?”

Or how about this…

A friend who worked construction with me liked to tell the story of how he and a guy would ride together to the jobs. My friend would let this guy use his car so that my friend could sleep.

One day the partner said, “I cannot go to work today you will have to go alone.”

“Sure,” said my friend. “I will need directions.” This was after a couple weeks on the job.

Having worked construction from Mio to Ohio and lots of places in between, I think I have a good grasp on how to get places. I will add that I can take you to the city better than “up north,” but trees do not make good land marks, and if you have seen one you have seen them all. I would rather work in the city with real land marks than up north.

Not long ago I was talking to someone about going places and they have a GPS, which is a direction finding device. You tell it where you want to go and it tells you where to go. I do not have one but I will admit I used one once.

We like to go to Meadowbrook Theater, and for some reason even though I have been there a few times I have trouble finding the place. I can get within sight of the driveway but miss the building every time. In my defense, it has always been at night and there is not a good sign or good lighting.

The first time I ended up at a different building with a similar name. This was after stopping and asking for directions at a gas station that was less than a quarter mile from where I wanted to be!

So this past winter I borrowed my son-in-law’s GPS. It took us down our road to start okay, but then again, I can get to my home town with no problems anyways. But then it commenced to tell us each and every stop and turn. How frustrating! I know how to get within 600 feet of the place where I live, and I would sometimes do a different turn just to hear it say, “You missed your turn–recalculating.”

I keep waiting for the box to say, “You idiot, don’t you know how to follow directions?”

Then when I got almost there at the next corner the female voice said, “Turn left” and wouldn’t you know, that lovely voice was right, it was 500 feet on the left.  Sure enough I drove right to it, no problem.

A different time I was riding with someone and we were looking for a place and I said, “Don’t you have a map in the car?”

“No,” was the answer, and a funny questioning look was his expression.

Now I always have and still do have a folded-up map of our state in my truck (that, children, is what we used to use back in the day). When I first started construction I would have it folded to show our part of the state and tried to work only in the area that was displayed.  When the boss said you have to go to a place that required unfolding it, I would say, “Can’t, don’t know how to find it.” He would say a city off the map, “Romulus,” and I would say, “No, that is Ron-less.” Or he would say a different off-map city, “Go to Novi,” and I would say, “That is NO-I.”

Needless to say, that didn’t last long, and soon it was unfolded and I was working from Ohio to Mio. And that included Indiana and the U.P. for that matter.

Talking to the friend about the GPS, he said that it will ask for the county you are going to. My buddy admitted that he didn’t always know the county. He went right on to say that you had to make sure you had the right state programmed in the device or it might say, “You’re lost.”

This got me to thinking, “Do I know all 83 Michigan counties? No.” Now my mother could recite all of them, she would start down on the left side of the state and go Berrien, Cass, Joseph, Branch and so forth. I would have to unfold my map to get those names. I can name maybe a third of the counties.

So that’s my question to you: Are electronic devices making us smarter or just helping us get lost easier?

Let’s say you want to finish your basement. Maybe you’re thinking that you want to put carpeting down on top of that concrete floor. Think long and hard about that because if you change your mind down the road and want to change the carpeting, know this:

Ripping up carpeting that’s been glued down to concrete is really difficult!

There is a machine that can help pull it up, but if you don’t own one or yours is busted (like the one where I work), then you only have two tools to help you get it done. 1) the fingers on your left hand, and 2) the fingers on your right hand. It also helps if you’ve got upper body strength.

It’s a long, hard job pulling up carpeting from concrete, which means that if you want to put carpeting down on concrete, you should think long and hard.

Don’t forget to check out the first ever Blue Collar Workman giveaway! It ends this friday!!

Hello to all the dudes and chicks out there in blue collar land, and welcome to my first ever giveaway! Radical to the max!

I’ll get right to the good stuff.

The Giveaway

For this giveaway, I’ve partnered up with Uncommon Goods so that the lucky awesome winner will get a $50 gift certificate to use at Uncommon Goods!

To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment below asking me a question you want answered about anything blue collar! Easy as that. The winner will be randomly drawn and I’ll use the email address below to let you know that you’ve won.

What’s that you say? You want extra entries to the giveaway? I can do that for you.

• For one extra entry, go to the Uncommon Goods facebook page here and “like” them.
• For a second extra entry, sign up for the Uncommon Goods email list here.
• For a third extra entry, subscribe to my RSS feed (orange box in the upper right corner of the page).

So you can keep it simple and enter by just putting a comment below with a question, or you can get crazy and get some extra entries by doing any or all of the 3 things listed above.

So ask me a question and get crackin’ on entering! Giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m on Friday, May 10, 2013.

The Product Review

But TB, you ask, how do I know if their stuff rules or sucks? Well, cool reader, because Uncommon Goods sent me some loot to review. They didn’t pay me to say anything in particular so I’m gonna be honest. But just so you know, they did send me this loot for free. Which is kinda cool.

1. Home Plate Doormat: In their Gifts for Men section here, they have this doormat that’s shaped like a home plate and says, “Home.”

I’m a baseball dude and so I thought this was pretty cool. It looks exactly like it is. Seems like it’s made pretty well. I give it a thumbs up.

Actually, I give it 2 thumbs up because a week or so ago we had some massive flooding that came up to our front door. This doormat floated in the water around the house and ended up in our back yard. After the water went away, I laid it out to dry and guess what? It’s still in great condition and back on our front stoop. I’d say it’s a hardy little doormat!

2. 7 day hand repair kit for men: I’m in construction and my hands get pretty crunked up (remember when I burned my hand?). My wife doesn’t always like it, so it seemed like this kit was a good idea to fix up these hands so that I could pick up a new career as a hand model or something. Or at least make my hands less crunked up.

I’m not a girly man so it was hard to use this stuff like I was supposed to. But I did it. And. Well. You can check out my “after” hand picture below and see for yourself. My hands are still crunked up. It didn’t work so great for me and it smelled like a church pew.

To be fair, I’m really rough on my hands with my job, they’re always getting cut, nicked, and scraped. And I never use lotion or that kind of stuff usually. So it might actually work for a white collar dude whose hands aren’t quite so badly crunked. They’ve got the kit listed in their section on Father’s Day gifts here, if you want to check it out.

Hand still crunked up

One thing that’s funny about the repair kit is that one of the things is called butter nub. Ha. Funny name. Butter nub. I got both my daughters walking around saying that, haha.

That’s it hot chicks and gnarly dudes! Enter the giveaway by leaving a question for me below, and you can pick out your own Uncommon Goods stuff!

Butter nub

Ever seen those giant dumpsters at construction sites and wondered if there’s an art to filling them? Yeah, I thought so.

There is an art to it actually. The picture here is of a 30 yard dumpster that I filled. It’s full of drywall, metal studs, insulation, and ceiling tiles.

The art to loading these is that if you want to fit the true 30 yards of rubbish, you have to pack them tight enough. Like when you load up a moving van, if you want to fill all the space and get your money’s worth, you gotta plan and put stuff in there right! Same deal here.

Next time you see one of these giant dumpsters at a construction site and see dudes throwing stuff in, know that they’re actually being careful about where they put stuff so that it gets filled properly!

Guess what’s coming up next week? A GIVEAWAY! Dudes, you read right, the first ever Blue Collar Workman giveaway is coming up next week. I can sense your excitement. Be like Yoda and channel that excitement into reading some of these great blog posts below that I found this week. May the good blog posts be with you.

What do river ice balls look like? This, they look like this.

101 Centavos is a blog that’s pretty awesome. I’ve never gone there and read something that I’ve seen somewhere else. Yeah, it’s unique stuff. But enough a5s kissing, do you want to hear something about the Chinese and their food? Maybe you don’t care about the Chinese and their food, but you do think that they’ll take over the world someday soon. After reading this, I think maybe that won’t happen.

How are the Jones doing these days? Update: They’re broke.  My Personal Finance Journey gives the details. And hey dudes, maybe they’re not broke and they are perfect, but what’s that matter to you?

All Things Finance wants to tell you about the differences between dudes and chicks when it comes to money. Turns out, men and women both suck a little when it comes to money, but in different ways. Knowledge is power, dudes, so check out the deal!

What’s a Diderot and what kind of effect does it have on your life? I didn’t know either, but now I do. Which means I got smarter and you’re staying the same. So get smarter. Go to Afford Anything and learn about the Diderot Effect.

Plunged in Debt did some tire shopping recently and I’ve gotta give it up to them over there. They shopped around and did their homework – good work, gumshoes!

Got a guest post for you dudes today — enjoy!

We hold this truth to be self-evident: Not all gutter guards are created equal.

Since they are a long term investment that can have a significant impact on the value of your home, extensive research is essential before you even think about pulling out your credit card and looking at your calendar to set an install date.

Budgeting and Internet-based research is often self-explanatory and in the eye of the beholder, so here are four important questions to answer before making an investment in gutter guards:

Are there any trees around?

Look to your left. Now look to your right. If you don’t see a matured, house-eclipsing tree within 50 yards (give or take), you don’t need gutter guards. This may sound like a strange lead-off to an article written by someone from a gutter guard manufacturer, but it’s the truth.

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. Even if you do have a landscape void of trees, micromesh gutter guards could still be used to filter out impurities such as roofing oils and shingle soot, cleaning out rain water so it’s garden-fresh right out of the barrel. If you live in a region featuring winter weather reports appending “pacalpse” or “mageddon” to the word “snow,” heated gutter guards can proactively eliminate dangerous icicle formations as well as the risk of an ice dam.

Otherwise, if none of the above 130-odd words applies to you or your home, thanks for reading and enjoy your day!

What kinds of trees grow in my region?

Pine Needle Guard

Fir trees cover your roof with needles, bark dust, pine cones, and seeds. Oaks drape your gutters in husks, pollen, acorns, catkins, and tassels. In contrast, palm trees amass a collection of fronds, flowers, and the occasional fruit, and pine trees produce the most annoying clogs of all: thousands, if not millions, of tiny, elongated needles. (The photo to the right/left is an example of a gutter guard ideal for combating those pesky, omnipresent pine needles.)

In all cases, you’ll want a gutter guard that pitches to your roof, allowing for the smoothest separation of debris and water possible and the strongest foundation for preventing accumulation of potentially heavy debris on top of the guard. But all gutter guards are not universally optimized to work best with every type of tree. For example, copper guards can kill fir tree spores and minimize moss/algae growth. Oak trees require a flexible guard that can handle a plethora of debris types. Matching the guard to a roof’s pitch is most essential in preventing build ups of pine needles.

It should be noted that most gutter guard companies have dealers in all regions of the U.S., familiar with the tree(s) most commonly clogging gutters in the area. But it’s still important to know which type of gutter guard best eliminates this problem before you make the investment.

Are there any warranties included, and if so, what kind?

Writer’s note: ALWAYS ask for the warranty in writing before agreeing to anything, and read it thoroughly.

GUARANTEES! They’re both comforting and ominous at the same time. Comforting because it means a company has confidence in its product. Ominous because it sounds like an infomercial that’s too good to be true (it usually is). However, there’s a way to test these ever-present claims to determine their legitimacy.

Bad Gutter Guard

Press the contractor for an explanation of the warranties in question. Ideally, they’ll offer a lifetime Manufacturer’s Warranty that kicks in should the system itself ever fail. Sometimes companies will mask this as a “Service Agreement,” which often means the contractor will clean the guard if it ever clogs. That alone is a red flag, as it basically admits a low level of confidence in their product. Other perks of a Manufacturer’s Warranty include transferability, should you ever sell your home, and a guarantee against animals taking residence in your gutters (birds, bees, etc.).

Does the contractor offer a Labor Guarantee? This protects you from any damages incurred through faulty installation. Asking about this is a must, as many dealers are more than happy to bury it under all the other discussion topics you’ll cover.

If you install a gutter guard system under shingles, does it void the roof shingle warranty?

This isn’t so much a question as a very, very common concern of homeowners and a myth perpetuated by gutter guard companies. Simply put, both warranties generally co-exist. But you should ask the contractor and then call the company that handles your roofing warranty for secondary confirmation. Typically, you’ll find that most gutter guards are installed without fastener shingle penetration, and underlayment intrusion, but it’s always best practice to trust, but verify.

If you’re curious, GAF Materials Corporation has a document that outlines their warranty policy in accordance with gutter guard installation. Additionally, the “Bad Gutter Guard” photo is an example of a gutter guard that would break a warranty, based on GAF’s criteria.

Writer bio: Karen Sager is the President of Mastershield, a New Jersey-based manufacturer of gutter guards and developer of gutter guard technology that has dealers around the country. She regularly updates the Mastershield blog with seasonal and standard gutter maintenance tips, as well as the general trends within the industry.

I used to be a carpenter and had worked my way up the ladder a bit in that job. But with hard economic times and a dishonest employer, I had to make a career switch.

As you guys know, I’m in demolition now. Carpentry and demolition are both physical labor jobs, but they’re pretty different and require different skills.

And what happens when you switch up careers? You fall back to the bottom of the totem pole.

And that’s where I am right now. The bottom.

It’s an adjustment to get back into the habit of just doing what you’re told (I used to be the person telling others what to do in my last job!). But I’m making the adjustment pretty good. I expected to start back at the bottom again, and I’m pretty grateful for getting a better paying job. And hey, I’m picking up new skills too.

Are you planning a career switch? It’ll be awesome, I promise, but be ready for dropping back to the bottom of the heap!

Sometimes people suck. Actually, most of the time people suck. But sometimes they’re funny. While you check out this nice short roundup, you can also check out some pictures I took of people being funny. They’ll make you laugh. And you can even laugh your mouse all the way to clicking on the little orange box in the upper right corner. It’s hilarious how awesome my RSS feed is.

Fearless Men have a couple quotes worth checking out. Don’t miss the Steven Pressfield one — because dudes, there will always be fear, it’s what you do with it — cry like a little b$*#!^ or man up?

Daisy at Add Vodka has a story about putting a vent in her bathroom DIY. Some projects seem big and scary, but I always applaud when people use the internet, use youtube, do the research, and do it themselves. You save A TON of money that way and you make sure it’s done right! Way to go, Daisy!

Is your blog starting to do well? You can tell by the fact that you might be getting tons of emails about people wanting to do “high quality” guest posts and just generally confusing advertisement-type emails. I usually delete them because they confuse me and I’m wary of dudes trying to confuse me. Is this your situation too? Because Jeremy at Modest Money has a GREAT post that helps explain this kind of thing so you don’t get cheated, scammed, bamboozled, or anything sucky like that.

Best way to handle your finances? Revise your plan. Again. And again. We should do that with a lot of things in life actually. But The Simple Dollar thinks you should start with your finances.

Lost your adsense account recently? Me too. And Budget Blonde. Looks like a lot of us bloggers have gotten click bombed recently (a term I just learned). Which sucks. I haven’t appealed yet to get my account back. But reading about Budget Blonde’s story makes me think maybe there’s some hope!

Thanks to Budgeting in the Fun Stuff for an awesome mention of my blog.