Jimhandy's Introduction

Jimhandy emerged in 1983 when I was 35 years old. I was a single parent and trying to support my two daughters Reeta and Stephana. They were five and six years old at the time and just started school. My son Billy was sixteen, up, running, and taking care of himself.

I was a Vietnam War veteran suffering from sixteen years of untreated stress related social disorder. I had spent the last sixteen years changing my residence and employments annually do to the affects of my disability. Reading, comprehension, and memory were diminished.

Anger and hyper-vigilant reactions were prevalent but it took me twenty years to admit I was defective. With my back against the wall I solicited myself as a handyman. I had no insurance, license, permits, or ability to write contracts or bills. Hand shake and oral agreement that’s it. Unable to estimate the value of my tasks I saved the receipts for the materials and charged for the hours of labor. In the early eighties I was charging five dollars an hour and most of my tools were used or broken and I would have to fix them regularly.

My daughters were literally the center of my universe. My life revolved around their time schedule. Good help is hard to find and the girls ran two sitters out of town in short order. They quit never telling me why. Around three o’clock I would rescue my daughters from school and bring them back to work with me.

Work was hard to find and I cut grass, raked leaves, cleaned outside and inside, washed windows, tried my best, and never said no. During the process performing my tasks was able to watch other workmen and mimic their skills. I was constantly increasing my ability to be of service to people. Strangers were difficult for me to deal with and often took advantage of my shortcomings. As I became more useful I was able to become more selective and spend more time at earning money. Unable to handle strange people I tried to offer more services to fewer people. It was a way of working around my shortcomings.

To this day I do not understand how my determination, persistence, and confidence became the ingredients for the surreal wrath of troubles I left behind in the wake of my efforts to do my best. I am truly sorry for all trouble, inconvenience, and disarray I caused all my friends customers and other acquaintances. All that being said welcome to the adventures of Jimhandy.

Thank You, Jim Raab http://www.jimraab.blogspot.com/