...the wages aren't that good.

They used to be but now the U.S. seems to have a more stratified income structure. People who work for a wage are not likely to purchase a Lincoln Navigator and have a Boxer in the garage for the weekend.

I was your age when I got into construction. Our product was retaining walls. Our specialty was rockeries- walls built with up to 2 ton chunks of basalt. The tallest one I built was 18' high and it had to be built from the backside.

Operating can be a blast and anyone good at computer joystick games will find it even more fun. With a free-swinging grapple, you can toss a 1000 lb. pound rock about 45'.

Being an operator (job foreman in our case) requires a level of self-confidence bordering on arrogance. I don't have it.

There is little reward in wrenching. No one sees your work. No creativity. Welding gets boring quickly. The only satisfaction you get is from a job well done or solving a puzzling wiring/pneumatic/hydraulic problem.

I'm taking a VB6 class. You guy's (programmers) get paid for this? I'm havin' a ball! And if I stick with it, I will never have to spend two days flat on my back again in the living room from the prior day's spine rupturing labor.

You asked :)

Rob