TIM WHITE IS BACK!
TIM WHITE MISSED A FEW STEPS
He was not dancing! Or playing basketball or soccer with his kids.
Tim White just had a bad freaky deaky fall/mishap at his home in January. He fell down the stairs in his home. They first went to the emergency room then got a ticket straight to the hospital. They gave him leg braces then set up more testing later in the week.
The doctors did an MRI and found that he tore 85% of his tendons in both legs. So major surgery was done. Let's say Tim has gotten a better appreciation of handicap parking, the ability to just go to the bathroom by oneself and more importantly and a much mention, of his wife, Cherine.
It was definitely a challenge for the last couple of months. But you can't keep a good man down.
We assume he was driving his family crazy.
Good news is, He's back to work on Crutches. He is very happy about that.
Below is an after Pic.
THIS JOB STINKS
Amy Fischer - Reporter at The Daily News, Longview, WA
It takes a strong stomach to empty and clean a fleet of portable toilets at an outdoor summer music festival.
But you won't see Bryan Jones gagging. After six years of working for Honey Bucket portable toilet company, "nothing fazes me," said the 32-year-old Kelso resident.
Jones, a R.A. Long High School graduate, is a Honey Bucket route supervisor, which involves picking up, delivering and servicing Honey Buckets throughout Southwest Washington and northern Oregon and managing other drivers.
"We're the biggest and the best," he said.
Jones is fast -- he can pump out the Honey Bucket's toilet tank, clean the stall and replace the toilet paper in four minutes. Before he was promoted, he was the top route driver in his region because of his speed and thoroughness, he said.
On a busy summer day, he's cleaned as many as 130 toilets. Normally, it's only 80 or 90, he said.
"I can honestly say I've only thrown up once," Jones said in a recent interview.
Jones suctions out the 75-gallon tank with a PVC tube called a "stinger," which pumps the waste into the collection truck. When the tank's empty, he dons gloves to fish out solid objects left at the bottom of the tank.
He's pulled out "all sorts of stuff" -- wallets, cell phones, pop cans, syringes, dirty diapers, checkbooks, credit cards and feminine products.
The worst thing he's found? A dead cat. That was in a Honey Bucket at the Rose Valley Minute Mart, he said.
The funniest thing he's found? A large stuffed gorilla.
"When I opened the door it was sticking out of the toilet," Jones said. "I almost let out a big, girly scream."
Bryan Jones delivers, cleans and picks up local Honey Buckets. 'You can make very decent money,' Jones said. 'I've supported my whole family on it for six years now.' Photo by Greg Ebersole / The Daily News
(Story continued on next column)
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THIS JOB STINKS (Continued)
"Most new drivers get used to the smell -- eventually.
"It's a rolling joke, the new guy puking," Jones said. "I had a gentleman start where it took him two months to stop puking. He'd open the door of the toilet and wouldn't even open the lid, and he'd start gagging."
One new employee lasted less than a day. He applied to be a Honey Bucket salesman, not realizing he'd also have to deliver and service the toilets.
"It was disgusting to him, and he didn't think he should have to do it," said Jones, noting that the man had driven to work in a Jaguar.
Because the work can be unpredictably messy, drivers carry a change of clothes and rain gear in their trucks. If the stinger's rubber seal breaks when drivers are pumping out the toilet tank, "everything will come up and splatter you," he said.
"I've worn it before," Jones said. "I look at it and say, 'Why the heck am I doing this?' -- and then I look at my paycheck again."
Honey Bucket drivers are part of the Teamsters union and undergo extensive job training. After the first year, they begin earning $15 or $16 an hour, plus benefits, overtime and profit sharing, he said. The job has taken him from poverty level to a point where he has a new truck and is in the process of buying a house, he said.
"Everyone thinks we're the low man," Jones said with a laugh. "You can make very decent money. I've supported my whole family on it for six years now."
His wife of 10 years has "no problem" with his job.
"She'll actually announce it before I do to anybody," he said.
The best part of his work is boosting drivers' morale and passing along compliments from customers about how clean the Honey Buckets were, Jones said. He also enjoys the feeling of freedom he gets driving to different work sites in his truck.
Sometimes he'll get called out at 1 a.m. to contend with toilets tipped over by vandals or windstorms. At construction sites, there's plenty of graffiti to clean off Honey Bucket walls, he said.
Jones never imagined he'd end up with a career in the Honey Bucket field. After finishing high school, he spent six years in the National Guard working with computers and math. Then he was a groundskeeper and gravedigger at a cemetery in Rainier.
"I thought I'd be in bigger and better things," Jones said. But now, "It's looking like I am in the better. I make really good money. They take care of me. Why go anywhere else?"
A CHRISTMAS WISH COMES TRUE
Steve Barger
Dear Mr. Barger,
I need to tell you a story that has been amazing involving "Tim Petersen and Bill Schied" in Seattle.
My 8 year old son Garrett was standing in line to see Santa this year when the young boy in front of him asked Santa for a toilet. My son, not to be out done, asked Santa for a Honey Bucket. He was very clear with Santa that it was an outhouse and Santa said he was not sure what his elves might have at the North Pole but he would do his best. I decided I had to get my son a honey bucket for Christmas as I know he is just on the edge of his belief in Santa.
I went on line and found your company and looked through your site. I then googled and ebayed everything I could think of but came up with nothing. So I contacted via the honeybucket website ... I emailed the story and the request for anything that might meet this need short of an actual honey bucket delivery to my front yard. Tim called and said he had just the ticket! Two days later Ron came to my office and delivered a wonderful chocolate replica of a honey bucket. This is the photo of my son on Christmas morning as he opened his first present from Santa...the t-shirt was a huge success and he ate his honeybucket with a huge smile on his face. He has told all his friends that there must be a Santa Clause because when he asked for a honey bucket he got it!
Thanks to your company and some wonderful employees! Thanks!
Kristi Klee
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