Welcome to The Aluminum Harvest

My name is Hal. Until the first week of April, 2008 I was gainfully employed. I worked as a self-employed Independent Contractor within the Courier Industry serving the six county Chicago metropolitan area. I have been so employed since April of 1994.

Once upon a time it was a fabulous job. It allowed me to care for my ailing mother, pay my bills, and generally live a fairly comfortable lifestyle on my own terms. It wasn't a great job, but given the other issues in my life when I began, it was about as good an arrangement as i was going to find. And strangely enough, as time went on, I came to enjoy the work, and was quite good at it, if I do say so myself.

Oh, there were ups and downs over the years, good times and bad, as with any other endeavor, but overall I had no major complaints. Until the price of gas started rising, that is. As it began it's long climb to today's record levels, my profit margin slowly began to shrink. And then not so slowly shrink. Until finally, in April of 2008, fully 3/4 of each week's earnings were being funneled directly into my gas tank so that I could continue working the following week. Needless to say, this didn't leave a lot left over for the "little" things in life like food, rent, electric...

It didn't help that the amount of available work had been declining the past several years as well, falling at approximately the same rate that fuel costs were rising. An untenable situation that I attempted to meet by economizing, hoping against hope that gas prices would eventually level off & that the available work volume would increase. Neither eventuality came to pass...

I economized by cutting back on "luxuries." Cable TV was the first to go. I started buying more chicken instead of beef at the grocery and then when the price of chicken went up I bought more beans (protein) than meat. I began purchasing "house brands" instead of name brands when grocery shopping. I pretty much gave up buying beer for home all together.

That wasn't enough. I had to start wearing my work clothes longer, patching rather than replacing when they got torn or worn. Work boots? Not time yet, there's another 2000 miles in those heels, yet...

Finally, though I had to put a cap on how much fuel I could purchase per workday: $30/day was about right, given the number of deliveries I was running on average. Unfortunately, the deliveries never seemed to line up properly. I'd pick up an envelope in Elk Grove Village going to the Loop and be sent on my way. Half way to the Loop I'd be notified of a package in Skokie also going to the Loop, could I turn around? Once empty in the Loop, I'd sit - or actually, I'd slowly cruise the streets looking for a place I could sit, all the while burning fuel to no purpose...

Eventually the day came when I'd made that trip to the Loop with a single envelope and got assigned several Loop pickups over the next several hours. Each of those pickups cancelled as I approached the pickup location. But there was always another pickup for me - usually called in at roughly the same time & that I had to pass on my way to the cancellation - that in turn cancelled as I pulled near. I was constantly criss-crossing the Loop for several hours, never once able to get a single pickup on board before the order cancelled. A most excellent method of draining a gas tank...

When my tank hit the 1/4 full mark I called in to let dispatch know it was time to send me home. Dispatch's response was to read me the riot act. If I was planning to call it a day at 2:30 in the afternoon I should have told him that morning in the office. I don't suffer fools gladly, and I answered each of his accusations fully & in great detail over the radio. Then I went home & thought about it long and hard.

At this point, I was effectively spending $3 in fuel for every $4 I earned making deliveries. To be accused of malfeasance, incompetence and a general all around bad attitude when I'd burned up that day's fuel allotment chasing that constant string of cancellations dispatch assigned me was just too much. I turned in my equipment the next morning & never looked back.

Today, 4-1/2 months later I remain unemployed. Despite constantly submitting applications via the web, scheduling & attending interviews, answering ads in the paper and virtually begging for work - I remain unemployed. Even a minimum wage job stocking shelves at the local five & dime or grocery is inexplicably unobtainable...

I managed to stretch my meager savings into May. Since then, I've largely been dependent on the generousity of friends and family. As of today, my rent is 15 days late and I have three days left on the Landlord's Five Day Notice. August's rent is due Monday morning or I face eviction from my home of 24 years...

My savings are gone. Friends and family have assisted me financially to the point of pain, but none of them are wealthy individuals. They can offer no more, and I, in all honesty to myself, can no longer ask and have no right to expect further assistance. When the well dries up, you have to face facts: There Ain't No More Water! Deal with it.

Barring a miracle this weekend, I expect to join the ever growing number of homeless in Illinois. For the past few weeks, I've left my home between 4:30 & 5:00 AM so I can get to the parks, the Forest Preserves, assorted parking lots early & beat the other Harvesters to the day's bounty.

Aluminum Cans are currently being bought by the scrap metal dealers for $0.60/pound.

Welcome to the Aluminum Harvest....