Thanks y'all. I can't tell you how much everyone's words here mean to me. I have some palms to trim for a neighbor, and I had dates booked already for the pruning focused guy that loves to bring me on to work big spready trees, and now that my schedule opened up he'll have more jobs to bring me on.
As for the PGE work, I am probably not gonna go into that, as the line clearance companies have real big egos, and they think of us lowly residential guys as being somehow less than them. I applied for them as a "journeyman tree climber", and they practically laughed in my face when I told them about the work I've done. They said I would have to apply to start at the bottom of their ladder, and that would mean a big pay cut, taking years before I get back to my current rates. Besides, those guys require their climbers to be on spurs for absolutely every climb, and I'm not about that. I have been preaching quality tree care since I was in the orchards.
I will be fine, and hopefully when my old logger buddy gets to start on the Firesafe Council gig, he will wanna bring me back on for the 6-12 months of that. He gets the more challenging bits of those contracts, like chiselbit, so that's hard work, but fun.
I really mean it when I say that you guys feel like real friends, which is not something I've found so much of around here. I wish I could invite you all over for a BBQ.