Late 40's - Career Advise

Hey you all I just thought I’d stop by this forum for some career advise. I already had an account that I created years ago. Just disregard whatever posts I made in the past, I might have had a flame war with somebody I don’t know. It’s about the present and forward now.

I’m a middle aged man, late 40s, single with no kids. I’ve been unemployed for almost a year and a half now. I was previously working as an airport shuttle van driver until the plandemic started. The good news is that I have a lot of money saved now, as the pandemic unemployment was way more than I made at that shuttle job.

Then the state required me to conduct a job search to continue my benefits. No problem, I figured I’d just apply for good local driver positions that I know I wouldn’t get a call back from anyway. Lo and behold I did get call backs here in Phoenix. Most of them want a couple years of truck driving experience. Well, I’ve got about that over a few jobs. Look, my truck driving history isn’t stellar. I’ve been let go from a couple companies from stupid stuff, like backing into a fence post or a rusty trailer bumper at the Swift yard. And maybe I’m not cut out for truck driving, I can accept that. I feel like I’m more calm now and I wouldn’t do those stupid mistakes.

But what’s got me more scared now is, I’ve come down with some osteoarthritis in my right knee. For four months, I couldn’t bend my knee without my kneecap popping against my femor bone. The doctor said it was most likely an osteophyte, basically a bone spur. Luckily the popping/catching went away a few days ago. But I still get pain and crunching under certain knee angles. So even if I did score a local job, I don’t know if I could perform the physical duties like moving heavy pallets or climbing on top of a milk tanker. I’m trying to lose some weight. I have very small bone structure and the weight gain has probably taken its toll on my knees. Maybe my flat feet had something to do with it, I always wear orthotics now. And on top of that my blood pressure has gone through the roof, I now have class 2 hypertension. I might not even pass the DOT physical anyway.

I tried to get back into OTR driving last summer at Swift. I had some jerk diabetic rageaholic as my trainer. He berated me at every chance he could, cousing at drivers, honking the horn, cutting other drivers off on purpose, not to mention constantly crossing over the rumble strips. Then when they correct their bad steering you get that rush of terror in bed. I though my life was going to end at times, his diabetic coma behind the wheel. After a few days of no sleep he dropped me off in Tucson and I caught a ride back to Phoenix.

Anyway back to my “job search”. So I started applying for computer programming and tech positions instead. I’ve got a little tech experience in my past. I once worked as a programmer maintaining legacy code, converting dates for Y2K and such. Later I worked as a computer operator, mounting tapes on an IBM mainframe system. Both of those were good jobs and made me think I should get back into the computer world. But junior level jobs are hard to come by, especially at my age and I don’t want to waste more time and money trying to pursue that. And honestly I’m kind of over it all anyway, I’d rather play my electric guitar.

Speaking of electric guitar, I’ve only been playing for 2 years but I’ve been practicing a lot and taking lessons. I thought maybe I could play in a rock band eventually, doing cover songs from Poison and Ratt and stuff. And maybe I’ll find some friends to jam with eventually.

My last option that I’m leaning towards is bartending. My mom (who I live) isn’t keen on that. She married an alcoholic and I also have had some past issues with drinking and drugs. But I seem to be able to handle my alcohol alright now, and I haven’t touched a hard drug in 12+ years. I think I can handle the physical demands of bartending, standing is fine and I can bend over alright. At least it would be an environment that I would fit into well. I certainly would meet a lot of people, women too.

Thank you all for reading my story. Any input or advise in life is appreciated! Please just don’t insult me and tell me how much of a loser I am.