Great accomplishments are overrated. I prefer to “go with the flow.”
How about you?
Cartoon shared from Calamities of Nature.
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training
(Continued from “Forty Years Ago–A Departure”.)
The flight from Houston had a short layover at Los Angeles International before continuing on to San Diego. From there it was but a short trip to the San Diego Naval Training Center.
A few weeks earlier, I had ridden with a friend to the Manned Spacecraft Center, where he worked. He was loaning me his car for the day so that I could look for a job.
Even though I had already had several jobs, I had very little experience at actually looking for a job and, looking back now, I really didn’t have a clue then on how to do it. I basically spent the day driving around, eventually ending up in a shopping center in Baytown.
I really didn’t start the day even thinking about joining the military, but there I was, at a Texas strip mall that housed recruiting offices for Marine Corp, Army, Air Force and Navy. With the ongoing Viet Nam conflict, the first two had absolutely no interest for me. While I don’t remember much about it, my first stop was in the Air Force recruiter’s office.
The stop at the Navy recruiting office was more memorable. The recruiter talked about a number of options, but there was one that really caught my attention, the Navy nuclear power program. Not only did it offer interesting opportunities in the Navy, but the job experience gained might later lead to opportunities in civilian nuclear power. The main drawback was it required a six year commitment instead of the more common two or four year enlistments.
In the ensuing weeks, I qualified for the program through the advanced programs test, passed a physical, and enlisted in the Navy with entry delayed until the end of December.
One of the benefits of the program was that I would be entering the service at E3 pay grade, a seaman – equivalent to a private first class – instead of seaman recruit (E1). Completion of recruit training would bring automatic promotion to Petty Officer Third Class, equivalent to corporal.
Three different job fields were included in the program: electronics, mechanical, and electrical. I hoped for electronics, but I wasn’t going to learn which field I was going to be in until after further testing in boot camp. Of course, electronics was what most of those who enter the program hoped for and not everyone could get it.
January 1, 1972 was a holiday, of course, so there was no processing of the new recruits. Instead, we got to watch football games in the receiving and outfitting transient barracks.
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While it was pretty hot last weekend, we did get to see quite a bit. We drove a good percentage of the coast from near the Mississippi state line almost to Pensacola Florida – including taking the ferry from Dauphin Island, Alabama.
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a bit of a surprise.
While I wasn’t expecting it when I got up this morning, I’m going back to work tomorrow morning — another contract job back at the place I retired from, working in training, as usual. They need help and found some money to pay for it.
So it’s back to setting an alarm clock, figuring out when to get to the gym, commuting — all of 20 minutes, with light traffic — and all the sundry things that go with work.
But, it’s only for a few weeks.
Except for that six month contract that looks like it’ll start January 3rd.
The retired part of “semi-retired” lasted 6 months this time.
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OK. I guess that’s a little overstating it. I’m not really unemployed. The job is over and the contract is up; I can’t sign up for unemployment because I’m making too much money – from my pension.
Students at a nuclear power plant simulator – photo rendered as a painting.
This was my second contract since I retired a little over three years ago. Both have been for about 6 months and both have been doing part of the job that I used to do before I retired – teaching license operator candidates in the classroom and in the simulator.
The class did well in the simulator operational exams administered by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week. The last day of the operational exams was Thursday, which was also my last day on the job. I had my box packed and was out the door by a little after 6 PM.
I suppose it will take a little time to get back into the swing of not working.
I think I’ll be up to speed by sometime Monday morning. 
I’ve got quite a lot of work to do around our place this spring, summer, and fall. Of course, we’ll get a little bit of traveling in, too.
Then, sometime in January, it looks like I’ll probably be back at work. That’s about the time the next class should be at the point where I’ll be needed – if they allocate the funds, which I think is quite likely.
I’ve worked a total of about 13 1/2 months out of the last 36 – and when I do work, it’s doing something I know well and get satisfaction from.
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I’ve been working quite a number of hours in the simulator the last few weeks.
One of the requirements for reactor operators is that they demonstrate the ability to start up the reactor. Each candidate practiced the reactor startup 5 times and then had a startup where he or she is evaluated by someone from Operations management.
So that’s a total of 6 startups for each student. There are 12 students, so, over the last few weeks, there have been 72 startups for training or evaluation — and I was there for every one of them. Total time in the simulator for this was about 84 hours over a 4 week period — about 20 hours a week. And that doesn’t include the several startups that I did to verify the scenario I was using and to establish the conditions for the evaluations.
This week, I am working in the simulator from about 4 PM to midnight every day, providing support and guidance for a crew of students who are shutting the plant down and cooling to “cold iron.” Once that’s done, they’ll be doing a heatup to normal operating condition, with a startup and power escalation to as high in power as we can get before the end of the shift on Friday.
I’ll certainly be ready for a rest when the weekend rolls around.
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I certainly did NOT miss clearing the paper out of the paper path in copying machines.
However, it’ still one of the necessary qualifications in today’s “paperless” nuclear power teaching environment.
On Friday, I went to the copy center to copy material I planned to hand out in my first classroom instruction since I started on this contract.
The students all have laptops and wireless access to most of the material that they need for class. However, I’m going to be going over material associated with a certification that they need to complete and I wanted them to have a copy of the forms that that will be used by the evaluator during the test.
The machine jammed on the first copy.
I had not cleared a paper jam from a copier in at least a year.
Needless to say, it wasn’t a particularly easy task.
Even after I finally found all of the paper, it took a while to get all the levers, knobs, and other copier widgets back in their proper positions. The door wouldn’t close until everything was aligned for operation.
Finally, everything was somehow aligned correctly and the front door of the copier would close.
I decided to give it one more try before going to find a friendlier machine. All twelve copies sailed through with no problem — single side to double side, stapled, punched and stacked.
All in a day’s work at the power plant training center.
day 53
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On Wednesday, another retiree — who I’ve known for over 25 years — went back to work on contract, the same day that I did. He’s working in another part of the training organization from the one I’m working in.
It just so happens, though, that his son is an “in-house” employee in that same organization.
Since he has been contracted to work primarily in a support role, there may be times that he’ll be providing support for his son.
He told me today that he didn’t have problem with doing whatever they needed for him to do, but that his son might have a little bit of a problem telling his dad what he wanted done.
day 37
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It’s back to work I go — I think.
We should know something soon as the proposed date to start is June 1st.
The contract schedule will be a little different from last time. I’ll be working about 6 weeks and will then have about 6 to 8 weeks off while the class is involved in activities that do not require my “expertise.” The entire contract for me will be 6 months of actual work.
During the 6 to 8 weeks that I am off — assuming the funding for the contract is actually approved — we’ll be traveling out in the western mountain states. We had originally planned that trip for July and August, so it’ll be a little delayed, unless the funding is not approved.
I really do enjoy the work that I’ll be doing under the contract. It’s the best part of the job that I had before I retired.
The job will help us keep from dipping into our savings for the duration of the contract and we’ll try to pay down a debt or two so that the pension and other income will stretch further when I’m not working.
Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, it’s off to work I go…, probably…, maybe.
We’re leaving Harper’s Ferry this morning, heading for Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
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I’ve finally succumbed to a cold — first one this season of any consequence.
The good news is that I won’t be passing it on to anyone at work because I’m not at work — for now.
I was hired as a contractor to work through the first week of March. Then the students went to the plant to support the other unit’s refueling outage. I’ll go back to work about the 8th or 9th of April — the week before classes pick up again. My last day was supposed to be Friday, but that turned into a snow day.
The snow is all gone. Living about 500 feet above the river valley, when we have frozen precipitation, we generally get a bit more than many of the surrounding areas and it usually lasts a little longer. But, still, it’s Arkansas and March, so the snow didn’t stay around long.
I’ve taken about a 5 day break from reading e-mail and looking at blogs… I’ll get back to it. Just taking a bit of a break.
During the last couple of weeks, I’ve been looking at, and downloading, a lot of images associated with the Depression years and the dust bowl. I read a book called “The Worst Hard Time” and found a copy of the old Government propaganda documentary “The Plow that Broke the Plains.” With all of that as a starting point, I picked up a copy of Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath.”
I read quite a bit — and I used to read a whole lot more — but I’ve never been one to get into the great classics of literature. This time, though, having spent some time getting to know the background, this book is an easy and interesting read. I’ve never tried to read it before, that I know of, and I think I would know since the protagonist’s last name, Joad, is so close to mine. (Did I really just use the word protagonist?)
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