Early to rise — and early to crash

shippingport control room small2

It’s been 3 days now of getting up early to go to the fitness center before going to work. The fitness center opens at 5 A.M. and normal working hours begin at 7 A.M. This morning I was at the gym about 10 minutes after it opened.

Tonight, I was sitting in the living room reading and the next thing I know, two hours have passed — I’ve been sleeping. I guess I’ve grown accustomed to a bit more sleep over the last 12 months. I could go to the fitness center after work, but I prefer going in the morning when it is less crowded. On days where I’m in the simulator with the class in the late afternoon and evening, I’ll be going later in the morning.

I’ve spent most of the last couple of days reading procedures. I’ve got two “instructor refamiliarization guides” to complete before I can resume teaching. One is for general instructor and the other is for simulator instructor. Needless to say, the reading is pretty dry — make that very dry!

My first scheduled class to teach is Monday, February 11th.

(Note: The control room in the photograph is from Shippingport Nuclear Power Plant, one of the early plants, no longer in operation.)

training, Uncategorized, work

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • teeni Feb 1, 2008 Link

    Oh, yes, you need to readjust your physical being to the work routine. I hope you catch up on your sleep when you can. You still need it! And that kind of reading could put anyone to sleep. LOL. I was a technical writer and some of the writing I did could put me to sleep while I was working! 😉

  • Rose Feb 2, 2008 Link

    While you are at the gym, I'll be sleeping. 🙂

  • kaylee Feb 2, 2008 Link

    I am with Rose all the way.Getting up at 6:00 to get ready for the bus to come to come get me and bring me to school is early enough. 😉 Of course us teenagers love our sleep…..

  • Catherine L Feb 3, 2008 Link

    Wow – you oldies are not an idle bunch Mike. I'll just be happy if I can get out of bed at all when I get to your age!

    Please explain this to me in English – what on earth is this simulator thing you're in with your class – what does it do?

  • Mike Goad Feb 4, 2008 Link

    One thing about it is that I WILL be sleeping well, just not as long. If I don't, then I'm going to be in trouble.

    @Catherine – The simulator is a training facility with control panels that are functionally identical — from the perspective of the trainees — to the panels in the control room of the nuclear power plant. We use the simulator to train the operators that run the plant. All of the switches, indications, lights, and alarms work the same way that they would in the plant for the same set of conditions, except that they are computer driven rather than being connected to physical systems and components in the power plant.

  • Catherine L Feb 5, 2008 Link

    So, it's a way of letting them learn how to do it but in a safe environment then?

  • Mike Goad Feb 5, 2008 Link

    That's exactly correct. The highest praise we can get is when the operators have some kind of transient at the plant and they say, "That was just like the simulator," or "We were able to handle it because of what we learned in Training." Not that anything happens very often. Usually, the operator's jobs are pretty boring — and we want to keep it that way.

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