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?)
Filed under training, work
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.)
I’ve not started back to work on the contract job yet. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I’ll probably be out there sometime next week — perhaps.
The real surprise is that it’s occurring at all.
Three years ago, I was in a situation where I really needed help to get everything done that needed to be done. One of the options that was attempted was to bring back another instructor who had retired a couple of years earlier. He would be a contract instructor, much like what I will be doing.
It never happened.
A couple of years later, I happened to run into the man they had wanted to come back as a contractor. He said he had been willing to do it, but after they had initially talked to him, he hadn’t heard anything from them. I subsequently found out that they had not been able to get approval for hiring a contractor.
My contract manager — the guy used to be my boss — called me today about documentation on some of my qualifications, so things are apparently still moving ahead. It appears part of the problem is that recent restructuring has reduced the number of people in the corporate office that looks at contracts from eight people down to one part-time employee who only works three afternoons a week. I’ve heard that other departments are having similar problems.
Maybe Monday. However, I’m planning on going to the bi-weekly retiree breakfast. (They’ll get a kick out of this run-around.)
I’ll have my cell phone with me.
……Previous posts on this (most recent on top):
That’s right. The funding for my contract was approved. I start next Wednesday. It’s a 26 week gig, 40 hours a week.
The money is good — a bit less than I was hoping for, but more than the minimum I would have accepted. No per diem as it’s a local job. Of course, this is in addition to my pension, plus we won’t have to touch our investments this year.
With this “bump” in my plans, I won’t be spending a lot of time trying to monetize my sites for a while.
related posts:
A couple of days ago, I posted BIG BUMP in the road for my online plans…. perhaps and there were a number of comments wondering what the heck was up.
Opal already knew as I had mentioned it was a possibility a while back, so I asked her not to give up the secret. (Thanks Opal for the comment… it was perfect!)
Oh and the picture on the post — the same one I’ve posted here — did apply very specifically to this situation.
I’ll use Teeni’s questions and my answers for part of an explanation…
- Just what is this all about? Just wait an opportunity
- Will you tell us soon? Likely so right now
- How much longer do we have to wait? Not Long now
- Is it good? Depends on the perspective, but in many ways, yes for me, yes
- Are you getting a new job? Not really.. It’s doing some of the parts of my old job that I really enjoyed, with people I know well, and with very good compensation, so it’s not really a new job — plus, it’s only a limited engagement.
- New camera? Don’t need one. N/A
- New computer? Don’t need one, but there might be something about it that brings one. I’ll have to have a computer and access into the company’s network to do the work. It won’t be my computer, but it’ll be assigned to me.
- New travel plans? There is some travel involved, but it’s not far. The travel route is virtually the same as I’ve done well over 1000 times over the years and most days it will be over, under or near the Exit78 overpass.
The main thing I am waiting on is approval for the funding and it’s at the VP level right now. They’ve already got me on the schedule — which I have a copy of — for a week from this coming Monday.
More later!