Just wanted to check in briefly - and I do mean briefly; it's before 6am Thursday 10/20 and I need to be behind the drill rig up north of Battleground before 7:30.
I meant to post a bit more this month, but on my birthday I made the decision to retire. Or, at least, to begin the retiring process. I'm going "on-call" at my current job at the end of the month. From there it'll be a slow wind-down until I finally hang 'em up completely in five years.
That, in turn, has led to a sort of barely-controlled chaos. What does "on-call" mean? Which of my administrative duties (lab manager, radiation safety officer) do I retain? Do I pass off, and to who? Do I keep a physical space there, or work entirely from home?
So I'm sort of bustling about the anteroom until the moment I step across the doorway into my future.
At THAT point I'll have quite a bit more time, and leisure, and will certainly be here more often.
Until then, though...
I will say this.
I've been a geowageslave for thirty years; almost half my life. Doing geology for cash has been a huge part of who and what I am far longer now than I was ever a paratroop sergeant or fire direction chief. Yet this very blog, and a big part of my own self-image, remains trapped in the amber of the Army of my twenties and thirties.
Yet that wasn't who I was, and isn't who I am, nearly as much as the doing of earth science, everything from monkey-stupid construction work from dirt nanny to overseeing slopes and walls to genuinely challenging slope stability work. Too little of the latter, I'm afraid, but still...when I look at the sort of things that made up my days, the rock and slopes and soils were a lot bigger part than the cannon.
So it'll be interesting to see who and what I become as that daily dirt nanny work recedes. Will the skies change but not myself?
That's in life's next room, beyond the door from this waiting room.
I'm both excited, and more than a bit scared, to open that door.
7 comments:
Thirty years is a long time.
I'm hitting the 30 year mark in my current job myself, though it is desk and writing work and nothing that you can point to and say "I did that, I saved that" like you can.
Rest, and write... it's certainly one of your strong suits.
Time spent in the military is often some of the most formative years for a person and it doesn't surprise me that you return to it... for me, the one day of the year I feel older is not my birthday but Remembrance Day, when I go to see the parade that I was once part of, over 40 years ago now, and see people that I see only once a year... or realize last year was the last time I would see them.
Congrats chief, now you have more time to work on battles (joke/notjoking).
Good luck chief! It'll be nice seeing more of you around.
Thanks! I'm kinda looking forward to having more time to write, too. Both here and (possibly) assembling something from the "battles" pieces for publication.
Chief, if it's any help I graduated with a BS in Geology in '83 and never worked a day in my life as an actual Geologist--the geo-commodities market sucked a lot then. So I became, over time, a civil engineer (not a PE) in the employ of the feds. Lots of work in interesting geo country, and fun--but no time--to spend being a geonerd.
I just retired. Now I plan on spending considerable time with an old truck, the interwebs, and previous geo knowledge and having fun figuring out the conceptual and physical field of geology I fell in love with originally. Should be fun and challenging.
And I am sure you will also find that your civil work--because that is what you have been doing (civil/environmental--to my eye) will inform your impression of what YOU see 'out there'.
Play time for the brain. And a little alcohol and campfire carcinogens to punish it for keeping beans on the table these long years.
Congratulations on at least yanking the power cord good and hard. And in this market you'll have folks calling you wanting you to freelance too.
Spock, * out *
Congratulations Chief! They are I believe in order despite the current (short-term) apprehension; the excitement will hopefully stay!
And may I second many of the people commenting here by pointing out that this could perhaps mean some time for history study and writing, oh I don't know, perhaps some battles or something? :p
And you make an interesting point about the relative presence of the military/civilian life in our minds. I think for most people, military life holds a special place. There are several reasons, but since you mentioned the word "wage slave" (a bit harsh but drives a point), army life is different. I used to tell the younger lads something to the effect that they will have lots of years to waste behind a desk, being a wage slave (didn't use this term) to some boss and then getting stuck in traffic to and from that job only to go queue at the super market; they should stop complaining about army life and enjoy it! Even more so as it stays with you!
And in your case you also had the luck of having an engineering job and a field job at that! Which is why you have at least some good memories and can post this beautiful image from your workplace. Much better than an image of a traffic jam and a desk or even worse, memories of stale bureaucracy, or in a worst-case scenario of say screwing over other people's lives as part of the job. So congratulations as well on two counts of doing (mostly if you like) meaningful jobs (for you and for others!)
Nestor: there's up and down sides to that. When we drive around I point out stuff to my Bride: "See that billboard? I did that. The shopping mall? We did the big box in there. That stop-n-rob? Usta be an ARCO AM-PM; we did that..." and she always comments "Wow. You've spent decades fucking up the Portland metro area..."
I worked for a lot of little firms, and so we did a lot of shitty little jobs. There's a handful I'm proud of. But there's a lot of dross.
But, like my time in service...I went there and did that, had some laughs, and came home sound. Can't ask much more than that.
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