I want to go on the road

[Content1]

Well said RDT

That same argument can be made for joining the military or working overseas.  I have seen nothing here talking of our real motivation for working, traveling or anything else.  We work to make money.  I would say that anyone won the 149 million lottery they would not work 12 hour days 6-7 days a week.  When I am on the road it is just work first and not much time for anything else.  It is like exchanging 3 months of life at a time.  At the end, will you have had a good life to show for it?  Or do you end up mainly alone and you miss your kids or your grandkids moments?  I work and travel because I have to.  It is a duty and I see no glory in it.  We all must work until we either retire or die.

[GLW]

That same argument can be made for joining the military or working overseas.  I have seen nothing here talking of our real motivation for working, traveling or anything else.  We work to make money.  I would say that anyone won the 149 million lottery they would not work 12 hour days 6-7 days a week.  When I am on the road it is just work first and not much time for anything else.  It is like exchanging 3 months of life at a time.  At the end, will you have had a good life to show for it?  Or do you end up mainly alone and you miss your kids or your grandkids moments?  I work and travel because I have to.  It is a duty and I see no glory in it.  We all must work until we either retire or die.

go house somewhere and stop your yapping,...

to the OP:

take the option to organize your life, travel and work, then travel for pleasure, then work some more, then combine them, all the while thanking your Maker that we live in a country where that option is as easy to do as: jump in your car, get on the interstate, show up on time, take some simple tests, go to work, draw a paycheck,...

or,......

you could be this guy (who we all have met somewhere):

stay home with the same old crowd for 30+ years bitching about how you can't wait 'til you can retire for the last 7 years of your career and frankly pissing everybody else off around you who has to listen to your incessant whining about how you're stuck because you have too much invested that you cannot quit and on and on and on,....

good grief already Content1, pick a mountain and die on it, face the adversity of your mountain with a smile and a laugh as you swing your battleaxe and die a good death,...

nobody gets paid to stay at home and watch their kids and grandkids moments,...except maybe Marian Robinson,...

there's somebody around these forums that just spent two years in Cambodia relishing life, learning all kinds of new stuff and oh yeah, I almost forgot,..........working,....

last I checked, he wasn't getting paid 6 figures by the Corps,...

he always writes to us as if he is among the most content folks on the planet,....

to the OP,...good luck, do you what ya gotta do 'cause you gotta live with it....

[/rant]

[Marlin]

It is not for everybody nor for every time of a person's life. But is can be a way to see different places, get away from places you no longer want to be (or that just no longer provide you with enough value) and it can be a far less lonely place than where you are... it is all a very personal decision made for very personal (and widely varied) reasons. Don't assume that your feelings are universal.

The road can be a liberating place to be depending on your circumstances. If you have no reason to be in a particular place at a given time you have a lot of opportunities to stick around the places you go and actually see the areas you work in. If you have a family to go home to, you lose that ability and end up with an outlook on the road similar to yours.

When I am on the road it is just work first and not much time for anything else.  It is like exchanging 3 months of life at a time.  At the end, will you have had a good life to show for it?  Or do you end up mainly alone and you miss your kids or your grandkids moments?  I work and travel because I have to.  It is a duty and I see no glory in it.  We all must work until we either retire or die.

  Perspective is needed here, you are not disagreeing with RDT as much as you are defining your own circumstances. I agree 100% with RDT. When I was a DINK I loved the road and made good use of it outside of work. Now I have chickens, a horse, six cats, two dogs, and a "BossLady" with a house job and am active with local organizations. I am still a job shopper but only locally or one where I am home every weekend.

That same argument can be made for joining the military or working overseas.  I have seen nothing here talking of our real motivation for working, traveling or anything else.  We work to make money.  I would say that anyone won the 149 million lottery they would not work 12 hour days 6-7 days a week.  

That argument could be made but then we are not discussing whether we have to work just the choice. I worked with a tech who wore a T-Shirt that said "Only at sea can a man be free" one may think he is a sick puppy but then we come back to RDTs statement that  "It is not for everybody nor for every time of a person's life."  


"Look on the bright side of life"   Monty Python

[Content1]

go house somewhere and stop your yapping,...

to the OP:

take the option to organize your life, travel and work, then travel for pleasure, then work some more, then combine them, all the while thanking your Maker that we live in a country where that option is as easy to do as: jump in your car, get on the interstate, show up on time, take some simple tests, go to work, draw a paycheck,...

or,......

you could be this guy (who we all have met somewhere):

stay home with the same old crowd for 30+ years bitching about how you can't wait 'til you can retire for the last 7 years of your career and frankly pissing everybody else off around you who has to listen to your incessant whining about how you're stuck because you have too much invested that you cannot quit and on and on and on,....

good grief already Content1, pick a mountain and die on it, face the adversity of your mountain with a smile and a laugh as you swing your battleaxe and die a good death,...

nobody gets paid to stay at home and watch their kids and grandkids moments,...except maybe Marian Robinson,...

there's somebody around these forums that just spent two years in Cambodia relishing life, learning all kinds of new stuff and oh yeah, I almost forgot,..........working,....

last I checked, he wasn't getting paid 6 figures by the Corps,...

he always writes to us as if he is among the most content folks on the planet,....

to the OP,...good luck, do you what ya gotta do 'cause you gotta live with it....

[/rant]

This is a discussion board not a cheerleading board.  You have to expect more than your own point of view.  This is not MSNBC I hope.

[peteshonkwiler]

Do I understand the flow of this thread?  An OP wants to go on the road for his own personal reasons and it's a free fire zone?  That makes as much sense as encountering a free fire zone on a thread where a road tech is inquiring about going house. 

Dagon: yes, you can work 3 or 4 outages a year.  Plan 2 in the spring and 2 in the autumn.  Talk to the people at each job shop and try to schedule the back to back jobs with the same company, if possible.  That will make things much easier on the segue sequence(s).  Save your money.  Tip your bar person well. Give thanks and don't complain too much.

[GLW]

This is a discussion board not a cheerleading board.....

you're killing me,...

Fusion is happening now, next year it will cross over to produce more energy then the costs to produce.   The 14Mev neutron released from the Tritium/ Deuterium (Like in 'Spiderman II') is coming....

We are training the folks for the first 20 Megajoule fusion reactions, watch the news in the next 3-6 months for history to be made.  We are booked for  years to come by researchers wanting to test this technology from around the world.  Sorry to all the Science fiction fans, but high energy lasers are in the x ray range and invisible to the eye.   They all got that one wrong.

cheerleading?!?!?!?!?

please dude, yesterday you're a pom-pom with a keyboard,...

today you're Eeyore doing the ostrich stance,...

.....I work and travel because I have to.  It is a duty and I see no glory in it.  We all must work until we either retire or die.

go buy a megamillions ticket, and good luck winning, sincerely, I think you need it more than anybody I know right now,...

I mean really man, "It's a duty and I see no glory in it."!?!?!?!?!?

oh my word, you travel 'cause the money is easier than working two much lamer jobs at home okay?!?!?

if you were at home working 72 hours a week you'd still be "home" more than you are traveling, but you would be busting your hump to be there, with no finagling a job in Mass. or PA or WA for a shot at $600.00+/week unemployment to kick back for two, three maybe even four months during the summer, because the unemployment office has no clue how to get you an equivalent job to report to within commuting distance of where you live,...

I mean come on already, you've been on these boards a long time, we know about the education jobs and the legal jobs and here you are, a former educator; you can't get a full time gig with good benefits as an educator?!?!?!? you can't get a full time gig with good benefits as a paralegal or better?!?!?!?

c'mon man please!!!!!!

you RP tech 'cause for the coin, being a senior RP tech is good work, with good flexibility in your work environment, and if you're a supplemental and not house you can take summers off!!!!!!!!

please lighten up with all the dearth and gloom about no jobs, and no possibility, and it's so hard,...

you've got other options, if it's so dam lousy use them,...

the OP just wants to know how many outages he can get in per year, are his house quals worth anything, and how to maximize his unemployment,....

which brings up a good question for the OP, is he in PADS and does he have the NEI 14 (15) all set?!?!?!

back to cheerleading,...

[GLW]

Do I understand the flow of this thread?  An OP wants to go on the road for his own personal reasons and it's a free fire zone?  That makes as much sense as encountering a free fire zone on a thread where a road tech is inquiring about going house. 

Dagon: yes, you can work 3 or 4 outages a year.  Plan 2 in the spring and 2 in the autumn.  Talk to the people at each job shop and try to schedule the back to back jobs with the same company, if possible.  That will make things much easier on the segue sequence(s).  Save your money.  Tip your bar person well. Give thanks and don't complain too much.

well, at least the OP now knows there are happy folks and grumbly folks on the road too,...

                       

[Fermi2]

I'm actually looking forward to going on the road.

[GLW]

Do I understand the flow of this thread?  An OP wants to go on the road for his own personal reasons and it's a free fire zone?  That makes as much sense as encountering a free fire zone on a thread where a road tech is inquiring about going house........

There is understanding and then there are BZ's Observations:

BZ's general observation on Internet forums/threads etal, By the 5th post in any thread it starts drifting off topic. By 12 to 15 it has nothing to do with the original topic and if it surives to 30 or so it magically gets back on topic. This applies almost everywhere.

Mike

[HydroDave63]

Do I understand the flow of this thread?  An OP wants to go on the road for his own personal reasons and it's a free fire zone?  That makes as much sense as encountering a free fire zone on a thread where a road tech is inquiring about going house.  

"It's beautiful, man!..."

[Content1]

I mean come on already, you've been on these boards a long time, we know about the education jobs and the legal jobs and here you are, a former educator; you can't get a full time gig with good benefits as an educator?!?!?!? you can't get a full time gig with good benefits as a paralegal or better?!?!?!?

c'mon man please!!!!!!

you RP tech 'cause for the coin, being a senior RP tech is good work, with good flexibility in your work environment, and if you're a supplemental and not house you can take summers off!!!!!!!!

I guess you need to have a post "Political Correctness" rules you can give us so as to not offend the "Superior ideas" you have.  You must carefully never be inconsistent with your previous posts I assume will be a rule.  I will await this posting to insure to not offend.

[Marlin]

I guess you need to have a post "Political Correctness" rules you can give us so as to not offend the "Superior ideas" you have.  You must carefully never be inconsistent with your previous posts I assume will be a rule.  I will await this posting to insure to not offend.

you're killing me,...

cheerleading?!?!?!?!?

please dude, yesterday you're a pom-pom with a keyboard,...

today you're Eeyore doing the ostrich stance,...

go buy a megamillions ticket, and good luck winning, sincerely, I think you need it more than anybody I know right now,...

Please!!!

[SloGlo]

I'm actually looking forward to going on the road.

dood! yinz due that n eye will by the beer!

[Dagon]

Content1   My kids are gone the only tie I have here is my job.  I would never call this place home. The few friends I have are gone.  They hated it here too and found other jobs.  I haven't come up with this plan out of the blue.  I am working on getting my plan together, that is why I am asking for feedback. My biggest problem will be selling my house.

[Dagon]

you're killing me,...

which brings up a good question for the OP, is he in PADS and does he have the NEI 14 (15) all set?!?!?!

I am trying to get my stuff in PADS but the "person in charge here" has not done it so far.  I am studying for the NEI and think it will not be a problem.  What is 14(15)?

[Dagon]

Jesus.  Guess I better figure out how to use the quotes. 

Anyway I am trying to get my stuff in PADS and I am studying for NEI.  14(15) is that the version of the test?

I really want to thank you for all this great info.  Bitching good too, it adds perspective.

[Rennhack]

NEI = Nuclear Energy Institute. 14(15) is refering to 14 or 15 skills needed by a qualified RP technician.  That is not its proper name, see the links below for more information.  It refers to requirements from NEI 03-04 (Currently Rev 8, December 2012) that defines the skills needed.  The 'studying for' you are probably referring to is the NUF, which is also proceduralized by NEI.  There are a lot of links about the NUF on our site, including study guides and practice tests.

15 Skills Power Plants Look for on RP Resumes (Top of the page in the Radiation Safety board).

You can use our Super Abbreviated NUF Study Guide which recently got added to the Library of Congress. Or our other free study information here.

[Fermi2]

dood! yinz due that n eye will by the beer!

I'll be instructing, don't know where yet.

[GLW]

Jesus.  Guess I better figure out how to use the quotes. 

Anyway I am trying to get my stuff in PADS and I am studying for NEI.  14(15) is that the version of the test?

I really want to thank you for all this great info.  Bitching good too, it adds perspective.

Mike is correct about the technical terms, and for reasons I guess are rooted in tribalism the different utilities approach this skill set / modules / OJT-TPE / MS / etc. differently,...

If you need any more help with this please feel free to PM me and I would be happy to assist as much as I can,...

I do suspect your training department can do an admirable job for you,...

As to the unemployment stuff, I'm close to clueless these days, I have not desired to draw unemployment since 1995 and the paradigm has changed a lot, so don't PM me with questions on that stuff,...

An "on the road" alternative to outage work are long term and short term DnD and short term special projects, I keep my fingers in all three, let me know if you're interested,...

Some are great jobs, a few not so much,...

Since I did not see it mentioned before if you are NRRPT and your registration is current the NUF is probably an "oh never mind", unless you enjoy taking different exams within your discipline just to see how well you can do on them,...

stop laughing Mike, every man has to have his hobbies,...

[Marlin]

Jesus.  Guess I better figure out how to use the quotes.  

  You managed to delete one of the switches for the quote box, I put it back.

  To respond hit the insert quote button which you have figured out already, make sure you type outside the quote switches they are visible in the "Post Reply" mode. To add additional quotes just scroll down the thread while in "Post Reply" and hit the quote button on the message you want to add to the box but in this case the box comes up wherever the cursor is so make sure it is where you want the new quote box to be.

[Dagon]

Thank you Marlin.

I just wanted to add another possibility to my flight from Hell.  What if I wanted to live in the South of France and came back to the states to work outages.  How does that work?  I figure some of you must have an arrangement like this.

[hamsamich]

Just keep an address somehow some way in the US.  Friends of mine live in Thailand and the PI.  They also have addresses in the US for things like Unemployment.  When you work an outage next time find someone who does it and ask them, there are  quite a few.

[GLW]

Thank you Marlin.

I just wanted to add another possibility to my flight from Hell.  What if I wanted to live in the South of France and came back to the states to work outages.  How does that work?  I figure some of you must have an arrangement like this.

Not me, but I do know a fella (US citizen) who commutes in from Europe for the outage seasons,...

send me a PM and I'll set up a cyber meeting, if and only if he is willing to that is,...

you know those quasi-Europeans can be a funny lot,....

[Marlin]

Thank you Marlin.

I just wanted to add another possibility to my flight from Hell.  What if I wanted to live in the South of France and came back to the states to work outages.  How does that work?  I figure some of you must have an arrangement like this.

  In the 70s and 80s when there was so much work you could stay busy all year I worked with a tech who worked enough to spend his summers in Ireland and his winters in Australia. There was a tech who lived in Hawaii and did outages for a while and if I am not mistaken also one who lived in France as you suggest. I am not sure that doing the road today would support that, but it has been done.

good luck if that is what you want to do.

Almost forget we all know a tech who took off a year for the Peace Corps    

[Dagon]

I just want you guys to know that I really like my job but when that is all you have to wake up to and when your off hours are just hours, there needs to be a change.  I want my job to be a job and life to be a life.