Things to look forward to

Well 3 books down and 2 more to go until night school. School really slowed down my class but we've finally made it. I kind of glad we're done with our more OSHA dominated curriculum, and I'm hoping to see some more theory and technical stuff and I'm pretty anxious to learn about motor controls. But most of all I can't wait for the upcoming raise when I transition from a 2nd year to a 3rd year in a few months. This will be my biggest raise up to date. One cool thing is I was so focused on the 3rd year raise that I completely forgot about the contractual raise that just kicked in. So that was a little nice surprise. Lastly I'll be transferring in August. It was cool to learn fire alarm but I'm looking pretty forward to taking on some new and old responsibilities. I can't wait to see what the up coming months bring I just hope things continue the way they've been going.

My thoughts on fire alarm

I've been in Mona's Life Safety division now for about 9 months and it's definitely been different been different from my previous construction job experiences. We have generally been replacing old systems so I've been in nothing but exist businesses during business hours. Working around finished carpets and walls and clients means you have to be a lot more conscientious of your environment so not to be intrusive or disruptive. The crews also seem a little more reserved than what I become accustomed to. I think as an electrician though fire alarm has really helped further my understanding of circuitry. In fire alarm you have to be able to identify characteristics of circuits pretty easily in order to function. Mishaps such as ground faults, reverse polarities, missing devices, troubles and dreaded false alarms that dump the building can easily turn a good day real bad. Right now I'm trying to make the best of my time here and absorb as much as I can but every now and again I do miss being surrounded by nothing but concrete and guys you might not find in an office building.

Life after work

I think I'm finally adjusting to this new 8 to 4:15pm work schedule. I used to be home around 2:30pm everyday and be able to lay down, go to the gym eat maybe watch a little tv play a game or 2 and it still felt like my day after work went by fast. Now I'm home usually around 5:30pm and now time really flies. At first I'd just lay down or chill and relax and before I knew it, it was bedtime. I recently started to go to the gym on the way home from work and try to avoid the little nap, and also cut down on the tv and computer time so my days are starting to feel a little more balance.

Rough Month

The past month it seems like I been out of it. At work it sometimes feels like I'm just going through motions, days just drag on and I can't tell the difference between Friday and Monday. Not exactly why that is I'm sure getting off at 4:15pm oppose to 2:00pm and getting home with just a few hours before bedtime has a little something to do with it but o'well that's life. Through I do find when I'm allowed to just work on my own plan my own pipe runs and things of that such the day does go by much faster. Hopefully some warm weather or something will help me pick things up :-\

Unpected Pay Cuts

It feels like the expenses that we least expect hit us the hardest. I couple of months ago I ended up out of work for about 4 days due to tonsillitis. And let me tell you there's no worst feeling than seeing that check or should I say lack there of the following week. This week I'm sure a lot of people are having a similar experience as I am once again. I happen to be working on a job that starts at 8am which is blog worthy in it's own right. Well this snow has heavy impacted our schedule and I haven't been to work since Thursday. I've been able to make due but over the past few years I've really learned the importance of tightening my belt and having back up plans in case of situations such as these. I hope everyone is safe and maintaining out there.

Easy Money

So I think today might have been one of the easiest days of my career. You know you're in for a treat when you're foreman says nah you don't need your tools but you might want to grab your ipod and some headphones. This morning for the first time I did something called a load bank. In nutshell you hook the generator up to these massive heaters that you can adjust the wattage on and slowly increase the load until it is at 80% of the generator capacity and hold that for 3 hours. Well basically what that amounts to is hooking up some heaters, sitting in a lawn chair and getting up every so often to turn up the heat lol. On a side note I must say I'm pretty pleased with the diversity of work I been seeing with Mona. During the week I work on fire alarm which is pretty technical and a specialty not every mechanic can say they have training in. And on the weekend I usually do prevent maintainenance which consist of tightening and clean panels, switchgears transformers, disconnects and all that that good stuff. The work can get a little mindless sometimes but the overtime is great and I get to see different equipment set ups in a variety of different buildings from old to new. I think if things keep up I might end up a pretty well rounded journeyman in 3 years.

Practice Makes Perfect

So last week finally came of course some of my favorite work which happens to be running pipe. It's been a couple of months so I was pretty excited to show myself because I consider myself pretty decent when it comes to pipe. Everything started off nice and smooth than for some reason I came across a back to back 90 that I just could not get right. At first I thought maybe I measured wrong and after the second one came up short I started feeling a little pathetic. Than after bending a 90 and having it come up a little short I said OK somethings off. Well after taking a look in my trusty pipe bending text book I realized I was measuring centers the whole time instead of back to back. I had a little duh moment with 90s you always have to measure from the back of the bend and if you measure centers you have to account for the diameter of the pipe. I didn't have a problem with my saddles or offsets so it just goes to show how just a little lack of practice can make something so simple so difficult. I was kind of a good reminder for me though to stay focused and not get to complacent.