One of the greatest things about my job change last May was that my travel went from roughly 60% to almost non-existent. It has been fantastic to not miss all those little things with the kids that I was depending on my wife to provide the parental face for. She definitely pulls more than her fair share of that still but I have been FAR more available to participate in my kids lives over the last 9 months. Before last week I think I had made a three day trip to New York, and 2 or 3 overnighters in that entire 9 month period. I think that is what is making last week and next week feel so painful.
Last week I spent Monday through Thursday in Greeneville, TN at a company safety conference. Very enjoyable, great hotel, learned quite a bit, but still much harder than a 4 day trip was just a year ago. Having got out of that routine, it was VERY hard not to come home to a wife and family every night. Combine that with a buffet for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and the associated impact on the scale upon my return) and you have a depressing trip. I did have my highest mileage running week since my race last fall but that was not enough to offset the additional calories from an "I can resist anything but temptation" buffet table.
Next week I fly to Paris for a company meeting. Since this is a bit nicer location than Greeneville, TN, I am trying to stay on the positive side and focus on the experience. It will be very hard to enjoy the "experience" however, without my wife. Spouses are welcome to come along for this meeting and I invited mine but all with an air of reality that there are 4 little ones that we can't just dump on someone, during a school week, while I drag my wife to the other side of the world. I have done this kind of trip in the past, Hungary, Spain, England, without my wife but somehow Paris is different. I feel like my wife should be with me on my first trip there somehow. Nothing I can do about it now I guess, other than to promise her that someday she and I will visit these locations I enjoyed so much... plus others.
So this post has no real theme other than the joys and frustrations of travel, for business, not pleasure. It is most definitely not one and the same.
But for now, any of my French friends have suggestions as to what I should try and see on Monday the 3rd? I arrive late morning and will have the rest of that day to go sightseeing before my meetings the 4th through the 6th. So, if you only had one afternoon.... what would you go see? And don't say the Eiffel Tower, because that, I am saving for my wife...
Showing posts with label job. Show all posts
Showing posts with label job. Show all posts
Monday, February 25, 2008
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
A Month and a Half of Happenings
OK, once again I have fallen pray to the "I'll get to it tomorrow" bug so often afflicting my blogging. Of course, it has been quite the month for me in terms of life changes... So, here it is, a recap of the last month and a half highlights.
First of all, I have started my new job. I am working for Imerys. It is a French performance minerals mining company. I am working in north Georgia for their marble mining facilities. So far, so good. That is all the direct details I will give on the company as I have promised myself not to discuss work matters on this blog. I haven't had to travel since early April (at my old job) and I am really enjoying that aspect of this change. The 50min to 1hr drive each way is tiresome but not the end of the world. Sure glad I'm driving a 4 cylinder rice burner but even with that I am averaging about $40-50/week for gas.
Next, I won, I mean Caleb won, the cub scout rocket race. Hey he chose the design and colors... OK, I'm a bad father having to do it myself so he won't "mess it up" but if you know my competitive side, hopefully you understand. The directions said that 3 rubber bands is ideal, so that is what I used. I was shocked that every other contestant was competing with two and sometimes only 1 rubber band. I'm sure this had a major roll in CALEB's victory. The other element of the directions that I followed and others didn't was to lubricate the rubber bands. Many of the other dads, I mean kids, didn't put anything on their rubber bands and most of them ended up dropping out of the competition due to running out of rubber bands. At least one father tried to lubricate his with WD-40 which is actually a solvent, not a lubricant, so it ended up eating through his rubber bands before the first turn of the propeller. Now for the G rated nature of this blog I will not list the exact lubricant I used on my rubber bands but suffice it to say my ASTRO rocket GLIDEed beautifully! Hey, it worked didn't it? I am SO DEAD when Jamie reads this!!!
And the third event of the last month worth discussing is of course, my running. I ran another 5k road race on Memorial Day. It was my first official event since the race I ran last September that I blogged about. My goal was 25 minutes but unfortunatlly I didn't make it. My official time was 25:33. I guess I can't complain as I did cut about 4:20 off of my time last September. I think I would have came close if the urge to use the restroom hadn't hit me at about the 2 mile mark but I will not use that as an excuse. My first mile was ~7:30, the second ~8:00, that meant that my last 1.1 miles was around 10:00 which is way slow for me even with pinched buns. I do think it is the hardest I have run to date. My earlier blog about a sub 25 minute 5k was, I'm sure, treadmill assisted.
As for my weight, slow and steady progress. My lowest weigh-in to date was 209.8 but I'm sure that was dehydration assissted as it was right after a morning run. My weigh in this morning was I think a little more representative, 213. With any luck I will reach that 210 mark by the time I come out west in July to see many of you who read this blog. That is my goal.
I look forward to seeing everyone in July. Hopefully my blog about that trip won't be my next post...
First of all, I have started my new job. I am working for Imerys. It is a French performance minerals mining company. I am working in north Georgia for their marble mining facilities. So far, so good. That is all the direct details I will give on the company as I have promised myself not to discuss work matters on this blog. I haven't had to travel since early April (at my old job) and I am really enjoying that aspect of this change. The 50min to 1hr drive each way is tiresome but not the end of the world. Sure glad I'm driving a 4 cylinder rice burner but even with that I am averaging about $40-50/week for gas.
Next, I won, I mean Caleb won, the cub scout rocket race. Hey he chose the design and colors... OK, I'm a bad father having to do it myself so he won't "mess it up" but if you know my competitive side, hopefully you understand. The directions said that 3 rubber bands is ideal, so that is what I used. I was shocked that every other contestant was competing with two and sometimes only 1 rubber band. I'm sure this had a major roll in CALEB's victory. The other element of the directions that I followed and others didn't was to lubricate the rubber bands. Many of the other dads, I mean kids, didn't put anything on their rubber bands and most of them ended up dropping out of the competition due to running out of rubber bands. At least one father tried to lubricate his with WD-40 which is actually a solvent, not a lubricant, so it ended up eating through his rubber bands before the first turn of the propeller. Now for the G rated nature of this blog I will not list the exact lubricant I used on my rubber bands but suffice it to say my ASTRO rocket GLIDEed beautifully! Hey, it worked didn't it? I am SO DEAD when Jamie reads this!!!
And the third event of the last month worth discussing is of course, my running. I ran another 5k road race on Memorial Day. It was my first official event since the race I ran last September that I blogged about. My goal was 25 minutes but unfortunatlly I didn't make it. My official time was 25:33. I guess I can't complain as I did cut about 4:20 off of my time last September. I think I would have came close if the urge to use the restroom hadn't hit me at about the 2 mile mark but I will not use that as an excuse. My first mile was ~7:30, the second ~8:00, that meant that my last 1.1 miles was around 10:00 which is way slow for me even with pinched buns. I do think it is the hardest I have run to date. My earlier blog about a sub 25 minute 5k was, I'm sure, treadmill assisted.
As for my weight, slow and steady progress. My lowest weigh-in to date was 209.8 but I'm sure that was dehydration assissted as it was right after a morning run. My weigh in this morning was I think a little more representative, 213. With any luck I will reach that 210 mark by the time I come out west in July to see many of you who read this blog. That is my goal.
I look forward to seeing everyone in July. Hopefully my blog about that trip won't be my next post...
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Times, They Are A Chang'n
Today presented a rare moment in my life. It is the type of day I hope to have very few of in what remains of my 30 some-odd years of scheduled employment. When I started this blog I made a personal commitment to never write specifically about my job or my coworkers. I have written about the joys of travel but never the work itself. Today I will discuss another element of work that I feel remains true to that pledge but touches on the periphery. Today, I quit my job!
For some of you this is not a surprise as I have told you about my situation and the opportunity that presented itself to work elsewhere. For others of you may be a bit shocked. I, of course, am not going to name either my current or future employer but I will say that it is a return to the mining industry I left 2.5 years ago. At the same time, I don’t have to move as the site is roughly 40 miles (50 min drive) from my current home. I may move a bit closer in the next year or so but there won’t be the mad scramble or months of separation that sometimes accompanies a job change. The new job will be less than 10% travel, at the mine site (can you say "blue jeans and no more corporate politics!?") comes with a nice kick in pay, and a killer bonus package. Suffice it to say, I think I will be happy.
The hardest part about leaving a job for me is actually breaking the news to my boss. This morning was no exception. If you know me, you know that outside my twin brother, I will avoid confrontation AT ALL COSTS! I will watch scary, gorey, or tense scenes in movies and on TV without batting an eye but you put someone in an uncomfortable or embarrassing situation that he has to deal with… I will change the channel so fast it would make even my channel happy father’s head spin. Luckily, I don’t think I caught my boss completely by surprise based on some recent changes in our department. So, although he was disappointed, I think he was somewhat mentally prepared and I was able to avoid the actual “confrontation” I feared.
As I explained to too many people today, although I see myself as a very loyal individual, I first and foremost need to be loyal to my family. I have traveled enough over the past few years and I am sure my wife is excited about me being home more often. We have been praying quite a bit about this decision and I think this is the right path for us. Since making the decision to move forward I have had a comforting peace in my heart and the path has been smooth.
For those of you who want the juicy details, I guess you will have to either give me a call or wait for July when we fly out that way for Mom and Dad’s 50th…
For some of you this is not a surprise as I have told you about my situation and the opportunity that presented itself to work elsewhere. For others of you may be a bit shocked. I, of course, am not going to name either my current or future employer but I will say that it is a return to the mining industry I left 2.5 years ago. At the same time, I don’t have to move as the site is roughly 40 miles (50 min drive) from my current home. I may move a bit closer in the next year or so but there won’t be the mad scramble or months of separation that sometimes accompanies a job change. The new job will be less than 10% travel, at the mine site (can you say "blue jeans and no more corporate politics!?") comes with a nice kick in pay, and a killer bonus package. Suffice it to say, I think I will be happy.
The hardest part about leaving a job for me is actually breaking the news to my boss. This morning was no exception. If you know me, you know that outside my twin brother, I will avoid confrontation AT ALL COSTS! I will watch scary, gorey, or tense scenes in movies and on TV without batting an eye but you put someone in an uncomfortable or embarrassing situation that he has to deal with… I will change the channel so fast it would make even my channel happy father’s head spin. Luckily, I don’t think I caught my boss completely by surprise based on some recent changes in our department. So, although he was disappointed, I think he was somewhat mentally prepared and I was able to avoid the actual “confrontation” I feared.
As I explained to too many people today, although I see myself as a very loyal individual, I first and foremost need to be loyal to my family. I have traveled enough over the past few years and I am sure my wife is excited about me being home more often. We have been praying quite a bit about this decision and I think this is the right path for us. Since making the decision to move forward I have had a comforting peace in my heart and the path has been smooth.
For those of you who want the juicy details, I guess you will have to either give me a call or wait for July when we fly out that way for Mom and Dad’s 50th…
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