2012 Seven contractors, Four States

2012 was another one of those years in which I was doing a lot of traveling. I worked for 7 contractors in 4 different states. I started the year in Monroe, MI at Fermi Nuclear Plant. For some reason they had us in training for almost 3 weeks before the outage. It was actually pretty nice because it was like a refresher course for my valve technician certifications. I also was able to explore the area. I found a room in a B&B that had a private bath and a refrigerator/microwave. The weird part of that living situation was that the owner was a retired lawyer/crazy cat lady. To get to my room, I had to navigate an obstacle course of a dozen cats, plus all the counters were covered with mouse traps to keep the cats off them. But my room was off limits and there was a washer dryer in the basement, so I was happy. However there was no WIFI so I would have to go to the library every day to check my emails. While there I found a euchre tournament advertised for the following Saturday. Well, I am a bit of a euchre addict and was so excited! The tournament was great and I met a bunch of really nice people who invited me to more tournaments. In all, I played 7 tourneys and won or came in second in 6 of them. I was definitely money ahead. There were also wineries in the area that I visited along with some other females on the job. The job was not all that exciting. We did some valve repair and re-piped some filtration systems. After six weeks I was ready to move on—back to Nine Mile Point in Oswego, NY. Laid off Friday, drove home 8 hours, unpack, laundry, repack, drive to Oswego. For the first time ever I failed a test! Luckily I passed it the second time. My college friend who works doing in-processing actually came into the room and yelled at me. Sometimes it’s hard to focus when there is so much going on. First I was assigned to ISI, (In Service Inspection), in which you put grid patterns on pipe. But the LLRT (Local Leak Rate Testing) crew needed help so I was switch to that. Then an operator on nights wanted to be on days, so I was switched to nights. Luckily, I can sleep anytime and actually prefer nights. By May the job was over and I was back home. Just in time to set the pool up and get the house ready for summer. Summer is traditionally a pipefitter’s busy time. Once again I was sent to Cornell to do a renovations on a dorm, Clara Dickson Hall. The fun part about renovations is the demolition. It is so great to just rip and tear pipes and walls down. You do have to be careful not to get hurt. One secret is to always keep your mouth closed while pulling down things over head. I had to explain that to the apprentice after he got a mouthful of dirty water from a tub drain. I was laid off at the end of July just in time for me to take my daughter Megan to France for 3 weeks. When I came back it was time for the nuclear fall outages. Once again I headed out to Byron, IL where I had been twice before. I was assigned to the ISI crew. My foreman had never done it before and began to rely on me to make sure it was being done correctly by all crew. That is always awkward because I have no authority to tell anyone what to do. So while the ones I did were right, he wanted me to go check on others as well. Towards the end of the job the superintendent asked me if I would go to the next outage and run the ISI crew. But he wasn’t willing to pay me during the 3 weeks between outages. At the same time my friend Gwen, who was working at St Lucie in FL, asked me send a resume to her supervisor who was looking for foreman. I was hired!! I had a week to get there. So I drove home, did the laundry quick step and headed to FL. By this time I had bought my mother’s house in Sarasota, about 3 hours from St. Lucie. I was at St Lucie for 6 weeks before a local person bumped me from my job. During that time I was staying with Gwen in house she was renting. The landlady, Renee A., became a very good friend. She was fun and smart and so accomplished. The last day we had a party and invited all the guys we liked on the job. I had become very close with the Electrical GF, Tom B. I called him Asshole Electrician (AE) and he called me QB. I still see him every chance I get. After the party, Gwen, Holly (another fitter from home that I had gotten a job), and I went to relax in Sarasota. Beach and booze has a very calming effect on me. Unfortunately Brad was calling and I had work in NY. So back to NY I drove to a 3 week shut down at a manufacturing company in Cortland, then a 1 week quick lab renovation at Cornell. The best part about the Cornell job was that an apprentice I had worked with 10 years before was now the GF. It just goes to show that you have to treat people with respect because someday they may be your boss.