back to work

 

Went back to work Monday, at the Mountaineer power plant in New Haven, WV. I'm working nights, 5+ days a week, ten-hour days. We start at 6PM and work till 4AM. Since it's about 3 hours from home I got a hotel room in Galipolis OH, half an hour from the job. Last night we got rained out before "lunch" (which is at 11PM), so I came home. I have to leave about 2:30 this afternoon to head back to work.

The way a rain-out works on this job - first of all, we're working in a building ...sort of. There is no roof and no walls; it's all steel beams & grating & stairs, so when it rains it's assumed we're smart enough to get out of the rain & go to the break trailers. If there is lightning we are not to return to work until it has NOT lightninged for half an hour. If we show up for work and it's raining and they send us home right away, we get two hours' "show-up" pay. If we work (get out our tools and work), like we did last night, and THEN we get rained out, they pay us a minimum of four hours.

My lovely night off :) consisted of a three-hour drive in pouring rain... then I got home & th'Mr fixed me several drinks, I brushed kitties, I slept in our own bed, woke up around 10AM and went outside to see what was wrong with the tiller --the belt had slipped loose-- fixed that, pulled some ripe radishes YUM, and now I have a couple more hours before I have to leave. There's a good chance we'll get rained out again tonight. If it's right away I'll probably come straight home again, but if it's later, like it was last night, I may just go to the hotel (that's a lot of driving, back and forth). I do like getting to come home unexpectedly!