I am back in the field again, this time walking transmission lines in the San Joaquin Valley, looking for archaeological sites, hence my non-posting this week. Not that I suspect many people notice, but I can have my delusions...
It's part of the weird ebb and flow of doing any sort of environmental consulting work. One week you are scratching around, looking for anything to alleviate the boredom, and the next week you feel as if you have been asked to do the work equivalent of taking a sip of water from a fire hose. Still, I'd rather have this than long-term unemployment, so there you go.
It does make one's life hard to plan, though. While I typically have an idea of what's going on a few weeks in advance, but it's not uncommon for me to be notified on a Monday that I will be required to be somewhere for several weeks starting Tuesday (though this is less common at my current job). It makes it difficult to maintain a life outside of work.
Luckily, my current project is close to home, so I get to be in my own bed every night. Even when I am not, though, I have had to learn to find ways to maintain some of my normal habits when away - I take walks at night, go to coffee shops to read, listen to podcasts as I prepare for bed, etc.
It's funny, when I tell people that I do fieldwork, they often assume that I use it as a vacation of sorts - time away from home and out on my own. The truth of the matter is, though, that I have learned that it is easier ot enjoy the work if my evenings are as close to normal as possible.
2 comments:
Never fear ,Anthroslug , we notice .
Look forward to your posts.
Gracias.
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