Monday, April 26, 2010

Happy Day

O.K., everyone can stop worrying, I'm back to working with tools! Most of the work at Chalk Point is done, so I was transferred to Equinix Data Center in Ashburn, Va.(never did get to use that fire extinguisher). It was nice because most of the crew from Chalk also transferred to the same job. It's a whole lot easier to get settled and working when you know people. I've only been in this trade for three years(2 yrs. 10months), and I'm already running into people from past jobs. I've always tried to work with the other trades. We all have jobs to do, and we are all pains in each others' asses. A little courtesy and cooperation may pay off big when the journeyman plumber you helped out two years ago is the plumbers' foreman on your present job.

Anyway, about this new job. It just so happens that we just learned a little about data centers in school. A data center is basically a secure site for digital information storage and it's associated equipment. It's a rush job, so there's plenty of overtime to be had, which is always a good thing. My overtime pay is less than an A journeyman's straight time pay! It's pretty exciting to think that my salary will almost double in a little more than two years. I'm pretty sure that we're offered about twenty hours a week of O.T.. I can only manage about twelve with my schedule. I have an eighteen month old son in daycare, so my evenings are taken up. The crew I'm on is working on mounting electrical panels an equipment to control HVAC motors. After the mounting, we will run conduits to connect everything. Then we will pull wire into the conduits and terminate the ends. It sounds easy when you say it, but I guarantee that there will be plenty of headaches and it will take longer than planned. This job is supposed to be done in the second week of June. I don't see how it possibly could, but it will be interesting to see.
This is very good work to be doing, and I hope I'll get the chance to practice some of the things I've learned.