My Job Sucks Sometimes. But Sometimes it Rocks

Most of the time, I enjoy my job as an engineer just fine.  It may not be as intense and exciting as, say, a Formula One race-car driver, but I find the type and variety of the work I do to be interesting, and I have a good balance of working independently and working with others (which, for me, means the ratio is clearly weighted to the side of working independently).

But sometimes, my job sucks.  Working for a consulting company, there are times when things are a bit slow, which is when I struggle.   I absolutely HATE when it’s slow at work.  The days are so long and boring.  Thankfully, over the 12 years I’ve been in the consulting business, there haven’t been very many slow times . . . perhaps half-a-dozen, the longest of which lasted a month or so.  During those times, on occasion, I have actually started listing other career options that I would like to quit my job to pursue.  The list includes everything from police officer, firefighter, bus driver, postal carrier, electrician, welder, power engineer, high-school math/physics/calculus teacher, daycare worker/manager, accountant (like that would be more exciting), astronomer, and personal trainer.

But then there are the times when my job absolutely rocks.  Admittedly, these absolutely rocking times occur less frequently, but I had one recently that I thought I'd share since it occured on the West Coast.

The company I work for was hired by a well-known insurance company that is financing a small run-of-river hydroelectric project.  Our job as the financer's engineer was to provide due diligence services of the design and construction.  As part of our work, once a month, I got to take a small float plane from Coal Harbour to the Sunshine Coast to visit the site and review the construction progress.  Here are a few pictures taken from the three trips I've taken so far.

 My ride . . . a DHC-2 DeHavilland Beaver (produced between 1947 and 1967).

My pilot . . . probably flew the plane when it was new.

Canada Place viewed from the plane before take-off. 

Taking off from Coal Harbour. 

Lighthouse Park in West Vancouver - we've hiked the trails to the lighthouse.

 Landing in Sechelt, BC on the Sunshine Coast.

 Second leg of the trip - up Jervis Inlet to the site.

 Jervis Inlet

The view from the construction road at site. 

Jervis Inlet on the return trip.

It was my lucky day - we saw a pod of porpoises and the pilot circled around so we could get a good look.

The harbour at Sechelt.

Cargo ships in English Bay.

Downtown Vancouver with the Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park in the foreground and Coal Harbour on the left.

Coal Harbour / Downtown Vancouver. 

My job rocks . . . sometimes.