The life of a country field tech.

[jonezy999]

Well what a week. Thought I'd have a little rant.

1800 KMS & 17 jobs in 3 days
2 motel rooms
3 tanks of diesel
2 broken small gauge allen keys (MP5000 cleaning web grub screw)
3 counter meals
1 pie spilled down the work pants while driving (burns)
2 hangovers
4 dodged kangaroos, countless lizards and snakes
?? coffees and smokes

And its Friday, I hope the customers are happy. I know their machines are.

[TonerMunkeh]

Re: The life of a country field tech.

Well what a week. Thought I'd have a little rant.

1800 KMS & 17 jobs in 3 days
2 motel rooms
3 tanks of diesel
2 broken small gauge allen keys (MP5000 cleaning web grub screw)
3 counter meals
1 pie spilled down the work pants while driving (burns)
2 hangovers
4 dodged kangaroos, countless lizards and snakes
?? coffees and smokes

And its Friday, I hope the customers are happy. I know their machines are.

Got any jobs going? Beats the piss out of this place!

[jonezy999]

Re: The life of a country field tech.

Got any jobs going? Beats the piss out of this place!

Well Mr Monkeh, I'm sure you know a good tech is hard to find. Especially here.

I love my job, pity the surf was blown out on my way home.

[fixthecopier]

Re: The life of a country field tech.

OK you win, I will quit whining about taking 20 minutes to get home from work and taking an extra 5 minutes to pick up food on Friday. And those calls that are 10 to 15 minutes apart. When will it ever end?

[TonerMunkeh]

Re: The life of a country field tech.

Our area covers a good portion of the North West. Our system dispatches calls automatically so I can be at one end of our area and then get sent to the other, then back again. Best part is the engineer that was across the road from where you're on your way to is now on his way to the same building you just left. It does happen on a regular basis. 140 miles between calls you say? 5 calls a day you say? Suck my balls.

[BLADE]

Re: The life of a country field tech.

you can shove the motel rooms up the ars! nothin beats going home

[Akitu]

Re: The life of a country field tech.

Picture a 4 hour long drive on a nearly perfectly straight highway with nothing to see but trees, trees and more trees. Oh yeah, and the pavement randomly breaks off for extended patches because the road heaves in the winter and destroys the pavement. Also, did I mention the trees? The biggest challenge isn't psyching yourself up to go do the 1 call that's cleaning the MUSIC sensors in a low end Ricoh machine, the biggest challenge is staying awake while passing by so many of the exact same trees. I've almost run myself off the road many times struggling to stay awake while seeing absolutely nothing but trees.

It's not that bad when you happen to see some wildlife, but that's very seldom. Even the animals can't stand how dull the highway is... The other day while on a somewhat shorter 2.5 hour trip in the other direction I found myself in a freak snowstorm so bad I could hardly see 10 feet in front of me, before I know what even happens I had a bird of some sort kamikaze dive bomb my windshield. All I heard was thud before I struggled to both see in front of me through the snow and the newly added mess of this dead bird's last s*** all over my windshield... Also, did I mention the trees?

[coolbeer]

Re: The life of a country field tech.

I cover the whole of England, Wales & Scotland, average 1000/1500 miles per week, but at least the senary changes. we have hills, bends and sheep, and off course the odd fruit cake to look at. Better off than stuck in an office or factory all day. As long as the hotel has a bar its all goooood!

[DWise]

Re: The life of a country field tech.

Well what a week. Thought I'd have a little rant.

1800 KMS & 17 jobs in 3 days
2 motel rooms
3 tanks of diesel
2 broken small gauge allen keys (MP5000 cleaning web grub screw)
3 counter meals
1 pie spilled down the work pants while driving (burns)
2 hangovers
4 dodged kangaroos, countless lizards and snakes
?? coffees and smokes

And its Friday, I hope the customers are happy. I know their machines are.

You dodged snakes? I swerve to run them over... There's not much that I hate worse than a snake. The only kind of snake that I like is a dead one.

[Akitu]

Re: The life of a country field tech.

You dodged snakes? I swerve to run them over... There's not much that I hate worse than a snake. The only kind of snake that I like is a dead one.

Don't hate snakes, they kill morons. Most of them won't even bother a human... Shame that people dislike something because they never bothered to learn about them. Not saying that's you, just a general statement.

[Jude]

Re: The life of a country field tech.

Try NYC sometime! It's a jungle. Park my car at queens, take the LIRR to Atlantic center, dodge the bums and thugs, take the number six to Bowling Green station, walk three blocks through urine and vomit to Broadway, stop for a pretzel at street vendor, take the elevator to the 33rd floor. Then take the 6 to Herald Square, walk the two blocks to Penn. Do a call at Seventh Avenue. Have a slice at Angelos. Take the A to Wall Street, take the subway to Atlantic center, to Lirr back to car. On the way back, do three calls then Drive 40 miles on the southern state in two hours back to my country club estate on Long Island in time for 8 o'clock dinner.

[Akitu]

Re: The life of a country field tech.

Try NYC sometime! It's a jungle. Park my car at queens, take the LIRR to Atlantic center, dodge the bums and thugs, take the number six to Bowling Green station, walk three blocks through urine and vomit to Broadway, stop for a pretzel at street vendor, take the elevator to the 33rd floor. Then take the 6 to Herald Square, walk the two blocks to Penn. Do a call at Seventh Avenue. Have a slice at Angelos. Take the A to Wall Street, take the subway to Atlantic center, to Lirr back to car. On the way back, do three calls then Drive 40 miles on the southern state in two hours back to my country club estate on Long Island in time for 8 o'clock dinner.

That doesn't sound so horrible... I have to drive 8 hours to get a giant pretzel.

[gwaddle]

Re: The life of a country field tech.

Try NYC sometime! It's a jungle. Park my car at queens, take the LIRR to Atlantic center, dodge the bums and thugs, take the number six to Bowling Green station, walk three blocks through urine and vomit to Broadway, stop for a pretzel at street vendor, take the elevator to the 33rd floor. Then take the 6 to Herald Square, walk the two blocks to Penn. Do a call at Seventh Avenue. Have a slice at Angelos. Take the A to Wall Street, take the subway to Atlantic center, to Lirr back to car. On the way back, do three calls then Drive 40 miles on the southern state in two hours back to my country club estate on Long Island in time for 8 o'clock dinner.

No offense Jude, but there is no amount of money that would get me to live there and do what you do. I'll stick with my 100 mile drives in the country to clean someones optics.

[MR Bill]

Re: The life of a country field tech.

Yes Jude. You can have the big city . I did calls in Seattle , Wash. lots of times. Not near as bad as NY city. But bad enough. I'm now over on the other side of the state. Drive 90 miles sometimes. Great mountains , rivers and trees too . My problem is trying not to have a deer jump on my windsheild or me driving off the road cause I'm watching eagles .

And yes, the snakes ?? Depends on which ones I guess. Most snakes eat mice and other rodents. I leave them alone and they leave me alone. I love spiders too.

Have a nice drive everyone.

[PASTech]

Re: The life of a country field tech.

Ok, so we have to travel deep into the Boreal Forests of Mid-Northern Canada. In summer we have to take a 2 hour open fairy on a lake, in winter you get ice roads. You drive 2 hours to travel 150kms and then you drive another hour to travel 10kms on ice. Dodging the volcano like ice heaves where water is spewing out or the ponds that the Highway department make by drilling holes in order to add a new layer of ice on the 'road' to make it stronger. Then up on a cleared, but not gravel or paved road, which is only a road because it is frozen solid with snow on it. There are random left overs of the cleared brush and trees on it that you have to miss. This is all without mentioning the 2-3 foot high random ice heaves in the permafrost. Best to take those incredibly slow. Finally you made it to the remote reserve out in the middle of absolutely nothing and you fix their machine and head out.

At least it is an exciting trip, can't fall asleep, there is to much to pay attention too. And don't forget the random moose who figure your there to fight them for the females and decides to run at you, and realizes what you are just in time to dart back into the woods. EEEK.

Oh and then there is the crazy salesman drifting around the ice corner laughing maniacally , as your white knuckles start cracking from being chapped by the cold of winter and the interior pressure of your heart beating faster than when you run 100m sprint.

That is the life of a Wilderness Tech...

And what if you vehicle breaks down...There is no one coming or going...you'd better bring your extreme winter survival gear.

-40C or -40F is not oncommon and usually -10 to -25 windchill added on....BRRRRR...chills me just thinking about it


On every road going out of town

This is exactly waht the roads look like


And the What if keep coming....