Of Crippling Injuries and Gaelic Stubborness, a Soliloquy
Well, working a security detail this weekend wasn't the brightest idea I have ever had. Even with braces on both legs under my 5.11s all weekend, I still wound up aggravating my knees to the point of winding up back on crutches. Tis Tuesday, and I am now off the crutches, but still need bracing and a cane to get around (and I need not tell you how old that makes me feel). Feck. Feck feck feckity feckfeckfeck...
At this point, it's looking more and more like my doctor's first assessment was correct- I need to move from PSD work into being an instructor. I have years of training and experience, the certs aren't that hard to get (just takes time), and I enjoyed teaching when I did it in WA after I got broken working for the state (are we seeing a pattern here? I swear, I am neither fragile nor foolhardy, I just push it too damned much. Though, in my defense, the incident on AD which left me in my current state was because of a dumbass staff sergeant who went off-road in ice and snow against common sense and protocol, so that wasn't my fault), so it's not all bad. I hate working desk jobs, but teaching isn't entirely desk-bound duty- there's dynamic entry, room clearing, convoy deployment and evac, detail formation, and range training that all take place out and about- so it's a good compromise in the long run. It's just hard to shift from what I have done my entire adult life- literally the past 18 years- and move into something else. Old dog, new tricks, you know the drill :-)
Oh well, not like I can get any more decent gigs regardless. After this, my beloved wife went into an overprotective frenzy and told me- in no uncertain terms- that I am hereby not allowed to take any overseas contracts- not in Iraq, not in Afghanistan, not in Kosovo, not in Kuwait, not even in Qatar, where the greatest threat is death-by-boredom watching dirt. So, that limits me to western hemisphere contracts (Colombia primarily if I hook up with the Bulot Group, a PMC out of Fort Worth specializing in counter-cartel operations and training) or domestics, which pay a lot less ($350 to $450 a day as opposed to twice that in Iraq and Afghanistan), so monetarily it also makes sense. I can make decent money as an instructor and- except for the occassional catastrophically stupid or inept student- won't get shot at :-)
Of course, this means my mother is right yet again, since she said she knew I would always wind up teaching... >.
At this point, it's looking more and more like my doctor's first assessment was correct- I need to move from PSD work into being an instructor. I have years of training and experience, the certs aren't that hard to get (just takes time), and I enjoyed teaching when I did it in WA after I got broken working for the state (are we seeing a pattern here? I swear, I am neither fragile nor foolhardy, I just push it too damned much. Though, in my defense, the incident on AD which left me in my current state was because of a dumbass staff sergeant who went off-road in ice and snow against common sense and protocol, so that wasn't my fault), so it's not all bad. I hate working desk jobs, but teaching isn't entirely desk-bound duty- there's dynamic entry, room clearing, convoy deployment and evac, detail formation, and range training that all take place out and about- so it's a good compromise in the long run. It's just hard to shift from what I have done my entire adult life- literally the past 18 years- and move into something else. Old dog, new tricks, you know the drill :-)
Oh well, not like I can get any more decent gigs regardless. After this, my beloved wife went into an overprotective frenzy and told me- in no uncertain terms- that I am hereby not allowed to take any overseas contracts- not in Iraq, not in Afghanistan, not in Kosovo, not in Kuwait, not even in Qatar, where the greatest threat is death-by-boredom watching dirt. So, that limits me to western hemisphere contracts (Colombia primarily if I hook up with the Bulot Group, a PMC out of Fort Worth specializing in counter-cartel operations and training) or domestics, which pay a lot less ($350 to $450 a day as opposed to twice that in Iraq and Afghanistan), so monetarily it also makes sense. I can make decent money as an instructor and- except for the occassional catastrophically stupid or inept student- won't get shot at :-)
Of course, this means my mother is right yet again, since she said she knew I would always wind up teaching... >.