Greetings,
Since 1975 I have been calling home all the most beautiful places I have had the opportunity to live and earn a living. I have been in every state, including Alaska and Hawaii, some longer than others. Some, not long enough, others too long. I have met the best and the worst of the two-leggeds in my travels while the oceans, mountains, lakes, trees, rivers, animals, and birds made up for any lacking qualities of civil-ized, industrial-ized, and popul-ized regions. On my visits back to the area I was born and raised it is often a melonchaly departure. I do not know my birth family as well as most, I have no friends-for-life, so to speak, they do not know me as well as they once had. On the other hand, there is not enough time and space to convey all that I am thankful for. The richness of my relationship with my own immediate family, who has been with me, is my greatest reward of the profession I have chosen. The 'ruts of life' most people at home have become en-meshed in do not effect my personal life, the small minded gossip which seems to occupy most dinner tables never finds an audience at ours, the life I have witnessed has definitely offered me a much more positive, can-do attitude, (even when others may think I am on the brink of destruction and failure) I know the next day may be better, the next job or contract may be the one to put me back in the saddle. Once you have established your references and made a few solid contacts you might be better able to get on some of the larger projects which will afford the chance to semi-settle down, for three to five years at a time and put away a little money.
Like I said, there is not enough time and space for me to elaborate on what this industry has given to me in terms of slf-esteem, love for my life and family, visions and dreams for tomorrow. Even when the money has been lean, or stolen, the advantages and strengths it has constructed in the person that I have become has made it all worth the struggle. And I am sure most of the people in this field and present here at the 'Bar' today can testify to the nay-sayers in their lives as they made the decisions to persue a viable existence in this business and the personal gratification when seeing most of them today with problems in their 'stable' lives that I could never accept as worth it, not to me, anyway. Likewise, if most of the ones who stayed at home knew even the smallest fraction of hard-times and life threatening situations I have been through, they would then surely KNOW that , yes, I am crazy!!!
I think, most people in this industry could not have been happy anywhere else, most did not set out looking at the 'bed of roses' in their future, I think most just knew they could not be happy if they didn't give it a try, some made it and stayed others decided it wasn't for them. But at the least, you will learn and develop a trade and craft THAT WILL PROVIDE AND OFFER YOU A WAY OUT OF ANYTHING THE 'OTHER SIDE OF LIFE' MAY BE DEALING YOU.
I have said way more than I intended. I hope you understand what the opportunities and travels provided by this industry has given to me, and Oh Yeah,....the money is phenomenol........some times. I wish you the best, give your best. and if your check is not there this week, leave! Try not to ever let anyone get into you for two checks, that is the whole point of a nomadic business, the money, and if you have someone that doesn't understand that, and is trying to get you to hang in there til the next pay period, it is obvious- they either know nothing about this business, or they are a lying criminal piece of crap which will only bring me happiness when I see them in the obituary.
Home is where the heart is, I am able to pick the most enlightening and beautiful places and surroundings to cultivate that heart. Just depends on what you are looking for in your pleasures. I spend most of my free time hunting artifacts, North, Central, South American, and Hawaiian artifacts, stone tools, pottery, and arrowheads. The pleasures I've found with my wife and children in this pursuit are another story, completely! I wish you the best in your travels.
Later, Petergunn.
'Where there are no alternatives, there is no problem.'
