There, I’ve got that first week under my belt, even if it was a short one. I was right too; it is going to take me a bit to get back into the swing of being busy all day. I’ve done it before and I can do it again, but I’m fairly well wiped out tonight after three days of sitting in the office. But it was a busy sitting, for once.

I do see that I’m going to have to pace myself. My instinct is to dive in with as many feet as possible and get off to a good start, but that might raise the bar too high for later on. Once I get this site completely ironed out, a process I expect to take about six months, my day-to-day duties are going to be fairly light. And I don’t want them to compare that with a ball of fire earlier and decide that maybe I’m not worth my nice shiny pay rate after all.

But it’ll even out. I have enough to keep me fully occupied for a while, and once I start getting out in the field (next week) my pace will come back to me. I’m quite used to doing field work in the morning and coming in to write things up in the heat of the afternoons.

It is weird to have all of these people around though. My old office has only had the four of us regulars for several years now, and it’s funny to see new faces. I knew some of them before, which gives me a head start on names at least.

And I like my new office. I’ve got it all filled up already, and I can see that I probably won’t have enough bookshelves or room to put them even if I scrounge them. My manager rolled me down a chart table yesterday, that takes up much of the free space when I open it, but I’m going to need it.

I have an enormous shopping list going too. The smaller stuff may get bought this weekend, but I’ll wait to get a ladder and a shop-vac and a truck-mounted valve-actuator until I actually need them. But I have begun the search for the perfect tool belt, as it’s becoming clear that I’m going to have to be dragging my equipment into some awkward places. It’s surprisingly hard to find the right tool belt - they all seem to be made for carpenters, and I’m more of a plumber. Yes, it makes a difference. My tools are mostly longer.

And yes, I might model it for you, if you ask nicely, perhaps with a nice ensemble of steel-toed boots and hard hat?