The job

Wednesday, I was looking for jobs like I've done just about every day. I found this job posted on Craigslist and emailed them back. It was a flagging/traffic controller job (not a mind blowing job, but well paying). I got a call back within 4 hours or so telling me to meet Thursday to do paperwork and training. Thursday afternoon, I head to Rutland to fill out the paperwork. Of course, I'm the only girl and probably the oldest of this bunch. As a rule, we have to watch a video as part of our training. Now I know you think flaggers are just people who just turn their sign from slow to stop and try not to get hit, but it's a bit more than that. It's not rocket science, but communication is important. Knowing when the road crew is out of the way in order to send traffic is probably the most important. (duh) Anyways, the head guy told us he wasn't sure where we were needed for Friday yet, but that he would call us in an hour or so. In a couple hours, I got a call that we are needed in Southern Vermont. I'm to meet up in Rutland at 4am to carpool down past Brattleboro and work for the day. That means that I had to get up at 2:30 and leave by 3:15 from Orwell to get to Rutland. Thankfully, I was tired and went to bed by 7:30-8:00pm.

On Friday, I get up, head to Rutland, carpool down to Wilmington, Vermont which was devastated (not the best word to describe the total destruction of a town) to be told to head to route 112 in the town of Halifax where we would be working. The road has become a major thoroughfare for people traveling from Bennington because a major bridge there was washed out, as well as being right on the border of Massachusetts. The road was a one lane road right by a river and about an eighth of a mile of the road was gone into the river. We worked there 12 hours (6am-6pm), then headed back to Rutland, where I got home around 9:30pm or so. Long day.

Saturday, same thing. 12 hour day. Saturday seemed to go by faster because we had many trucks coming to our worksite to dump instead of just passing through to go to other sites. Here are pictures of my worksite:


The worksite- 6am Saturday



closer view- Saturday am




Here's some pictures of the river right next to the road-

After the numerous dump truck loads throughout the day, here is the result-

Saturday, 6pm

They weren't finished, but they had done such a great job just in 2 days! Just before we left, the foreman told us that we didn't have to be there until 6:30am and that Sunday would be a shorter day. I was happy about that, since the commute was killing me. I don't mind the job, just the commute. So I left my house at a bit after 4am and met up in Rutland to head down. It was a pretty good day- quiet and not much traffic. It started to thunder towards the end of our time, but we kept working. We stopped at 2:30 and headed back to Rutland. I told the guy that I commute with who is kind of a go-to guy for the flaggers that I couldn't work Monday. I was tired and needed a day off. I told him that the job wasn't the problem, just the commute. (it really isn't a hard job, but I do enjoy my 8 hours of sleep...) I was upfront and told him that if I couldn't have it off, that I would have to quit. So here I am, enjoying a day off.

My boss hasn't given me or anyone a schedule (a bit sketchy, but it is an emergency situation) but I'm thinking I'm going to work 3 or 4 days and hope to have a day off. There's tons of work, including work not far from where I live and I hope I get to work a lot closer. And no, I'm not going to make flagging my life work. It's just something to help pay my bills while patiently waiting for a teaching job. And it makes for a good story.