Maybe the next generation of aircraft carriers will use coal fired steam boilers rather than nuclear.
3 Likes
Yes!
Back to The Good Old Days!
Sorry. My bad.
I should have been more clear. While I learned a new computer language I had never learned an old one. I knew how to use a computer but never wrote code before.
Previously I could hand that stuff over to someone else. But I decided to do it myself. Steep learning curve but it made me so efficient that there was no way theyād want to replace me even though I was highly paid.
My mom was in her 80s when I gave her an iPhone. She said what the hell is that? I said itās an iPhone. She said I know what it is why are you giving me one? I said just try it. Absolutely refused any help.
Within a few months she was texting FaceTiming streaming audio and movies. You can teach an old dog new tricks.
1 Like
Agree. But Iād hate to work for a railroad. Theyāre in for a surprise.
Did your professor and classmates know you had a photographic memory? I retired st 62 and have no intention of re-entering the work force. When I woke this morning I was going to google something but Danged if I can remember what i5 was a couple hours later.
I donāt think that I have a photographic memory, even though I do seem to retain information very well. While I was in that Paralegal program, I would spend hours, prior to a test, re-writing my notes, because that is the best way for me to cement the info in my brain. Maybe it wasnāt really necessary, but I did it anyway.
I would have spent more years in that new career, if not for health problems. Because all of the stateās ānew hiresā at that point were independent contractors, I didnāt get any sick days or any health insurance.
Luckily, I retained my old health insurance coverage, but without any allotment of sick days, there was no way that I could continue to be employed, so after 3.5 years, I had to resign.
1 Like
Huh? I donāt understand this remark. I made no mention of railroads.
Well whether or not, the ability to retain statutes word for word, read and retain case law, certainly would have been a great asset in this career. Would have put the kiddies to shame. Letās see, did I have breakfast already or not? Iāll ask the wife. 
1 Like
I heard last night from a New York program that the New Jersey train operators are asking for a wage of $190,000 a year. No need to be trained to write code.
The head of NJ Transit quoted the salaries of a couple of engineers who frequently put in seven day work weeks, so they had a LOT of overtime pay. The base salary is $89k, and the actual average salary of NJ Transit engineers is $135,000.
The union is requesting a 17% raise, whichāof courseāis part of the negotiations.
2 Likes
I believe you. Still not bad work if you can get it.
Yes, but itās not without its hazards. This ladyās family probably wishes that she had never become a train engineer:
I think what impressed the DAG the most was when I linked two different cases together because I recalled the alias that had been used by a perp in a case from a few months prior. The stateās old creaky info system was not helpful when it came to things like aliases.
You spent a lifetime in education, involved in learning your whole working life. I dropped out of high school to get a job. After 40 years of trucking or cal mining you are not eager to resume a long forgotten academic role. Overcoming what you have not studied for 40 years seems an overwhelming task.
You say your computer skills were deficient, Minne at 12 years after retirement were non existent. I had never used one or lived in the same house as anyone who had.
I bought a Mac desktop and a Macs for dummies book. It did not help. I did not have the vocabulary to understand it. Little by little I managed to find out how to do a few things with it but I will never become adept because I donāt want to spend the time to learn the vast amount that I donāt know about computers or cell phones. My life is quite busy enough without putting more chores on my plate.
After retiring from 40 years in trucking, I drove a school bus for 17 years. I already knew how to drive a bus and handle kids so no retraining required.
3 Likes
20 to 30 children? Itās also not as difficult during a 20 minute ride on the bus. When I rode a school bus we typically amused ourselves. Teachers have to get their attention for six or more hours a day. In high school and middle school it is for 45 minutes at a time, but they have to do it with multiple classes. As far as handling children while teaching them something, thatās much more difficult.
Here in New England we have a critical shortage of drivers. Many companies are willing to pay for someone to get their CDL And this isnāt counting the critical shortage of school bus drivers.
The driverless trucks will make trucking much more cost effective. And allow even shorter ship times to boot.
Iām in a couple rail forums and they donāt seem to consider driverless trucks a threat. I think thatās whistling past the graveyard.
Rail is the miracle technology from the 19th century.
Trucks are the miracle technology of the 20th century.
Autonomous trucks are the miracle of the 21st century.
1 Like
I agree with oldtimer-11, but on a little different scale, I am a hands on person, let me put my hands on it and I can normally figure it out mechanically, I jumped head 1st into big All-Terrain forklifts and hydraulics for a couple years and figured it out with no formal training for either, but messing with transmissions (hydraulics) helped as well as being very mechanically inclined, and I had a few books that had some good pictures.. lol
But I ALWAYS was terrible in school as I donāt comprehend what I read very well and sometimes not at all, so not everybody is College material nor can learn a new trade very easy or at all, I did happen to be pretty decent at math back in the day, but northing advanced, it all overwhelms meā¦
If I would have been one of the smart ones, I would have ended up being an engineerā¦ But instead I ended up in a blue collar trade, and I was not good at any sports, so that wasnāt an option eitherā¦ lol
I know asemaster paid me a great compliment one time about how I could teach automotive or something like that, but trust me, I would get laughed out of the class room when I went to write my name on the board and spelt it wrongā¦ 
We are not all the same when it comes to learning a new tradeā¦ 
5 Likes