I have this idea that we're biologically adapted to forget how much work young children are so we don't tell people about it for the rest of our lives and thereby lower the fertility rate.

One of my goals? A house where I can open the bedroom windows and hear the surf.

You can borrow my children, if you like. Haha...

Keep yer chin up.

This Gulch is my therapy!

Hi Teri. You sound like a real fighter and champion. I can feel the regret, and empathize with it. We can't change the past, only appreciate where it has brought us. If I may, it sounds like you are looking for more reasons to look forward and leave a legacy. Perhaps we can help you here?

LOL. I think you got that right. Reminds me of a little nugget of wisdom my son said when he was 4 years old: "Moving is like going on vacation except you never go home."

Hey Abaco. Fellow engineer here! I wonder, two careers for the same reason as me? I have engineering project management as a day job (still serious career) and sideline business portfolio to create my own Gulch lifestyle. Plus a full family. So I'm tired too, but energized and driven to turn my dreams and goals into reality.
Is your work consistent with your values and moving you closer to your goals and dreams? Or are you thinking that there must be a better way?

Not sure I know those guys. We do some high end oil and gas components in other divisions. We make some special mud pump motors (direct drive) and top drive motors (450 hp, 350 lbs).

My husband used to work at OilGear.

That one is navy power conversion, switchgear and motor controls. Design and manufacture. Very engineering-centric.

Taking care of an aging (but lucid) parent. Husband just got through chemo.
7 days-per-week working at either my fabrication business or restoring our Victorian home.
Up early and to bed early is the only way I keep from collapsing.

Wish I would have had children.

What kind of business?

Yea, I am there and doing that too; tired isn't the word for what I feel, but I do get some satisfaction from being industrious and surviving; something I am not sure I'll be able to keep on doing with all the predictions of doom and gloom, we Are about to experience some dramatic cycles from nature; fraud, coercion and threats of initiatory force from the worlds kakistocracies.
I work all the hours I can get and write every chance I get,( working on my second book) even though it seems to feed the beast and those that do not work, more than my wife and I.
Just when it should have become easier at this stage, I find that I am working harder than ever only to get half as far. Hoping my next book will go main stream and allow me to experience the success of what seems to be my essence.

Being retired is great. Making more now than ever but on my own time with my own choices. Very happy.

Are you enjoying what you are doing? If you are tired from doing stuff you like (and you just happen to like to many different things) then you are not bad off. Play on.

Are you in a period of transition? (Remember G'kar's "Periods of transition intersperse with periods of revelation."?) Are you transitioning from engineering to finance or vice versa? Then grit your teeth and see it through.

But if you are not having fun and you are not pursuing a goal that will let you have fun with life - for goodness sake CHANGE SOMETHING!

Jan

Been there, done that, now 'retired' - got tired of supporting bums!

When I get into the whack-a-mole treadmill of putting out fires, it's hard to get out. I have to find something to energize me not to work more but to find systems I can buy or people I can hire to help. Once I get past a certain level of fatigue, I can't think clearly about the big picture, about how I could help my clients without me personally doing something. I've cycled in and out of this for the past few years, and I'm still learning.

IMHO you need to find some way to change at least one of your two jobs into businesses that can be sold or managed without your personal attention. That is hard, and I am still figuring out how to do it. Along the way you can be thankful you're not one of those people counting on one job and wringing your hands that their employer might be acquired or the gov't might make some program change that shakes up their lives.

Just quit the finance job, working for thieves is pointless anyway and they'll downsize you any day now.

So...what else is new?
When I was in retailing, long hours and working often 7 days a week were the thing. When I got into publishing and had the weekends off, life seemed like a continuous vacation. I'll bet you have goals and you're working to achieve them. I'll also bet that it's not just for the money. I admire you. Keep it up. Remember a motto that I've used ever since I learned it: Ad Asra Per Aspera. "Through hardship, to the stars."

I would like a vacation and not come back! Is that what it means to "shrug"

I am tired of giving what I have to work for to the government.
I am also tired of being hounded by bums almost everywhere expecting me to feel sorry and work for them.
I am also very tired of the entitled mentality that is pervasive today. I see it everywhere. It is very depressing actually. I want to live where these things do not surround me

Traveling every week to Milwaukee to fix a struggling division grown beyond its ability to execute. Got home at 3am last week, midnight this week. Up at 3am on Monday to go back... General Manager pushing back on tough decisions. Very stressful.

Much better than overseeing a layoff/closure though!

The owner came to him in the quarry. But that doesn't usually come with a vacation condo in a quarry.

He loved the sound of Jack Hammering in the morning. Too noisy. Head up to the Francon mansion and chase the owner around the bed room.