Every hand has heard it from somebody who has never been out here.
"Must be nice. Half the year off."
Nah. That is not what you are looking at.
The work is not the expensive part. Plenty of jobs are hard. Plenty of guys work in weather and come home filthy and wore out.
What you are actually getting paid for is everything that happens while you are gone.
The birthday you watched through a phone propped against a lamp in a camp room.
The funeral somebody held a phone up for.
The furnace that quit at 2 in the morning on day 11, and somebody else dealt with it, because what else were they going to do.
First day of school. Anniversary. The game he got two hits in. The wedding you sent money to instead of showing up to.
That is the invoice. That is what is actually on it.
And nobody out here is asking for sympathy. We signed the ticket. Most of us would sign it again tomorrow, because this trade took guys with no degree and no plan and handed them a house, a truck, and a way to take care of people.
But when somebody calls it easy money, they are only counting the half you are home.
The wrench is not worth six figures. Anybody can learn the wrench.
The time is worth six figures.
Call it good money. Call it hard money.
It was never easy money.