u/CrustierGnuXII

I only got like an hour to decide, lol. I have a deployment opportunity to africa for 9 months. I want to go so badly and Im actively discussing it with my wife.

At the moment, Im a reservist who sent up a package for conditional release to active recently and yet to hear back. Im obligated for reservist due to a bonus I took for it.

I've been to this deployment before when I was active after dodging Japan deployment and it was non stop work for me and gym time. Might I say, best time to be in the Marine Corps is being deployed.

My situation is tough since Im waiting to see if HQMC is even going to accept me going active since I have 1 year left till my obligation is over and going to active after is guaranteed. I dont want to regret missing this deployment if HQMC doesnt take me back in until my obligation is over.

I hate being a reservist who has to fly out to a different state. I lose out on 200-300$ since I miss out on a friday(and my job pays more) to drill and I get only about 6-10 hours of total sleep time during the 3 days. And Im f*king dead the whole week Im back and it affects my work productivity. Lastly, reservist do f*king nothing but train 80% of the time. Tired of all the SAPR, BITS and dumb training. Also my duty station isnt really known of being moto as well and the lack of go getters pisses me off.

The biggest concern is my child. Ill be here for the first 3 months but then Im in another state for 3 months after and deploy for 6 months. So about 9 months in total away from my kid. My wife is a big girl and can handle it and we have family and friends willing to help. Although, I miss out on his first words, his first steps and, first Christmas. I come back possibly same month of my kids 1st year b-day if I can delay his b-day celebration until later. But thats if my deployment doesnt get delayed.

I won't have any big regrets since if I go and come back. Im prioritizing them when Im active. I just need out of the reserves.

TLDR: Missing out for the majority of the 1st year of new born. Money, career preference, parent experiences were discussed. Will eventually go active for the full 20 years. 8k a month so wife can be stay at home for kids 1st year.

I have gotten 3 quotes for water heater install for a tank unit in SoCal. They were all ranging from 4k to 6k for a 40gallon unit. Is that normal?

I understand this is a commission job as all these expenses add up. The costs include: 15-30% for tech, cost of unit, delivery, technical exerience, and service/install. Am I missing anything else?

I understand this is usually a 2 person job and they have tools normal people dont which may add extra expenses but how come I cant find anyone who is able to do like 1k for service and I buy the tank and they only take care of service but like 3k in all not including unit, does that make sense?