Monday, March 9, 2009

Cold Monday....again

Today it's in the lower 40's and raining. Over the weekend it was very warm, but rained like mad pretty much non-stop. Arrgh this weather will make ya nuts, but it's typical Ohio. I was hoping to start the new coop, but I'm not really a fan of working in the rain. Maybe it will clear up later in the week. I really hope it does, I need some motivation.

Between this weather and the layoff, I've really gotten myself into a funk. I don't want to do a lot, I lack motivation, and I just want to sleep. I'm trying my best to fight it, but it's tough. I want to start the coop, but the weather sucks. I want to work on Lisa's sewing room, but the money for drywall isn't there. I want to work on preps and a BOB, but there's that money issue again. Ughhhhh why couldn't this have happend in the summer. I'll come around soon, just hopefully before Lisa has to kick me in the ass to get me started.....


I talked to my boss last week, and he things I may be coming back in another week or 2. They're getting a few jobs here and there, but they're all small. His intentions are to bring me back into the office, and start up the inspection and service department. I'm really hoping that works out, I miss doing that since the old company went bankrupt 5 years ago. I like the challenge, I like going different places every day, I like not carrying tools every day. Again, I'm hoping it all works out in the end, but I'm not holding my breath.

I've looked every day in job classifieds since the layoff. Unless I want to be a paralegal or dental assistant, there's really not much out there. The sunday paper usually has 2-3 pages of jobs listed, but the past several weeks barely had 25-30 total. I've called on a few, only to be dissapointed by the pay scale. One was to a horse farm. They wanted someone to do maintenance, cleaning, painting, etc. Sounds good right? Maybe something I might enjoy? Well...I call and talk to someone for 10 minutes about duties (which I can more than handle), then find out the job starts at $8 an hour. Wow. I havent worked for 8 bucks since I was a teenager. I called another about groundskeepers at a local BIG golf course, the one where they have the big Tournament of Champions every year.......$8.50 an hour. Garden center help-$7 hr, Construction labor-$8 hr. I called one this morning for outside sales for a major tool & equiptment rental company. I guarantee that I know the workings of these machines more than any other salesman they have;c'mon, I USE them every day. But....I have no sales experience other than retail in firearms 13 years ago, so they aren't interested in talking to me. I've posted a few tools on craigslist to sell or trade, but have gotten very few responses. I'm going to the garage one day this week to go through more to list and try. I gotta do something.
Well......other than my being depressed and worried over this whole mess, I'm working on some other things too. Last week I brought home another rifle. I had bought my sister a .22 Marlin wayyyyy back in the Woolworth days, I was probably around 20. She's shot the thing *maybe* twice, and it's been sitting ever since. After a 2 hour phone conversation last week, she told me to take it. (its out at mom & dads) I had completely forgot what it was, but I got it when I went to visit last Friday. It's a Marlin 25, .22 bolt action with the detachable box magazine. It need a sling kit installed, and a scope, but for now it will do just fine. When I went to visit my uncle on Saturday, he showed me a couple that my cousin had brought over 10 years ago. There was a nice Ithica 37 featherlight 20 guage, and an Interarms MKX (98 action) in 30.06. Apparantly, my cousin doesnt want them, he just brought them to my uncle to "hang on to". One day this week I'll call my cousin and see if he wants rid of them. My uncle told me to just take them, "after 10 years, they're mine" lol, but I'll ask first. They'd make nice additions to the cabinet here. I'll soon be bringing home dads 700 adl in .222 remington as well. I plan on heading out with the neighbor to shoot coyotes one of these nights, and this will do the job just fine. I already have a bipod and 6.5-20x Leupold that will make fine additions to it, so it will do well for varmints too. (IF I can find somewhere to go now) Plus, I'm working another .22 from someone off CL. He has a very nice old Marlin 75 with scope and sling that I want, and he may trade for one of the drills I am trying to sell. We need the cash, but this would make a great little first 22 for Lisa. He's supposed to get back to me this week and decide, so we'll see. I'm also gonna work on the neighbor sometime again, and try to talk him out of the 3030 Marlin he has that hasn't been fired in 20+ years. I know this isn't the best time to get back into gun swappin, but somehow I'm happy to get back into it, and won't spend a dime out of pocket.
Well.....enough for now. I gotta go take care of some of my house-husband duties, lol. I'm actually in a bit of a better mood now that I got to sit here and vent......

7 comments:

Aimee said...

Good luck with the job search, or with keeping your spirits up until your old boss calls you back. I know, when my husband started looking for work in our new town, we were shocked at the low wages being offered ($14/hour for a certified master mechanic? c'mon!). But companies won't pay more than they have to, and there are plenty of people willing to work for peanuts right now. They got no choice.
The weather doesn't help. We got snow today. I want spring!!!

Leasmom said...

Chris, you'll make it. It is hard. I worked at a job for 2 yrs making only $20 a day f or 4 hrs of work. It was delivery job and it was humiliating esp. since I have a Bachelors degree. I kept trying to go on interviews and the only one that called back was a scheme that wanted ME to pay THEM $100 for an insurance license so I could work for FREE and MAYBE go further with them. Yeah right! Keep busy, look for scraps online on craigslist and go into the scraps business temporarily to keep yourself busy. Good Luck!

Chris W said...

I was thinking of scrap patrice, but the price of scrap has went way down in the past 6 months. I know guy who scrapped all the time and have stopped since the money barely covers what they spend in gas. Something will come along, but for now I'm actually considering a REALLY early season yard sale, lol.

Barb said...

Chris, I know it's hard right now, just remember...your job (or lack of one right now)doesn't define who you are as a person. Keep true to yourself. You're a good person.
Barb

littlegreengardengal said...

Sorry to hear about your tough times. I enjoy reading your blog, and I sure hope things look up for you soon!

Melonie said...

Heya - just wanted to thank you for the great comment on the new blog and for Following right away. Would love to see you tell the online meeting story some time; I think that's awesome! :-)

As for the work issue: hope things get better for you soon. At some point it may come down to "anything is better than nothing", but hopefully you'll find something paying worthwhile before then. As for the gun swapping - I say if you're swapping and there's no cash going out that is better spent on other things, hey - whatever keeps your spirits up. Sounds like the neighbors and family have all sorts of little treasures they are willing to part with. Fun stuff! :-) I tend to do the same thing with books. When times are tight and I can't buy new ones, I go through and see what my friends and family wanna trade with/for. It's all good. It keeps us going and keeps us from grabbing some plastic and being stupid about debt. ;-)

scoutinlife said...

Goodluck my friend it's hard I was there about 9 months ago looking for work! I took a job making far less than I have in years but you must do what you have to to survive. Enjoy the break trade and deal in guns or other resources make a bit extra cash on the side..... Your in my thoughts and prayers.

Scout out

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