Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Railroad Jobs and Gift Tags

Keith applied with BNSF railroad yet again, they have openings for 10 conductor positions. I told him yet again not to get his hopes up too much, because what with the 15% unemployment here in Bakersfield, not to mention the 45% in some of the other towns around here I'm sure they'll get a few thousand applications. Plus we found out that if he did by some stroke of incredible luck actually get hired we might have to move to Barstow.

BNSF wants to consolidate operations and move their Bakersfield people to Barstow to save money or something like that and the Bakersfield people are just a little upset at the thought of having to move to Barstow because Barstow is out in the middle of nowhere and who the heck wants to live in Barstow, not that Bakersfield is much better. We found out about this turn of events a few days after he sent off his application, we were watching the news and here comes a story about BNSF families protesting with a picket line and everything out in front of the operations here. Railroad families have a tough enough life what with dad or mom working weird hours and weekends and putting up with furloughs and having to follow the work wherever there is work available and they really don't want to have to uproot their families and try to sell their house in an unsellable market and move out to the desert. And I can't blame them one bit.

Out of curiosity Keith was looking on our kind of outdated California map because who uses maps anymore when you have all that fancy stuff on your car and computers on your phone and people you can call if you get lost, but anyway, he was looking to see what other towns are near Barstow and where people who work in Barstow might possibly live. There is not much near Barstow, Victorville is the next biggest town and about 30 miles away. Or you could live in Hinkley which you may remember as the town where everybody drank the water and got cancer from the movie Erin Brockovich. You don't want to live in Barstow which apparently is the crime capitol of the desert with 'extremely and unusually' high crime rates per capita according to the crime rate web site that I found. I'm sure I've been through Barstow before but don't remember anything about it, but Keith says that it is definitely a sh*thole and downtown is full of gangster looking and homeless looking people milling about.

So. BNSF is supposed to come to a decision next month about all this, but with a big company like BNSF it all comes down to the profit margin now doesn't it?

I made some gift tags and a few bags and boxes in Christmas themes. I wasn't going to list any paper stuff on Etsy because by the time you get done paying the fees to list you don't make much money off of it if it, but I'm also wanting to sell the darn things, so I double listed them on Etsy and Artfire.

Holly Berry and Music Pillow Gift Box Set


Retro kitty cat gift tags


Big Victorian Gift Tags


And some big Poinsettia and Santa tags


I have some more papers for more gift bags and tags but after making these kind of lost interest a little. I've really been having a hard time getting inspired to do much of anything these days, but I'm hoping I'll get creative later today.

3 comments:

PussDaddy said...

The kitty tags are mine.

PussDaddy

PussDaddy said...

And good luck with getting the job.

PussDaddy

Elizabeth said...

thank you puss! I thought that was you!