Well, Keith passed his test yesterday along with about 25 other people, but they didn't have enough time to interview everyone so he had to go back up to Fresno this morning. But what to tell his boss? Do you go with the honesty route and tell him you are interviewing for a new job? Right after they gave you a raise and a year end bonus? His boss is cranky enough most of the time and who knows if this interview will result in a job offer, so you've kind of got to go the lie through your teeth route and make up some story as to why you aren't coming to work today. When he asked for yesterday off he just told his boss that he needed to take care of some business and didn't elaborate, so this morning he came up with the story that he'd had to go to Vegas to help his mom out with some lawyer stuff and he was still in Vegas. And his boss is probably going 'yeah, right' but anyway that's the story and we're sticking to it. As long as he doesn't go to work on Monday and when someone asks him how it went in Vegas and he says 'Vegas, what are you talking about' everything should be fine.
If he does go further in the process, then he'll have to take time of for a physical and a strength test so there will be more lying involved. But we'll cross that bridge when and if we come to it. They have 12 openings total for the job, but only 2 in the Bakersfield division, the rest are in places like Stockton and San Bernardino, so we'll see. After the initial this is what the job entails meeting all the guys were told to go call their wives because the job could entail being gone for weeks at a time working wherever they are needed and some wives don't like that idea. But I'm fine with it if it means more money coming in.
Speaking of money coming in, our house payment went up just in time to use up any extra money from Keith's raise. Like they knew or something. We have the escrow account that pays the property taxes and homeowner's insurance, and either the taxes went up or the insurance went up, but starting next month the house payment is about $15.00 more. Good timing, that.
Why is it that we are watching the news and they are telling us how fat we are and we need to quit eating so much and don't use salt and then right after that story a commercial comes on for the new mega six kinds of meat super giant burrito at Taco Bell? Because we have no self control and know that we need to eat better, but a mega six kinds of meat super giant burrito at Taco Bell is only $1.25 and that's such a bargain that we should go get one RIGHT NOW! Kind of like the women's magazines at the checkout line at the grocery store where the stories are 'lose 15 pounds by next week' but the cover of the magazine has a picture of a giant ten layer chocolate cake on it.
Showing posts with label bnsf job interview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bnsf job interview. Show all posts
Friday, February 4, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Too Early
Well, after sleeping too late yesterday, now I'm up way too early today. Keith's alarm went of at 4 because he is going in to work today to help unload a coal train, and the alarm woke me up, then as I was almost back to sleep, he made some other noises that woke me up again and I just couldn't get back to sleeping again. So, after tossing and turning for 20 minutes, I figured I might as well get up and get something done today.
Keith liked the idea of getting a motel room in Fresno the night before his meeting with BNSF so that he's not all tired from the drive and trying to take a test and all, so we found a motel close to the big huge expensive one where the meeting will be, saving about $40.00 over the big huge expensive one's room rates. He'll just go straight from work on Wednesday since he'll already be 30 miles up the road. Not much sense in coming home first and then turning around and retracing his route to get to Fresno. So I'll get a night off from cooking dinner!
There are only 2 openings for this job so chances are slim of getting it and I'm pretty sure his age will be a factor even though it's illegal to discriminate against us old people, but discriminate they do and if you can't prove that's why you didn't get a job then the law doesn't make much difference. I'll just keep my fingers crossed.
I was watching TV and reading last night and kept hearing crinkly rattling sounds and here is Buddy with a tail-less toy mouse tossing it around and jumping in and out of his pop up cube. None of the cats play as much since they are all so mature now so it's fun to see one of them actually playing with one of the many many cat toys laying around this house.
Now, time to go clean cat boxes and maybe do some of the house cleaning that I didn't do yesterday.
Keith liked the idea of getting a motel room in Fresno the night before his meeting with BNSF so that he's not all tired from the drive and trying to take a test and all, so we found a motel close to the big huge expensive one where the meeting will be, saving about $40.00 over the big huge expensive one's room rates. He'll just go straight from work on Wednesday since he'll already be 30 miles up the road. Not much sense in coming home first and then turning around and retracing his route to get to Fresno. So I'll get a night off from cooking dinner!
There are only 2 openings for this job so chances are slim of getting it and I'm pretty sure his age will be a factor even though it's illegal to discriminate against us old people, but discriminate they do and if you can't prove that's why you didn't get a job then the law doesn't make much difference. I'll just keep my fingers crossed.
I was watching TV and reading last night and kept hearing crinkly rattling sounds and here is Buddy with a tail-less toy mouse tossing it around and jumping in and out of his pop up cube. None of the cats play as much since they are all so mature now so it's fun to see one of them actually playing with one of the many many cat toys laying around this house.
Now, time to go clean cat boxes and maybe do some of the house cleaning that I didn't do yesterday.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Good Day So Far
I woke up late this morning, like 8:15 and felt like more of a lazy ass than usual, got my coffee and checked my email and got an order for 10 necklaces! $114.00 total! Yay!
So, I went over to Target to get a box to ship them all in and spent part of the money on the box and the usual cat food and some dental floss and then transferred part of it to our saving account because we are on a mission to save save save this year, and my goal is to transfer my paypal money to my savings before I am tempted to spend it on something else but I really did need the dental floss and the cats really did need the cat food. We don't want them to start nibbling on us while we are sleeping or anything because we neglected to buy them FOOD!
Then, when I got home from Target there was a recorded message from BNSF railroad for Keith to check his email for info on a job he applied for. Just like the last job he applied for he has to go to a meeting thing and take a bunch of test and all that, but this time he has to go up to Fresno for the testing. It's for a mechanic position, so we'll see how that goes. I think I might suggest to him to drive up the night before and get a motel room so that he doesn't have to drive all the way up there at 5 in the morning in heavy heavy fog. I tried to call him at work and then hear a phone ringing on the counter where he left his work phone. Oops. He's been staying up way too late this week messing around in the garage with his new saw and only getting like 5 hours of sleep a night and listening to me nag him about how he needs to go to bed already. So he's a little foggy and forgetful first thing in the morning.
Last night he goes to bed at like 10:30 and then comes running out into the living room stark naked, runs into the garage, grabs a notebook, runs around looking for a pencil, all the while with his bare butt hanging out and me staring at him like he's gone completely crazy, and then starts writing up plans for some tool that he's got an inspiration for, some tool that nobody makes yet and will make him a billionaire if he can just figure out the plans for it. Or something like that. No wonder he forgot his phone, all that naked running around late at night, and not enough sleep. And plans to be a billionaire on his mind.
Anyway, a good day so far.
So, I went over to Target to get a box to ship them all in and spent part of the money on the box and the usual cat food and some dental floss and then transferred part of it to our saving account because we are on a mission to save save save this year, and my goal is to transfer my paypal money to my savings before I am tempted to spend it on something else but I really did need the dental floss and the cats really did need the cat food. We don't want them to start nibbling on us while we are sleeping or anything because we neglected to buy them FOOD!
Then, when I got home from Target there was a recorded message from BNSF railroad for Keith to check his email for info on a job he applied for. Just like the last job he applied for he has to go to a meeting thing and take a bunch of test and all that, but this time he has to go up to Fresno for the testing. It's for a mechanic position, so we'll see how that goes. I think I might suggest to him to drive up the night before and get a motel room so that he doesn't have to drive all the way up there at 5 in the morning in heavy heavy fog. I tried to call him at work and then hear a phone ringing on the counter where he left his work phone. Oops. He's been staying up way too late this week messing around in the garage with his new saw and only getting like 5 hours of sleep a night and listening to me nag him about how he needs to go to bed already. So he's a little foggy and forgetful first thing in the morning.
Last night he goes to bed at like 10:30 and then comes running out into the living room stark naked, runs into the garage, grabs a notebook, runs around looking for a pencil, all the while with his bare butt hanging out and me staring at him like he's gone completely crazy, and then starts writing up plans for some tool that he's got an inspiration for, some tool that nobody makes yet and will make him a billionaire if he can just figure out the plans for it. Or something like that. No wonder he forgot his phone, all that naked running around late at night, and not enough sleep. And plans to be a billionaire on his mind.
Anyway, a good day so far.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Itty Bitty Visitor
This morning our neighbor Nathan came over with little William to borrow back some stuff that Keith had borrowed from him, and I was so glad I had just vacuumed up all the cat hair on the carpet so that William could be plopped down on the floor. He's about 8 months or so and is just starting to scoot around, not quite crawling yet but able to pull himself along enough to go see what was in the cat food bowl. Most of the cats scattered as soon as Nathan knocked on the door but both Lucy and Pepper were very brave and very curious as to WHAT THE HECK IS THIS CREATURE ON OUR FLOOR!?!
William had his OshkoshB'Gosh overalls on, and is there anything cuter than a baby in Oshkoshs? I don't think so.
Well, Keith actually PASSED his tests at the BNSF meeting/interview thing, so now he and 11 other people are in the running for the 10 openings. He was there all day long, with first the BNSF guy explaining the job and the drug test and if you are not willing to work overnight shifts and every single weekend for the next 4 or 5 years or you've used drugs in the last year or so, you might as well leave now. Which quite a few people did. Then as the testing got under way, more people left when they realized that they'd never ever pass. Keith said it was the hardest job testing he's ever done and still can't quite believe he passed. He was interviewed and told to wait a few weeks for the results of the drug testing and if they want another interview they'll call. So, he's kind of nervous and will be waiting anxiously for the next few weeks. The training pay starts off at $11.00 an hour for the first few weeks, then goes up a few dollars for another few weeks, then up to $19.00 for the last few weeks. Then after the 9 week class, a big huge hard test on the rule book, which is like a million pages of rules, and if you don't pass you get another try, and if you don't pass that one, you are done and you go home. Kind of like a reality show.
So, if he does get the job, things will be even tighter than they are now, but we will persevere and eat beans and peanut butter if we have to for a while. Maybe we can teach the cats to forage for their food and go poop in the neighbor's yard (the ones whose cats poop in ours) so we don't have to buy cat litter.
He said that a couple of the guys were shaved head type guys so for the hair drug test they had to have underarm hair trimmed off. Ugh, can you imagine having to trim underarm hair from men who have been nervously sweating all day taking tests? What's even worse is that if they don't have underarm hair they have to get hair from even further down for testing. Double ugh.
Nobody got any lunch either, they got a short break after all the tests but there was no place in the hotel where the meeting was that had any food and the break wasn't long enough to go get anything, so all these starving guys were hanging around waiting for their interviews. I'm sure the BNSF people were smart enough to bring a lunch, though.
So, anyway, now it's a waiting game and a saving money game so that we can pay the bills during the even broker than we are now months that will be coming up if he gets the job. But it will totally be worth it in the long run.
William had his OshkoshB'Gosh overalls on, and is there anything cuter than a baby in Oshkoshs? I don't think so.
Well, Keith actually PASSED his tests at the BNSF meeting/interview thing, so now he and 11 other people are in the running for the 10 openings. He was there all day long, with first the BNSF guy explaining the job and the drug test and if you are not willing to work overnight shifts and every single weekend for the next 4 or 5 years or you've used drugs in the last year or so, you might as well leave now. Which quite a few people did. Then as the testing got under way, more people left when they realized that they'd never ever pass. Keith said it was the hardest job testing he's ever done and still can't quite believe he passed. He was interviewed and told to wait a few weeks for the results of the drug testing and if they want another interview they'll call. So, he's kind of nervous and will be waiting anxiously for the next few weeks. The training pay starts off at $11.00 an hour for the first few weeks, then goes up a few dollars for another few weeks, then up to $19.00 for the last few weeks. Then after the 9 week class, a big huge hard test on the rule book, which is like a million pages of rules, and if you don't pass you get another try, and if you don't pass that one, you are done and you go home. Kind of like a reality show.
So, if he does get the job, things will be even tighter than they are now, but we will persevere and eat beans and peanut butter if we have to for a while. Maybe we can teach the cats to forage for their food and go poop in the neighbor's yard (the ones whose cats poop in ours) so we don't have to buy cat litter.
He said that a couple of the guys were shaved head type guys so for the hair drug test they had to have underarm hair trimmed off. Ugh, can you imagine having to trim underarm hair from men who have been nervously sweating all day taking tests? What's even worse is that if they don't have underarm hair they have to get hair from even further down for testing. Double ugh.
Nobody got any lunch either, they got a short break after all the tests but there was no place in the hotel where the meeting was that had any food and the break wasn't long enough to go get anything, so all these starving guys were hanging around waiting for their interviews. I'm sure the BNSF people were smart enough to bring a lunch, though.
So, anyway, now it's a waiting game and a saving money game so that we can pay the bills during the even broker than we are now months that will be coming up if he gets the job. But it will totally be worth it in the long run.
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