Taking a Little Break

I made a total profit of about $50.00 on my Etsy shop for the entire month of February, which at least was up from January's $25.00. Ha Ha. So, I'm taking a weekend off from the shop with everything de-activated while I think about what direction to go in. My idea is to offer my cheap to make pins at buy one get one free, so on Monday I'm going to re-open with a bunch of new pins that I'm making this weekend and see if that improves things. I think a lot of the slowdown in sales is because of the ever increasing number of sellers on Etsy, either that or nobody wants my junk anymore.

Who knows, but until I can find some sort of other income or something else to do, I'm bored enough as it is, I can't imagine not having an Etsy shop to work on to relieve some of the there is nothing to do around here thing.

I unfortunately did not win the Publisher's Clearing House $5000.00 a week for life yesterday. Darn.

Keith is getting more and more discouraged about the job prospects in this town after quite a bit of online searching. There really is not much out there that pays more than about $12.00 an hour. As far as we can tell, his unemployment will run out in a few months and I don't know if they are still giving federal extensions, so we may be in big trouble here soon. I've looked to see if there are any jobs for me within walking distance, but not even our two nearby McDonalds are hiring. They are hiring at some of the other McDonalds in town, but with no car and not being able to see to drive at night when I do have a car available (if Keith ever goes back to work and is using the car, that is) it would be difficult to go across town to work. At McDonalds. Ugh.

I checked Walmart's website and nothing open here, either.

Anyway, we are having a gorgeous weather day here, we noticed that all of the trees started blooming a few weeks ago even while snow was on the mountains. I'm looking forward to spring when we save money on heating the house and can actually open a window or two.

I still need to download the snow pictures, it was really pretty when we drove up the mountain, with the rolling hills starting to turn green and  then the snow further up. We should be seeing wildflowers on the hills soon, too. Maybe we'll take a wildflower drive here in a few weeks.

Yes, Still Boring

It's hard to blog when Keith is home all day and it's hard to blog when there is really not much to blog about. We are still  boring and other than a little trip up to see the snow last week, nothing much of anything is going on. He is off right now to see about a welding job that doesn't pay much at all, but he is going crazy (and driving me crazy) being stuck around the house all day. He went to see about a forklift job last week and was told it had been filled weeks ago and they didn't even know that the job was still posted. I'm pretty sure that is what will happen with today's inquiry.

Welding jobs in these parts are not that hard to come by, but companies don't want to pay much more than about $13 an hour for a welder, they are kind of a dime a dozen what with trade schools turning them out weekly and everyone seeming to know how to weld around here. So...

We are so boring that watching Good Morning America has become something I almost look forward to each morning while I'm drinking my coffee. Good thing they don't have soaps on all day like they used to or I'm sure I'd be addicted to those quite quickly.

I really don't feel like making things for Etsy, sales are so bad now that I'm starting to not see the point in continuing even if it is something to occupy my time. The money spent on running a shop could probably be put to better use, though. So, I don't know what to do, really.

I did do a big clean of the house this morning, but being such a small house it really doesn't take all day to clean it. So, what's on TV after I'm done cleaning, ha ha.

 The cats are still being cats, eat sleep poop, eat sleep poop. Bear is kind of liking my early morning couch sitting and watching TV thing, though, she sits and stares at me for a while and then jumps up on the arm of the couch and stares at me some more until I start petting her. And then she bites me if I stop.

Fortune Cookie

The other day we were running some errands and Keith was hungry so we stopped by one of those fast food Chinese places that I won't eat at because I just don't find Chinese food all that appetizing when it's served out of steam tables, actually I don't find Chinese food appetizing regardless of how it's served. I'm always wondering exactly where on the animal the little pieces of fried up meats come from and I am not real big on vegetables, especially long stringy ones like bean sprouts, so the only time I ever eat Chinese food is lemon chicken from the one fast food Chinese place that cooks to order. Which isn't very often.

Anyway, Keith got a fortune cookie along with his chow mein or whatever it was he ordered, and the fortune said that he may get good news soon. Well, the fortune cookies always say something along those lines so I didn't pay much attention to his fortune cookie fortune.

And then the very next day he gets a recorded phone call, a phone call that he almost hung up on because it took forever for the recording to start, but a recorded phone call from Union Pacific that he is invited to come to their next recruiting session and to check his email for further instructions. And that was good news, indeed!

He applied for a bridge builder/welder position back in December and then just kind of figured that he would never hear from them or be rejected, so he was incredibly excited that he may have a chance at the job. He goes to a day long session at one of the local hotels on February 20th to take tests and if he passes those, then on to interviews or whatever they have planned. If it is anything like the BNSF hiring process, it's long and involves a lot of waiting while decisions are made, and then if he passes the first part of the process, on to physicals and hearing tests and drug tests and all that.

Then, yesterday, one day after getting the invite from Union Pacific, he gets a phone call from Volt Temp Services about a resume he had posted on CalJobs a few months ago. They are looking to fill an oilfield pump mechanics position and really liked all his qualifications, so today he is going down to talk to them. He told the girl that he can't take a job just yet, he is waiting to see what happens with Union Pacific, but would still come down to see about this job and if they can wait a month or so for him to see if he is available for it or not.

Then, he gets a phone call minutes later from another temp agency about the same position, and then another phone call from a company that he had submitted an application to about a mechanics job, but after hearing that it is a pretty specialized truck mechanic position, had to tell them that he really wasn't qualified for that. They did tell him to check their website for other positions that he might be qualified for, though.

So, after three months of not hearing anything from anybody except that we aren't hiring now, it didn't just start raining, but pouring!

We are hoping that this is a good sign and that good things will come from the Union Pacific thing, because that is the job that he really really wants.

So, keep your fingers crossed for Keith!

Pink Bubble Wrap

Last week I went to walmart to get some bubble wrap and ended up buying pink bubble wrap. Pink bubble wrap because if you buy the pink bubble wrap, which cost 50c more than the clear bubble wrap, supposedly part of your purchase goes to 'the cause'. I'm really kind of embarrassed that I bought pink bubble wrap because I really hate all the buy my product in the pink wrapper and I'll donate some money to breast cancer research frenzy that goes on every October.

I really needed the bubble wrap, though.

I'd like to see a big company that donates part of their profits to cancer causes all year long instead of just during October.

Anyway.

It's finally cooling off around here. This morning there are actually some clouds in the sky and the wind is blowing, maybe it will blow all the nasty air away. Or just blow some nasty air in from somewhere else.

Keith was very lazy this weekend, which I get a little annoyed at but can't get too annoyed because he does work very hard all week, but there are so many unfinished projects around here that it's hard not to dwell on them, and please get something done already! He did get the lawn mowed and worked on the trees that are infested with worms that are eating up the trees, cutting off the infested branches and spraying the rest of the tree. Then he cut his little finger open while clipping the trees and of course we had no gauze or tape or bandages or anything here to tape up his finger so we had to go buy gauze and tape and bandages. It's not too bad but he did bleed like a stuck pig for a little while there. Then as he's cleaning his finger up we see one of the totally gross worms from the tree stuck on his t-shirt. Ack! Gross!

I just went over to Target to apply again. The last time I applied I got a nice little thanks but no thanks email. I got part way through the computer application and it froze up so I sat there for a while and then the computer goes to a screen that says 'are you still there, press enter to continue' so I pressed enter and it didn't do much of anything for a while and then went back to the beginning, so I tried to start over and nothing, nothing, nothing, and then finally I gave up. The other computer wasn't even working. Sigh. Tomorrow I'll go try walmart again. For the 3rd or 4th time. I feel like it's kind of futile since I am convinced that companies are now only hiring people who have been on welfare or unemployment because they get tax credits for it, but I really need to find a job soon.