Back to the Austerity Budget

Argh.

Okay, so far so good. Keith did indeed get cut from the board that he was working on but fortunately was able to go onto the extra board that they call for yard jobs if someone is sick or lays off or goes on vacation or whatever. There are only a few spots on that board so if they do any more layoffs someone with more seniority will certainly bump him off. Joe came over and helped him navigate the system, he had to look and see if there were any openings in Barstow or Needles that he could bump onto, which there weren't and which was just as well because he didn't really want to have to go live out of a motel in Barstow or Needles. Some railroad guys have to go to other states to find work, living out of their cars or motels if they can afford it, or if you can't do that you go onto the furlough board which is no pay and no benefits. He had to bump one of his friends off of the yard job extra board which he hated having to do, but when the boards get cut, the claws and fangs come out and it's every man for himself. As Joe said, seniority sucks until you get some and then it's great. I asked him if he was in any danger with job cuts, but he has built up his seniority enough to where it would take a national disaster before he would be cut off.

The yard jobs don't pay as much as the road jobs but at least you get to sleep at home and as long as he can stay on the board he should make enough money to keep the bills paid. You only get called when necessary, though, so you could go days and days before getting a call. We got used to having that extra income these past few years so having to go back to the old don't buy it unless it's absolutely necessary thing will be tough but that's the way we used to live all the time, so...at least this time we have Netflix so if we are really bored because we can't afford to leave the house we've got some good TV to watch.

I did shut down my Etsy shop for a bit to do some rethinking about that and to not have to spend any money on it at the moment. I make a lot of sales there but I really don't make any money at it, it basically just pays for itself with a very tiny bit left over as far as any profits go. I've pretty much decided that I need to raise my prices to where I do make some money at it but who knows if people will pay the higher prices. I'm giving myself a few more days to think about it all and then possibly re-open the shop with those higher prices.

Millie has been a bit lethargic lately, I am assuming the meds she is taking make her a bit sleepy. I had to get the pill pocket treats and then open up the capsules of antibiotics and sprinkle the powder into the treats to get her to take her medicine. No way could I get a huge capsule down her throat without causing her trauma and I don't know why they don't give little dogs a liquid form in maybe chicken flavor like they give little kids bubble gum flavored.

I have watched quite a bit of TV lately, it's cold outside and sitting on the couch with a blankie and a remote is about all I feel like doing some days. I just finished watching Last Tango in Halifax, a British show that I really enjoyed and also watched Marco Polo which I wasn't sure if I would like but found quite entertaining. I don't usually like historical dramas all that much but this one had enough intrigue and bloodletting to keep me wanting to see what was going to happen.

New TV And More Space

We did buy a new TV. And a new Blue Ray DVD player, which was only $69.00. Electronics certainly have come down in price since we bought our first VCR (video cassette recorder for you young folks who have no clue what a VCR is). I think we paid about $400 for our VCR many years ago, quite a huge purchase for way back when, but something that we did enjoy for years and years. The DVD player that we replaced with the new Blue Ray was actually a combination DVD/VCR, but the VCR part of it broke a few years back and who wants to watch a scratchy grainy old video tape anyway? I think we paid about $135.00 for that, which we thought was a pretty good price, and again, we enjoyed the heck out of it.

We got a huge TV, 55", so now we can have our TV on one side of the living room and the seating on the other and we can't get over how much roomier our living/dining area is. Plus how wonderful a huge TV with an excellent picture is. The TV was not cheap at $899.00, but we used our Target red card and saved 5% on it, which on a big purchase does make a difference. We also got the fancy wall mount that tilts and moves so that if you want to watch TV from the kitchen you can.

The TV also came with apps available, like Netflix and Amazon plus a bunch of others that we will probably never use. The Netflix and Amazon give you a free month when you sign up but the monthly cost is so cheap that we'll definitely be keeping both of those. So far I am LOVING Netflix, it's so easy to use and has a great selection of TV shows that I would normally have to wait to see until they came out on DVD. I've already started watching The Fall with Gillian Anderson from the X Files, and it's a great show if you  have a chance to see it.

I wish we'd gotten big TV and Netflix a long time ago!

And here is our new improved and much more spacious living room. It's still a work in progress, we are going to give the old TV cabinet to Joe and have been looking at coffee tables now that we have enough room for one, but so far haven't found anything we like. I did find a big poufy footstool thing at Target for $20.00, sometimes I just need to put my feet up which is what I was thinking about a coffee table for, but the pouf will work in the meantime.

We also got a new floor lamp that I just love, we found it at Lowe's after going to three or four other places, and found a new table lamp at Hobby Lobby that has a tilting shade that we also really like. I do like to read and that side of the room is impossible to read in without some kind of lighting. The lamp is great for TV watching, too, just enough light so you're not sitting in the dark but not enough to make a glare on the TV.

Nothing Much

Well, our car is fixed after spending the day in the shop, new water pump and the oil got changed while it was there. We walked back over to pick it up early yesterday morning. The walk was pleasant and the shop was not too far away, but I'm not used to walking all that much so had to take a couple of little breaks along the way. We went to IHOP for breakfast and did a few errands and by the time we did all that walking, eating and shopping I was tired, so not much else got done the rest of the day other than reading a book. And watching Dr. Phil. I've gotten hooked on other people's drama for an hour each afternoon. Always makes your own life seem so much more normal after an hour of rotten teenagers or cheating husbands/wives.

Speaking of TV watching and other people's drama, why is there another story about the stupid Kardashian twits on the Yahoo home page every single day? Sometimes multiple times a day? I really don't care if Kim Kardashian's boobs are hanging out again or she is on yet another honeymoon (and how long until that divorce anyway?) but it does disturb me that I even know who this person is and can actually spell her name.

And more speaking of TV, summer is always such a wasteland on network TV, but I do look forward to Tuesday nights and America's Got Talent. I don't like any other competition type show, but do enjoy this one a lot, mostly because it's more than just singers or dancers, you get to see such a big variety of acts. It is kind of predictable that each episode has to have the hard luck/sob story act that brings tears to everyone's eyes, but it's fun to watch and at least there aren't any Kardashians on it.

A Few Movies and Some Barbecue

Last weekend I picked up a couple of movies from the Red Box, it's been a while since I watched a movie. Instead I've been watching seasons 3 and 4 of Southland, which we originally saw on network TV when it first came out and then watched again on DVD and then couldn't afford to get cable or satellite so we could see whatever channel the new seasons were showing on and then kind of put Southland on hold since we didn't have money to be spending on DVD sets. I did buy myself a Christmas present and got seasons 3 and 4 which come together in a box with season 2 which we already have but since you can't buy seasons 3 and 4 separately, what are you gonna do? Now we have two season twos. I have season 5, which is the final season, coming sometime this week from Amazon, which is where I should have gotten seasons 2, 3 and 4 from since it is much cheaper on Amazon than at Target where I got it. But I did have a $5.00 gift card from Target for buying 2 boxes of something (don't remember what) that I needed anyway. I do love those Target promotions where if you buy 2 or 3 of something you get that gift card. I only buy something that I need, though, nothing that I wouldn't ordinary buy, but have gotten gift cards quite a few times on boxes of canned cat food. It is a trap, though, because when you come back to Target to use that gift card you end up buying a bunch of other stuff, too, and maybe even stuff you really don't need (but definitely want) like seasons 3 and 4 of Southland.

If you have never seen Southland, it is a must, it's probably the best and most realistic cop show ever made and there is not one bad or hammy actor in the bunch. It's not for the faint hearted, though, they don't cut out the cussing that you know all cops do because how could you do such a stressful job without a few f bombs once in a while? And there is quite a bit of blood.

But, back to the movies. I got Fast and Furious 6 because I wanted to see why these movies are so popular, and I don't know because I couldn't get past the first 10 minutes of it. Bad bad bad bad acting. I guess kids watch them for the car chases, but I couldn't even watch it long enough to see one. So, that was a waste of $1.29.

I did watch an Australian movie that had caught my eye a few times while browsing the Red Box selection. It's called The Sapphires and is based on a true story of Aboriginal sisters and a cousin that answered an ad for entertainment for the American troops in Vietnam in the late sixties. The story starts out in 1958 where the group of Aboriginals live on a mission, I don't know much about Australian history but apparently the white people wanted to wipe out the natives, much like we did when we shoved our way into America. Aboriginals were put on reservations or missions and not even considered human beings until the 1970's. Lighter skinned kids were routinely rounded up by the government and taken away from their parents to orphanages where they were brainwashed into behaving like good Christian white kids.

The story centers around sisters and cousins who liked to sing, one of the cousins having been taken away to Melbourne and raised as white. They all get together and form a girl group singing soul and go off to Vietnam to entertain the troops, the 'white' cousin finding her Aboriginal roots along the way. It was a really entertaining movie, I highly recommend it for the entertainment value and the way the story is told, not too sappy, with some humorous moments and excellent acting.

Keith was off work for the weekend, some stuff happened on his last trip out and he is having some more issues with work, once again getting very anxious and worried about getting fired. He is at a meeting right now with the boss to address some issues that have come up, some to do with the lack of good training that the bosses are now realizing is happening to all the new guys, and some with a few mistakes that he's made on the job. He's had a bad weekend, being very worried, and the fact that he stopped taking his anxiety meds is not helping. He has this thing about taking mental type meds, but after explaining to him that taking anxiety meds is basically the same thing as taking meds for any other type illness, and mental illness is just as damaging as any other, he is coming around to seeing why he needs to keep taking them on a regular basis and not just stop because he thinks he is better. I think that some of the problems that have come up in the past few weeks with his work are directly related to abruptly stopping taking his meds, and I think he is seeing that too. Anyway, he is in a meeting right now to discuss his future (or not) with the railroad. We were going to fix dinner at home last night but I thought we really needed something more relaxing, plus I hate cooking, so we went over to the new Dickie's Barbecue that opened up a few months ago just around the corner from us.

I liked the place, the ambiance was very roadhouse/barbecue, and the food gets to you fast, you order at the counter and they put it all on a metal tray, kind of like a lunchroom tray, with a paper liner. You can get a meat plate with either 1, 2, or 3 kinds of meat with 2 sides and a roll for 9-12 bucks. Not cheap but not too too expensive. Or, you can just get a big slab of ribs or whatever and order anything else you want on the side at an extra charge of course. They have ribs, chicken, pork, turkey breast, ham and some more meat that I can't remember. I'm really sick of chicken since that's about all I eat anymore, so I got some ham and some beef brisket and green beans and barbecue beans on the side. Keith got a big rack of ribs and some fried okra and baked potato casserole on the side. The baked potato casserole is basically mashed potato with cheese and green onions, he really like it. I really liked my brisket with their sweet barbecue sauce on it, very tender. The ham was good, but Honeybaked is way better. The barbecue beans are also good. Keith loved his ribs. They also have a soft serve ice cream machine in the corner and the ice cream is FREE! Well, that sold me right there, free ice cream? Yeah!

We would definitely go again, but it is a little pricey for what is basically fast food barbecue, it was a little over $33.00 for the two of us for dinner. I did like that you get your food fast and you don't have to sit and read a menu while waiting for someone to come take your order, plus you don't have to tip a waitress.

So, thumbs up for Dickie's Barbecue!

And here's hoping Keith comes home from his meeting less stressed out and ready to get back out on the road. We did discuss it all and if it does come down to him deciding not to continue on with the railroad, there is a silver lining in that he won't be as stressed out and nervous all the time and won't have to spend parts of his weeks sleeping in a motel in Barstow. We'll just go back to being poor again.

True Crime and Dumb Criminals

We were watching Dateline on Friday night, mainly because there is nothing else on TV at 10 pm on a Friday night and we are old and boring so we watch TV on Friday nights. Anyway, the story was about a woman in Las Vegas who was murdered, cut in half, and stuffed in a trash can filled with bleach. The murderer left her body in her garage in the trash can for a few weeks while he wrote himself checks from her checking account, stayed in her house, and then drove her car to Ventura where he was staying in the Motel 6.

The detectives found receipts in the woman's house from Home Depot showing purchases of gallons and gallons of bleach, a hatchet, drop cloths, and a huge trash can (the biggest one they make) all bought with her credit card. The surveillance tapes show this man buying all this stuff in 3 separate trips on the same day, then driving away in the woman's car with all this bleach and hatchets and drop cloths and the big trash can in the car.

Then, on Saturday we were watching 48 Hours Mystery about a woman in Barstow who went missing under very suspicious circumstances. Again, we are old and boring and watch TV on Saturday nights, too.

They couldn't find a body but did find receipts from Home Depot for purchases of (you guessed it) bleach, drop cloths and a big trash can. No hatchet this time, I guess this killer was a little too squeamish for chopping up bodies. And of course they see this woman's boyfriend on the surveillance tapes buying all this stuff.

So we are watching this and looking at each other like what the hell is up with murderers shopping at Home Depot and then stuffing their victims into Home Depot trash cans? And then being too stupid to get rid of the receipts?

Both killers confessed of course and are now in jail where they belong. The Barstow killer cut a deal and led the detectives out into the desert where he buried the body in the trash can. It would have never been found otherwise, the desert being a really big place with lots of room to bury bodies.

I guess if there weren't stupid killers shopping at Home Depot and then leaving the receipts laying around there wouldn't be stories for Dateline and 48 Hours Mystery to tell.