Job Interviews and Stuffed Animals

Well, Keith did not get the job with Union Pacific, much to his disappointment. He was so hopeful about this job but someone else's day was made much happier when they and not Keith got *that* phone call.

He had gone off to the hiring session expecting to see a few hundred other guys waiting to test and interview and was shocked when he got there and saw only two other people waiting. He thought he was in the wrong place and looked around to make sure he was where he was supposed to be. He was, they had only called five for interviews and two of them didn't even show up. Either they got other jobs first or couldn't get over the mountains to get to Bakersfield, all roads in having been closed overnight because of snow. One of the guys waiting had come all the way from Colton but had come the night before or he wouldn't have been able to get there.

Anyway, no tests were given, they went straight to interviews and while Keith thought he had done okay and only had two other people to beat out, he was told that they would be calling their choice by the end of the day and if he didn't get a phone call then that was it. And that phone call didn't come.

He's been wracking his brain trying to figure out if it was something he said or he talked too much (which he definitely has a tendency to do) or maybe it was the question about if he could pipe weld and he quite honestly said that his pipe welding skills were not good since he hasn't pipe welded in years and he's not good with geometry and the other math skills required for pipe welding. Or maybe it's because he is just too old and while companies are not supposed to discriminate because of age, we all know they do it every day. It's a physically demanding job and maybe they looked at him and decided he just wouldn't be able to do it like a much younger man would.

Whatever the reason, he was so very discouraged but is trying to get back into the looking for a job thing and is off this morning to apply for a fork lift driver job. It doesn't pay a whole lot, but he is a skilled fork lift driver and he'd get to sit while working.

So...

We have been even more bored and house bound than usual, trying not to spend money on excursions or anything, but we did go downtown yesterday afternoon to the little local Natural History Museum. After his interview on Wednesday we were looking for a cheap lunch and went up to the pizza place that offers a (very big) slice and a soda for $3.99 for lunch and while eating I was looking at a little throw away magazine that has family type events listed in it. I saw that the museum had a once a month get in free on the third Thursday thing going and since yesterday was the third Thursday, there we go, a free outing.

Very funky museum however. It's in a real old storefront downtown with three levels of exhibits, lots of fossils and arrowheads and rocks and all kinds of fun stuff like that. And taxidermy. Lots and lots of taxidermy, and no matter what your feelings are on stuffing wild creatures, it is kind of cool to stand next to what used to be a wild animal and see exactly how big some of these creatures are.