I live, write, and garden in the PNW with my husband of 27 years, disabled daughter, college-aged son, and my 84-year-old mother. We have paid off $250,000.00 worth of debt (if you include the interest) in the last fifteen years and as of 6/12/2020 are 100% DEBT FREE!!!!I'm having a major case of the blahs. I really don't have much of a desire to blog right now. It's not that I'm letting things go by the wayside. It's just that without an income coming in, I have no goals other than to just get through this until DH finds a job. And with that being unlikely until after the election life is in limbo.
If Trump is elected, there will be more oil exploration and more projects going forward and more oil jobs. If Clinton is elected their won't be, because they won't be approved, unless Congress stays overwhelmingly Republican. It's a fact of the oil business. Republicans favor it. Democrats don't. Isn't that a fun place to be politically? Especially now when I'm losing faith in Johnson and I still don't want to vote for either of the other two. Ugh.
There will still be new projects here, though. So there will still be new jobs in my state, but with fewer openings so more competition for DH. And it is doubtful there will be any new jobs up there where the pay is usually better. We did find out for sure what happened there with Company B.
Company B didn't actually want to hire anyone from Company A at all even though parent company was very strongly saying you need to hire these specific people so things will run smoothly and the transition will work right. We want these people here. So basically anyone that was strongly recommended conveniently had their resumes "lost" on purpose.
DH's former co-workers who did manage to get hired say it is absolute hell up there. A lot of the people who were originally hired from Company A have been let go because they are being blamed for all the problems Company B is having, instead of Company B's complete willingness to be total donkey bottom fedoras and follow what has worked for the last 20 years because their way worked that one time with the small job so it ought to work on this much more massive scale. It doesn't.
I hope it was worth taking the lowest bid from a company that is not delivering and is acting like a snotty college kid in their first real job who thinks they know better than senior management because they did a class project their senior year and got an A on it, but were only hired because their daddy is CEO and can't actually be fired because of an ironclad contract, but is wreaking absolute havoc meanwhile.
In hindsight, I'm glad DH dodged that bullet. As for life being in limbo, I'm not really railing against it like I was before. I'm kind of numb to it. I'm not firing on all 8 cylinders. It's the onset of SADS. I'm using my happy light and I've upped my vitamin D intake. My diet is on track. But I haven't been able to exercise since I hurt my back and that is something that really makes a difference. And I haven't been able to spend time outdoors because of the foulness of the weather and being outside usually helps, too.
I'm sure resignation to wait things out also is contributing somewhat to a less than optimistic attitude, but I won't put pressure on DH. He is working hard on trying to find a new job and puts in hours every day on his job search between running his dad to chemotherapy here and to the follow up appointments and blood draws and the big cancer center in Seattle for other things and doing all the driving for his parents to do their errands since his mom doesn't drive anymore and his dad is so tired out by it.
Hopefully it will shake off with the higher dose of vitamin D starts taking effect.
I've Got the Blahs
October 27th, 2016 at 09:38 pm
October 27th, 2016 at 10:53 pm 1477608791
October 28th, 2016 at 12:05 am 1477613117
https://www.newsmax.com/US/oil-gas-fracking-Democrats/2014/08/12/id/588181/
https://theintercept.com/2016/05/21/top-democrats-ally-with-oil-and-gas-industry-to-fight-colorado-anti-fracking-ballot-measures/
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/09/how-obama-became-oil-president-gas-fracking-drill
After all, the energy glut really evolved under Obama's administration, didn't it? Other forces outside the US also at play, but without a doubt US oil production has spiked in the last 8 yrs.
October 28th, 2016 at 04:33 am 1477629197
Fracking is not really about supporting exploration and construction in the oil industry at all. Fracking takes place on old shale fields, long since discovered. It is simply a new technology used to reach previously unreachable oil deposits. Supporting it is a whole different kettle of fish, really. Not to mention it's horrible for the environment and isn't really the part of the oil industry they ought to be supporting when there is good tech in other areas that is far less likely to harm the environment and not on a permanent basis if it happens to. If you saw how careful they are in Alaska to not damage the permafrost compared to what they do with fracking, or how they are to treat the wildlife they encounter, or that even a spill of anything (a can of soda) on the tundra must be reported for cleanup, you'd be stunned at the difference. The whole culture is different.
The energy glut was a bad thing. It was part of what tanked the economy again. I mean, it was nice to fill up the car for cheap and the propane tank for decent amounts, but overall it was very hard on several industries and resulted in a lot of unemployment. And a lot of companies never passed their savings on to the consumers, but when costs rose again they certainly passed those rises back to us so they could keep getting higher profits. And that glut came from Middle Eastern Oil production flooding our markets, not our own oil. We export almost all American Oil. Only a small fraction stays here as it is actually cheaper for us to buy their oil than to buy our own oil with our trade agreements.
BTW, oil production has only spiked if you use 2007 and 2008, when the economy totally tanked, in the statistics. Those are outlier years. If you go previously, production was much higher before then than it is now. Data sets can be so easily manipulated by the government. They do it all the time.
October 28th, 2016 at 04:23 pm 1477671801
October 28th, 2016 at 10:01 pm 1477692066
Some of the workers find jobs in other forms of construction outside of oil, so they never get reported as unemployed oil workers, since they are working. Some manage to find temp jobs within oil for a little bit, going to North Dakota for a 4 week contract or a 6 week contract. Once you come off temp contracts if you become unemployed you aren't reported as an unemployed oil worker, you're reported as an unemployed temp contractor. They have so many ways to not report it. If you work for one day as something else before your first two weeks of being unemployed kick in you won't be reported as an unemployed oil worker.
ND doesn't offer long term contracts anymore because of the Middle East glut in production. They have to be prepared to shut down quickly every time the Middle East floods the market as it is only profitable to frack when prices are higher. So you'll see 4 week, 6 week, or 8 week contracts there, but no 18 month contracts, no benefits. It's bad, but at least they still pay decently, though not at the levels they were a few years ago and not all of them offer a per diem for temporary housing anymore which they would do for short term contracts before, so that brings the pay lower, too.
October 28th, 2016 at 11:05 pm 1477695939
October 30th, 2016 at 01:45 am 1477791939
October 30th, 2016 at 01:46 am 1477792008
November 3rd, 2016 at 12:24 am 1478132653