Doh......
 

They decided to sell the engraving shop I am running for them. The week of Christmas they are shutting it down. No more Laser.... Now I got to go back to their construction company. Which means traveling again. Much less time for projects and, well, life....

Bah! Back to welding, fabricating, installing and crew leading in the cold of winter and the sun of summer from Washington to Florida. Oh well, good while it lasted. Larned a lot of stuff while I as here.

Bummer! Well at least you still have a job!

Yeah I guess... With this job I will not have time to do anything else though. Will be on the road most of the year including weekends. Which means the weekends I have free will be spent with the kid, which means no play time on water cooling stuff.... I will make a couple more blocks during Christmas week and that maybe it for my water cooling adventures...

That's sad news jaydee:(

The new owner wouldn't consider keeping you as experienced personell on the job?

Dammit

I talked to them this morning and they are not selling it. Just shutting it down and moving some of the equipment to the construction co. Looks like the end of the line for this business. It was started in 1883, kinds a shame to see it go... I knew something was up when they pulled all the ads and fired everyone but me. :D

1883???

Buy 'em a vocabulary and highlight the word TRADITION.

Dammit again:rolleyes:

Yeah over 100 years. It was one of the first business in Spokane. The problem is to much competition and lack of business. The last 6 months has been pretty bad. A lot of our main customers have gone out of business or went with one of the on-line out fits. Oh well... Another thing is the owners do not understand what advertizing is. I just got a call from a sales person wanting to change our phone service and told them were were shutting down soon. They said they lived in Spokane for 10 years and never heard of the company before and I told them that's one of the reason we are shutting down. :D Been here over a 100 years and no one knows we exist. :rolleyes: Bah...

Going to suck getting back into the construction mode. Going to have to get re-certified for welding and get back into shape. First few jobs are going ot kick my ass. :D

that sucks man. good luck with the new job. ever considered trying to find something else in the area so you don't have to be roving around the country all the time?

i understand the benefits of being loyal to a company as well, so i can't entirely blame you. and job security has its merits as well :)

There are no jobs available in this City. I would move but my daughter is here. Not much I can do right now. Only jobs I could get pay half as much to start and are through temp agencies. Spokane is in a world of hurt right now.

i know the feeling man. back before i really started doing the self-employed thing full time, i looked for jobs around here. even shitty jobs, and i couldn't get anything. it sucks.

i hear ya with your daughter as well, gotta keep priorities strait. well, good luck, maybe something will come along :)

Well today is my last day at Stamp Works. It is officially closing when I lock the doors tonight. Now I got 8hrs (only 9am here) of nothing to do..................

Man that really sucks hav'n to go on the road. Liv'n from a suitcase isn't a good thing. And as you said, ya can't see your girl much that way either.

Have you given any thought to starting your own shop? As you've been running the one this company had it's clear you know how. Or perhaps a shop doing puter's?

Hope you can find a good pay'n option to roading it! :( :shrug:

Don't waste yer last day with that laser man, cut out anything you can invision making use of in the future! Has to be better than hang'n out bummed all day.

Very sorry to hear about this change in your situation Jaydee. Best of luck to you, and I hope you find a better situation very soon.

Spokane's economy just blows. A lot of small business are shutting down. We lost our major economy boost when Kiaser Aluminum's employees decided to go on strike for 2 years and make the company go bankrupt. :rolleyes: ****ing idiots. Not only did they loose their jobs, they lost pretty much everything they had here in Spokane. Stupidity and greed took over and the union helped them go down. Their average salary was $60,000 a year. Thats 3 times higher than ANY other job in Spokane with the exception of Boeing. Then Boeing cut a huge chunk of their employees and later sold the place to another airplane manufacturer. Those two companies where holding what little good economy Spokane had. Now companies are pulling out and going elsewhere or just closing shop.

I would stand no chance at my own business. Well established business are going under as it is. There is already to many on-line outfits to even bother trying to compete. No win situation. There are also zero jobs to be had here. The best I can find is an $8 to start welding job that is temporary to boot. Not going from a $14.50 (in town)- $17.50 (on the road)/hour job to that. Only way I could get a better job would be to move. That's not an option for many reasons.

I just have to make the best of what I got now. Traveling isn't all that bad actually. We have about 3-6 months that is non stop, but the rest of the year is relaxed some. I will see the daughter just about as much, but the schedual will not be as solid. Makes it kind of rough for me and her mom to work it out.

I am trying to save up as much money as I can in 2004. I stopped D.F. to save $40+ a month in power and will not devote any new money towards water blocks or computer hardware (well maybe a new Radeon). That will save another $500+ this year. Cutting some of the luxury bills down being I will not be home to use what those bills where for. At the end of 04 I will hopefully have enough cash to spare to look into more options. By then the economy should be better to. Going to tough it out this year and see what happens.

Also, I got no laserable material left to cut. Everything left is Rotory only. We ordered the laserable material on demand only. We didn't stock anything. Just cleaned up the Rotory engraver so I am not going to mess with it. :D

What is really bumbing me out is this damm 38K dialup here at work. :mad: :D Things shouldn't get any worst though. At least I am not layed off. Looks like it might be a slow year at the construction company. I went in this morning and they only have a couple jobs on the board and they are not going out anytime soon. Probably be doing a lot of in-town shop work for a while. On the 5th I go back there, but that week we will be down here moving and getting rid of everything. After that I am not sure what's going on.

WOW, I didn't relize your local economic situation.

Anyone making 60K should be thankfull, not on strike. You're right, they screwed themselves and your local economy as well.

I hope the economy gets rolling better soon, for everyone in this country. We've had this slow down now for close to 4 years, about time to get rolling again.

While work is slow and local, it'll at least give ya a good chance to take care of your getting recertified on welding and back into shape a bit more gently.

All the best man!

Man I am going to be hurting for while. It is a very pysical job. I am off untill the 5th of Jan though so I got some time to work out a bit. :D