Clevercanaries

Christmas has finally come and is almost gone. Now I can concentrate on steelhead fishing. It’s hard to juggle work and winter fishing since the fishing is so dependent of timing. Being there when the river is at the right level and flow makes all the difference.

Right now I’m constantly checking the weather up north and the river levels. I wish I had a webcam set up so I could look at the color. I know what the conditions were when I’ve caught fish in the past, so I know what to look for now. Then I can leave on a moments notice.

One of the things I hated about working at my last job was not getting time off on short notice, so if I had to pick a time of the year to be not working this would be it. I guess that’s one way to be grateful.

While I’m applying for other jobs I decided to place some ads of my own. Placed it this morning and haven’t got a hit yet. I need to find other places to advertise my services. I did notice a lot of tree service ads today, but none from econotree. Perhaps if they stuck to my schedule they would have more work.

On the bright side econotree hasn’t placed an ad to fill my position.

One thing I’ve been trying to do is keep busy. When I quit smoking in June I bought myself a bike. I’ve been trying to ride it everyday, even if it’s just to get coffee down the street. On Sundays I take a ride to the Marina, through the Presidio to the GG bridge, then home. map
I find taking a nice long ride clears my mind and allows me to feel better about my situation.

First thing in the morning I look at online job sites like craigslist, bajobs.com and the caljobs.ca.gov site. The consumerist seems to think craigslist jobs are a scam, but I found my last job there.

I haven’t posted to this blog in a long time. A lot of stuff has happened since then, some good some bad.

I found out that my job as an arborist/estimator for Econotree has been eliminated. This has hit me pretty hard, since I thought that I was doing a good job for the company. Last Christmas I got a bonus of about 25% of my salary. Hard to accept how fast the economy tanked, and how many people like me it has taken with it.

It was suggested to me that this unique time in history needs to be documented by real people that are directly affected. It’s one thing to hear the media reporting on layoffs, unemployment rates, foreclosures, etc. and another thing to find out exactly what someone like me is going through day by day.

I’m going to attempt to write what it’s like looking for a job, navigating benefits and keeping myself busy all day. I hope it helps someone.

Karl