Tom:
We are all hoping this will bottom out soon. The Dow seems to be making progress.
Good luck in your search for a new one.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
kf4matAll right now I'm one the millions of unemployed walking the streets........ Guess I won't be renewing my MR subscription. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. Tom
My sympathies there my good good man. I got in a dispute with the IRS--they won--and I had to let my subscriptions to Trains and RMC and my N-Scale mags as well as some woodworking and metalworking mags expire. I am now in a position to renew them!
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
It's been announced that "the recession is now over in Canada, partly due to a drop in gas/oil prices". So the prices promptly start going up again!?!?!? Do we want to start the recession up again? Grocery prices are still sky-high, not to mention just about everything else.
One of the guys in my band just got restructured out of a job.
Hope your own situation turns around soon, the same wish goes out to anyone else caught in this economic downturn.
[Edited for content by selector]
Our previous recession-near-depression in the early eighties was in full swing when I graduated from school and started looking (without luck) for a job. One thing I found train-wise was that my local library carried quire a few railroad and model railroad books, so during that time I checked most all of them out. I especially went for trackplanning books, so that when I got working I could start on a new layout. It was just making the best of a bad situation, but I did get a lot of information.
BTW some libraries sell older books at discount prices. I got some pretty good RR books from Kalmbach and others for like 50 cents to a buck or two that I still use today, even some hardcover books.
Been through a couple recessions over the years as well as a "broken stick up the backside" from our friendly IRS a couple of times. The wife and I both got axed early this year. Thankfully, the family is now grown and we're in a position to collect SS and pensions so we're so far hanging in there. On the positive side, I finally have the time to start building all of the kits I've collected over the years. Over the last few weeks, I've built and weathered at least twenty freight cars.
Hope y'all can hang in there - I know it sucks but we'll work through it.
Chuck
Grand River & Monongah Railroad and subsidiary Monongah Railway
I have worn the unemployed T-shirt twice in the past three years. A few years ago, I thought that I had a solid job which would take me to retirement (about 10 years.) I built a home for my wife, that she had always wanted, with an 1800 sq ft basement for me. I started working on a large HO scale "domino" shelf layout using modular sections from my previous apartment layout. Well the job didn't make it past a year. While I was unemployed and searching for a new job, I thought it would provide a great opportunity to work on the layout. The problem was spending money when you're not sure when the next pay check will be comming. I didn't get much done on the layout.
I am again employed, but it is 500 mi from the basement. We are keeping the home (basement) as now is not a good time to sell, and while I have a good job, no assurance there either. I am back in an apartment. I am constructing a small modular switching layout in the apartment. The modular sections are designed to be incorporated into the home layout. Since I use 'domino" sections, I can take completed sections home and replace them with a blank domino section.
I am also using the time to build acumulated kits and upgrade my locomotive fleet to DCC. I get home to the big layout about every three weeks.
Jim, Modeling the Kansas City Southern Lines in HO scale.
I've been working for 15 years straight this time. I had some "time off" before then. Fortunately, we had enough saved that we coasted through that in good shape. Our daughter was a toddler back then, so I got to be Mr. Mom for a while, and spent a lot of time in what turned out to be a pretty worthwhile endeavor.
There are silver linings. Look for them and appreciate them. Many of us work too hard, and having some time off isn't always a bad thing. Yeah, you need to pay the bills, but that will sort itself out.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
MrB:
It's true that you don't always recognize your good luck the first time you see it.
My Father-in-law worked at G.A.F. (Formerly Ansco) for 45 years. He was a foreman in the film coating division when he had a heart attack and was out of work for a couple of months. Sounds like a bad thing, right?
While he was out on sick leave, they shut down the coating division and laid off his entire department. Because he was on sick leave at the time, he was disability retired instead of laid off. It turns out that the heart attack, from which he totally recovered, was actually good fortune.
Time to buy a lawn mower and start your own lawn care company!
My dad worked for a major oil company for 28 years. He was laid off in March. He has used his time to fix up things in the house and garage. Most of the things needed he bought years ago but never got around to do the labor part. He considers it time well spent, but still looks for another job.
I am in college and am working on completing my Bachelor's degree. Where I work, I only work about 3 days a week. It's not much, but it is income. All well, leaves more time to spend on my railroad
Hang in there. I am a free market person and the market will improve. It just won't happen over night.
Will
It may not provide any sort of comfort to you, but at this side of the big pond, the situation is the same. The business I started is a victim of the global financial crisis, as the credits granted were suddenly withdrawn. Since then I have turned in some 400 + job applications, but, at 53, they don´t want you anymore. The kid is in college, the mortgage needs to be paid, savings are eaten up...
Somehow, life will go on, even if I don´t know how
wholemanHang in there. I am a free market person and the market will improve. It just won't happen over night.
I'm a free market guy too, I just haven't been able to spot one in the wild.