Wednesday

It was a rough week for Steve, His mill laid off more workers. Luckily he still has his job but a lot off people he works with are gone. Unemployment in our county is at 15% or higher. There have been so many lay offs and I'm sure there will be more. Some people are in better situations then others so they are volunteering for the lay offs just so that someone else that needs a job more then them can stay.
Our friend Randy wasn't on the list but volunteer because he is so close to retirement and his wife is still working. Steve's whole crew started crying when Randy told them he was leaving (mostly just the women cried but Steve said that the men got a little misty to:-). Randy has worked there since 1976.
We met a guy the other day that used to have his own family construction business and now that no one is building he is using his construction equipment to drive around central Oregon and haul away scrap metal for people. He is making a living at it, supporting his wife and 2 little kids.
The schools in our area have reduced the school year by 10 days and have canceled in Extra curricular activities for the Spring. They said that there enrollment didn't increase like they thought it would so they basically spent money they thought they would have. Now it looks like they will be laying off people too.
The problem is that people need to learn to be responsible when things are good not just when they get bad. If people were responsible in the good times there wouldn't be bad times. People get greedy and want everything they can get. The really sad thing is that almost everything in this country is so intertwined that when one things fails everything else follows.
On a lighter note:-) The sky is blue and the fog is burning off. If it get's a little warmer I might even take the kids to town and meet Steve for lunch.