When the bad economic conditions hit home......

Yep, I had a different post I was planning on posting, but life gets in the way sometimes. 

The downturn in the economy has finally hit home. Everyone has heard about the price of oil going down. That is GREAT for the price of gas, bring on the $40.00 FULL tank of gas!  It has effected the oil companies in a completely different way, their stocks have plummeted (along with many others) and they have been forced to shut down a lot of existing rigs in our area, and plans to put up more rigs have been put  on hold. In turn it has lead to a lot of lay-offs in our area. Jay works in rig support, on the motor controls and plc's (the motorized electrical components of a rig) not on one particular rig, but on several wells in our area. This meant that they could shut rigs down and still need him. Instead of having 8 rigs to provide support to he would just have less. We had avoided the first few rounds, and there was a little hope. In Dec or Jan they "think" that the rig count will begin to climb. 

We had held onto that hope till Monday. His area was down to 2 rigs, within just a few miles of each other. Recently he has had less and less work. More just going and checking on those two rigs, trying to prevent a problem from happening.  Jay got a call Monday morning that he needed to come into the shop to meet with his boss, and his bosses boss. Not good. I knew when he called me and told me about the call that the likely hood that this meeting was a good one was very small.

So the falling price of oil, the downturn in the economy, and the lowering rig count finally got us. Jay got laid-off on Monday. We don't know what is next, he is scrambling to find a job, just a job to pay the bills. Thankfully he has an unlimited electrical license, so he can go back to that for awhile. He has sent his resume to several places that deal in the motor control/plc area. It would take more time to get one of these job, so the interim job is what he is trying to find now.

Sorry this post is kind of a bummer, and not the normal happy post, but it is what is going on here.  I think I will go outside with the kids, enjoy the nice weather, and try to remember what it feels like to be a kid,and not have to worry about silly little things like jobs.           =)