My First Job After College1

I graduated from Michigan State University's School of Packaging technology in June of 1966. My first job was with Continental Can Company in the Chicago area. It was a great job in that we new hires were given our own projects to work with guidance from more senior employees plus we did our own technicians' work. As a result I spent lots of time in the pilot plant area where we were packing experimental beer containers checking for such things as new enamels, side seam coating and more. We would always hold back some of bottles of beer as our controls also known as a starting benchmark.

The company was Union and I could not use a cart to move my test samples as it would have been a union violation. I had to stand over the union guys and tell them what codes to put on what containers which seem like a terrible waste of time also there was a possibility that mistakes could be made.

Well anyways the time would come when I wanted to take my control bottles of beer back to the lab again to check the starting benchmark. As I stated before I could not use a wheel cart so I piled them on top of my boobs and was cradling them with my arms. When I got on the elevator one of the guys looked at me with bottles piled as high as I could handle and he said oh so that's what they're for. No doubt talking about my...

Time to evaluate online e-commerce carts

 Wow, a good sale Etsy yesterday! I have done nothing to promote my three e-commerce carts so a sale for $150.00 was a welcome surprise. Now to find my shipping supplies and, thanks to good inventory tracking, pull the necklace out of inventory and ship next week.

My carts cost me far more than I make as I more or less just parked 300 plus items online. Listing online is a lot of work and if I should quit my largest cart, Bonanza, all my listing go to the cyber boneyard. 

Time to evaluate which if any carts I should maintain. My basic Ebay cart costs $4.95 a month plus rather high selling fees. On the very plus side, Ebay has great brand recognition and I can list most anything legal. 

Etsy is for handcrafted by seller items and the listing fees are reasonable with rather high seller fees. With the exception of Native American crafted jewelry and mineral specimens I could move about another 150 of my handcrafted jewelry to Etsy. 

Again, Bonanza has more than 300 listing but cost more than $200.00 a year to maintain and seller fees would be in addition. The window here is closing as my annual fee will be due in a few months.

Just wondering and evaluating and comparing costs.

FedEx round about delivery (hoping it's delivered)

Only part of the round about

with FedEx
Tracking ID: 498877215457
You're seeing the same order status information that our Customer Service associates can access.
Wednesday, February 25
2:26 PM
Package left the carrier facility.
North Salt Lake, UT US
12:50 AM
Possible delay in delivery due to extra carrier processing
North Salt Lake, UT US
12:49 AM
Package arrived at a carrier facility.
North Salt Lake, UT US
Tuesday, February 24
8:51 PM
In transit to pickup location
Nephi, UT US
8:48 AM
Package left the carrier facility.
Phoenix, AZ US
1:17 AM
Package arrived at a carrier facility.
Phoenix, AZ US
Monday, February 23
9:07 PM
Possible delay in delivery due to extra carrier processing
Yuma, AZ US
9:05 PM
Package left the carrier facility.
Yuma, AZ US
10:10 AM
Package is returning to seller because it was damaged.
Yuma, AZ US
10:10 AM
Package held by carrier as the delivery address is incorrect or incomplete. Please contact the carrier to update your address information.
10:10 AM
Undeliverable: Incorrect address.
NA, NA
3:39 AM
Package arrived at a carrier facility.
Yuma, AZ US
Sunday, February 22
10:34 PM
In transit to pickup location
Yuma, AZ US
2:02 AM
Package left the carrier facility.
Phoenix, AZ US
Saturday, February 21
11:52 PM
Package arrived at a carrier facility.
Phoenix, AZ US
7:59 PM
In transit to pickup location
Glendale, AZ US
7:51 AM
Package left the carrier facility.
North Salt Lake, UT US
2:00 AM
Package arrived at a carrier facility.
North Salt Lake, UT US
Friday, February 20
6:12 PM
Package left the carrier facility.
Boise, ID US
6:12 PM
In transit to pickup location
Boise, ID US
3:55 PM
Package arrived at a carrier facility.
Boise, ID US
10:04 AM
Carrier received the package.
Boise, ID US
Package left the shipper facility
Times are shown in the local timezone.

Memories that still hurt

 I'm a member of the town's Parks, Cultural and Beautification Advisory Board. We were discussing commissioning the creation of mural(s) at today's meeting. Wow, memories that I tried to bury for decades came flooding back.

I thought back more than half a century to when I had drawn Little Jack Honer who Sat in a Corner on the corner in my children's bedroom. My kids were about 2 and 3 years old and this was just before I started going to college full time. I remember that my drawing was good and well detailed.

My husband had no problem with it and thought it was rather cute. Then along came my mother-in-law. She took one look at the wall and my drawing and said no way that would ruin the value of the house, the house that she and my father-in-law helped us buy.

My drawing was done with a lead pencil and I haven't painted it yet so I washed it off the wall and never again attempted a drawing much less another mural. My mother-in-law found fault in pretty much everything I did. This didn't help as my marriage was failing, I was miserable and I wanted a  divorce. About that time I started college and at the end of my freshman year I divorced my husband. Three years later I graduated with a Bachelor of Science and had a job waiting for me. My kids and I moved to the Chicago area.

I never really tried drawing anything again until decades later when I started making wall hangings using large metal rings, blank plastic masks, lots of leather and feathers. I painted the faces and sold most them. I still have happy kitten and unhappy kitten. I haven't made a wall hanging for years but I still have all my supplies, perhaps someday.

Every now and then I would buy a sketch pad and pencils but I just lost my enthusiasm decades ago because I let my mother-in-law get to me, my fault, I gave her power over me. Now that I took that painful trip down memory lane... well I just ordered drawing supplies and will try again.

I sold this before I named it.

This is Foxie Lady