Is OK okay for us? (Tulsa, May: jobs, house, oil)

[LadyRobyn]

Originally Posted by nightbird47

I was there a week this spring and can't say a lot but will add one thing to this thread. I could breath. The air wasn't grey and didn't smell icky. That all by itself is a good reason to go there.

Isn't it MAGNIFICENT??? We came from Central CA, and I just LOVE the skies here. So much blue, and it goes forever... There is the occasional 'smothering' type of day, but they don't last long.

DMing you a link to a slideshow I made of the OK skies, give you something to look forward to.

[karibear]

Originally Posted by TheComputerGuy

Hey folks!

Bugs and snakes;

There are BUGS here....
They are larger, more exotic and more numerous than anything you've seen in New England.

I saw the largest hunting spider of my life last week in the kitchen.
I wish I had had a big jar to catch it in so I could release it in the yard,
but there was not one immediately available, so I dispatched it with the nearest available shoe... Nobody was going to sleep anytime soon with that thing running around... It was just under 3 inches counting the legs, and the body was about an inch and 3/4s. (But it was the first major bug I've seen in a while, so it's not a daily or weekly thing.)

If you enjoy living pest free, you will need to be VERY clean...
That includes not leaving a cup with any juice residue in the sink over night...
I learned that my first day here.... I got meet a bunch of sugar ants...

You will want to poison the perimeter of your residence at least 1 - 2 times during the Spring and Summer....
It wokred for us, but depending on where you live, your milage may vary.

While I've never seen a snake here yet, (because there are a lot fewer in the city)
my friend GP has them occasionally... He shot a copperhead in his yard this year.
One of his dogs had been seriously wounded by one in the past and he has many animals to protect at his place....
Otherwise, he's pretty much a live and let live kinda guy.

From what I saw on NatGeo, the copperhead is one of the few snakes that will chase you as opposed to running away from you... But I'm NOT speaking from personal experience here, so take it for what it's worth.

There are also rattle snakes and water moccasins here...
If you're out in the woods or fishing, you'll probably want to be aware that these things are out there...

That spider you saw was probably a tarantula, and it was probably snadking on those sugar ants. There were quite a few of them at Camp Peaceful, and as long as they didn't fall/jump on me, I left them alone. Besides, they like to eat June bugs, and there were far too many of them every night for comfort - they kept getting tangled in my hair, and they clunked loudly enough when they fell to wake me up.

The copperhead isn't the aggressive one, it's the cottonmouth. Copperheads are pretty, with all the colors. Copperheads tend to freeze in place if they feel threatened, they won't chase anything - but if you get too close, they certainly will bite. Cottonmouths are not pretty - they are dark gray to blackish, and if you get close enough to one, you will see where the name comes from. The inside of their mouths are sort of fluffy/fleshy white, like a boll of cotton. Both copperheads and cottonmouths [aka water moccasin] are pit vipers, cousins to rattlers. I don't know if there are any in OK, but there is a third poisonous snake, the coral snake, which is smaller and also very pretty, but it's toxin is a neurotoxin similar to cobras. And it's one of the "you leave me alone, I'll leave you alone" types. [courtesy of a childhood growing up in the Ozarks]

Sugar ants are another kind of pest entirely! Those aren't intruders from the outside, they make nests inside the house, and as far as I know, the only sure-fire way to get rid of every single one is to burn the house down. Nothing kills all of them. Diatomacious earth [fuller's earth, buhach powder, fossil flour] works pretty well if you can get them to walk through it. It's not toxic to pets, but it destroys insect carapaces. And if you have them, it's not enough to just 'be very clean' - you also have to make sure everything edible - and I do mean EVERYTHING - is sealed in airtight cannisters or cartons or something like that. Breakfast cereal and pet kibbles are major attactants, so it all has to be stored in some way the ants can't get into it. We had them in WA, and the little buggers even figured out how to get inside the fridge and ate through a half inch of parrafin to devour a jar of homemade apple jelly. I also spent a lot of time vaccuuming them up, washing them away with straight vinegar, every trick I could find or heard about, and all it did was keep the numbers down. Nothing got rid of them entirely. Worst of all, even though most of them ignore people and pets to focus on food, one in a hundred will bite, and those bites HURT.

[debbie at bouontiful]

[quote=nightbird47;4801588]Cushing, and get to have my own house!

My daughter is an RN working as charge nurse on night shift. She enjoys and hospital and feels the doctors are great. (Can you tell I am proud of her!) So, maybe that is a plus for Cushing not to mention she(daughter) was able to buy a nice home in Perkins (close to Cushing) for a lot less than my other daughter's home in Stillwater.

[nightbird47]

Originally Posted by karibear

Sugar ants are another kind of pest entirely! Those aren't intruders from the outside, they make nests inside the house, and as far as I know, the only sure-fire way to get rid of every single one is to burn the house down. Nothing kills all of them. Diatomacious earth [fuller's earth, buhach powder, fossil flour] works pretty well if you can get them to walk through it. It's not toxic to pets, but it destroys insect carapaces. And if you have them, it's not enough to just 'be very clean' - you also have to make sure everything edible - and I do mean EVERYTHING - is sealed in airtight cannisters or cartons or something like that. Breakfast cereal and pet kibbles are major attactants, so it all has to be stored in some way the ants can't get into it. We had them in WA, and the little buggers even figured out how to get inside the fridge and ate through a half inch of parrafin to devour a jar of homemade apple jelly. I also spent a lot of time vaccuuming them up, washing them away with straight vinegar, every trick I could find or heard about, and all it did was keep the numbers down. Nothing got rid of them entirely. Worst of all, even though most of them ignore people and pets to focus on food, one in a hundred will bite, and those bites HURT.

I grew up in Orange county ca, and the ants there were little black things that were everywhere, but they didn't bite. Moved inland to Riverside, which it is said is built on an anthill... and they look the same but are NASTY. The bite at every opportunity. They even managed somehow to crawl into the freezer this last year.

I've found one way to deal with ants is remove the attraction and wait. They have nothing to eat, they leave. I doubt when I move this month that ants will be a big problem lol

[TheComputerGuy]

Originally Posted by karibear

That spider you saw was probably a tarantula, and it was probably snadking on those sugar ants. There were quite a few of them at Camp Peaceful, and as long as they didn't fall/jump on me, I left them alone. Besides, they like to eat June bugs, and there were far too many of them every night for comfort - they kept getting tangled in my hair, and they clunked loudly enough when they fell to wake me up.

The copperhead isn't the aggressive one, it's the cottonmouth. Copperheads are pretty, with all the colors. Copperheads tend to freeze in place if they feel threatened, they won't chase anything - but if you get too close, they certainly will bite. Cottonmouths are not pretty - they are dark gray to blackish, and if you get close enough to one, you will see where the name comes from. The inside of their mouths are sort of fluffy/fleshy white, like a boll of cotton. Both copperheads and cottonmouths [aka water moccasin] are pit vipers, cousins to rattlers. I don't know if there are any in OK, but there is a third poisonous snake, the coral snake, which is smaller and also very pretty, but it's toxin is a neurotoxin similar to cobras. And it's one of the "you leave me alone, I'll leave you alone" types. [courtesy of a childhood growing up in the Ozarks]

Sugar ants are another kind of pest entirely! Those aren't intruders from the outside, they make nests inside the house, and as far as I know, the only sure-fire way to get rid of every single one is to burn the house down. Nothing kills all of them. Diatomacious earth [fuller's earth, buhach powder, fossil flour] works pretty well if you can get them to walk through it. It's not toxic to pets, but it destroys insect carapaces. And if you have them, it's not enough to just 'be very clean' - you also have to make sure everything edible - and I do mean EVERYTHING - is sealed in airtight cannisters or cartons or something like that. Breakfast cereal and pet kibbles are major attactants, so it all has to be stored in some way the ants can't get into it. We had them in WA, and the little buggers even figured out how to get inside the fridge and ate through a half inch of parrafin to devour a jar of homemade apple jelly. I also spent a lot of time vaccuuming them up, washing them away with straight vinegar, every trick I could find or heard about, and all it did was keep the numbers down. Nothing got rid of them entirely. Worst of all, even though most of them ignore people and pets to focus on food, one in a hundred will bite, and those bites HURT.

The spider was definitely NOT a tarantula....

It's one of those brown ones that go out and hunt as opposed to hanging out on a web. We had them back East, but nowhere near that size.

The locals say that water moccasins are more aggressive than copperheads,
but National Geographic says different...
I hope not to find out for myself.

As far as the ants went, LR told me they were sugar ants (from my description)
and said they didn't bite or sting...
Haven't seen any in quite a while though.
(Which is always a nice thing.)

What I have seen here are fleas....
They jump right through the screen door.
We've had cats since the 80s back East,
and I never saw a flea until I got to OK.
So far, it hasn't been much of a problem,
but I can see how it could get out of hand if one doesn't stay on top of it.

[TheComputerGuy]

Originally Posted by LadyRobyn

Being nitpicky and giving you a hard time because you have been gone far too long.

I expected a much worse drubbing from you than this.
(Not that I'm asking for one mind you.)
Guess I'm having a good day...
Hope it continues to be good.

Originally Posted by LadyRobyn

So... shouldn't your post be directed to East-Coasters considering a move to the TULSA area?? All of OK isn't the same you know...or maybe you don't know that yet.

I did mention that I'm in Tulsa and haven't seen too much of OK...
I can barely speak for Tulsa at this point...
I've had no life here until today...

Originally Posted by LadyRobyn

Just the opposite down our way! It is rare to find non-natives...and they tend to stick out like a sore thumb. We sure did!

Very few people stand out here, you see all kinds of folks in the city.

Originally Posted by LadyRobyn

If it helps at all I can tell you that this past Spring and Summer (so far) have been NOTHING like what we have experienced in the last 4 years!! I am seeing things happening in my yard that are totally new to me!

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Originally Posted by LadyRobyn

Again, a totally opposite experience here... I LOVES my PSO! Through all kinds of weather our power has RARELY gone out, and when I have had a problem, they had someone at my house within an hour or so who not only fixed the problem at the pole...he added new lines to my house and a new meter because ours "looked a little old"

Maybe they are less busy in your neck of the woods.

Originally Posted by LadyRobyn

Will do. After visiting your corner of the State we realized it is like comparing Apples and Oranges! Both wonderful, but VERY different.

Where did you go in NH?
Or were you referring to CT?
CT is nothing like NH, it's more like MA for the most part.

Originally Posted by LadyRobyn

Could you be a little more specific? I googled that and came up with nothing...or is that some strange species of spider that you brought from the East Coast??

There's NO spider that size back in the northeast.
I'll try to find a picture of one when I have more time.

Originally Posted by LadyRobyn

But... you need to be willing to roll up your sleeves, get dirty and sweat alot. Sometimes you have to take what comes along for awhile instead of waiting for for you WANT. We did.

I applied for over 70 jobs here, and only jobs that I was qualified for.
It was a SLOW process... It would have been very difficult to do all those
interviews had I been working full-time.. I would have gotten fired
for excessive absenteeism.

Originally Posted by LadyRobyn

And it does get easier after you have been here awhile... I tend to think it is because they want to hire someone who will be STAYING in OK and not some transient weenie who is going to go running back to their "home" State at the first crack of thunder.

The employment situation worried me WAY worse than the weather.
If I knew it would take that long, I would have gone back into business for myself when I first got here.
I thought a straight job would be a better way to make more money faster...
I could have been wrong about that... We'll see.

Originally Posted by LadyRobyn

Now you know why most folks have trucks and 4-wheel drives. Clay shifts year-round...not just when the "frost heaves". In some areas Dirt would be preferable...but the people with fancy cars whine about it.

Maybe a helicopter would be a more suitable vehicle around here.

Originally Posted by LadyRobyn

Nah! You are just tellin' the truth as you have experienced it so far! I expect that will change in a year or so...IF you are still here!

For now. I still believe you will make it here just fine!! Might want to stay closer to the "Cities" though...

*HUGS* - T

I believe you're correct about things getting better...
It was looking pretty bleak here for a while,
but I imagine things will get back to normal
in a couple of months.

As far a city vs. country, I think a happy medium close to work
would be about right for us.

As far as cities go, Boston makes Tulsa look like the 'burbs.
(And that's a GOOD thing.)

Well...
Gotta go get ready for work... (Yay!)
Hope the new boss and co-workers don't s*ck.

[colleeng47]

Good luck on your new job, CG. I hope it's everything you want and more. You definitely deserve a break right about now.

[TheComputerGuy]

Thanks Colleen.

But...

I got there 20 minutes early, and the place wasn't opened until about 10 minutes later than it was supposed to....

So then I hung out chatting the the girl who answers the phone for an hour...
(She was the only person there if you don't count her 7 year old daughter.)

Then the owner's wife called to tell me that the owner would be out of state
most of the week and the tech they wanted to send me out with would be busy with a project all week and that she was just going to "send me home today" and
"get back with me in about a week or so".

No apology (at least as far as I can remember... I was kinda shocked)
and no mention of paying me for the time I was there...

Can someone tell be why would anyone hire someone they weren't ready for?

Guess that's what I get for taking what he called a "2-4 week contract to hire job".
There's no paperwork, or written offer, so as far as I'm concerned,
(and maybe as far as they're concerned)
I'm not exactly employed right now...

If an offer comes in before I hear back from them next week,
I'm going to accept it in a New York minute
regardless of what it is. (I'm pretty disgusted.)

AND...
If the only 2 outside people there are busy all week,
what's going to happen to their clients who have problems this week?
Are they just supposed to suffer until next week?

The place seems pretty unprofessional and very disorganized to me...
(There are also other problems they have no policy in place to deal with.)
That would never happen where I'm from.

And yes, I'm qualified to judge that because it's exactly the same type
of business I ran successfully in NH for 8 years until too many clients went out of business in 2007 and 2008.
(Horrible economy.)

I was alone and did a much better job than they seem to be able to do...
Maybe I really should go back into business...
It wouldn't be hard to beat the competition
if they're all like this place is.

Just heard from yet another headhunter today,
so I guess I get to play that game for the unpteenth time.

So...
I'm still pretty unimpressed with the Tulsa IT market...
"Life at the speed of dirt."

Hey Doug! Now that Colleen has good benefits,
would you be be interested in being part of the best
Network Service company in Tulsa?

[colleeng47]

Ouch, CG, that's a terrible experience.

Everything happens for a reason, and maybe something much better is out there for you.

Doug's not quite ready to commit yet. He has an interview this week also.

Hope everything works out for you.

[karibear]

Originally Posted by nightbird47

I grew up in Orange county ca, and the ants there were little black things that were everywhere, but they didn't bite. Moved inland to Riverside, which it is said is built on an anthill... and they look the same but are NASTY. The bite at every opportunity. They even managed somehow to crawl into the freezer this last year.

I've found one way to deal with ants is remove the attraction and wait. They have nothing to eat, they leave. I doubt when I move this month that ants will be a big problem lol

The last place we had in WA was the one with the sugar ants. It had been abandoned some 3 years or more when we bought it as a fixer - there was NOthING for them to eat there, and the place was overrun with them. What might have helped would have been to get rid of all the carpeting, but it was one of those cheaper doublewides constructed with an eye to profit rather than quality, and there was only subflooring under them. There were more important things to spend time and money on - such as repairing the plumbing so we could actually live there!