The Battle Continues ...

Cutter's Log - Supplemental

Since the local and favorable options have been exhausted, I decided to start on the extended search for the job. I spent most of the morning in Clinton, IA job hunting. It is the closest town of over 25,000 people from Sterling/RF.

For those not familar with Clinton, it is divided into four districts pretty much: Lyons, Downtown, Lincolnway and Mill Creek. I am familar with Lyons and Lincolnway, but not so much Downtown and Mill Creek. So I drove around trying to find places.

My strategy (to ease on stop-and-go car starting) was to go to the Shell station, buy something to eat, sit at the table and dig through the phone book. Then I did some calling to about 25 different places. Needing some breathing room, I went and sat on a bench near the Candlelight Inn and did my calling.

My Clinton leads are as follows: the BP near the 136 Bridge (by next month), Jewel-Osco (cashier), Target (all), Kwik Shop on Bluff (cashier), and Sears (holiday).

The Kwik Shop is obviously the best lead of them all, since it is gas station work and that's what I have been doing for the past five years. Jewel-Osco's cashier spot is sort of similar to the position I tried to apply for at Sterling Kroger, except it is not overnight. Target seems to the the third-best lead, followed by BP and Sears.

After funneling all of that into a plan, I went back to my car and was about to drive home. However, I thought better and went back and thought of places in similar radiuses: Savanna, Fulton, Lanark, Mt. Carroll, Oregon, Byron, Freeport, Rochelle, Mendota and Princeton. Since I was trying to jot down places by simply memory, the list isn't complete. Once you've driven in these towns a lot, you start to know what's where.

Out of those came fewer leads: the Family Video in Byron, the Family Video in Princeton, part-time nights and weekends at the Savanna BP (attached to the McDonalds), and a soon-to-be-created overnight shift at the Thomson Casey's. Sullivan's in Princeton was looking for a deli person, but seriously I'm not the food-handling type of person.

I got home and was alerted that Dixon Furnitire Store would also be a good place to look into. That'll be my first call tomorrow.

I have also kept as a possibility pizza delivery jobs at Sterling Domino's and Morrison Casey's. But that may be too exhausting on the car and too risky considering what else I do (the website). I also recalled that both Family Dollar and Radio Shack in Sterling were both looking for seasonal help.

On Saturday I plan on covering the Boylan-Lake Zurich football game in Rockford. Along the way I'll be driving by Oregon and Byron, so I'll see what else is there that I missed. Worst case scenario is having to drive into Rockford, the Quads, Kewanee or L-P for jobs. But that is a future step in case nothing comes through.

I'm scarred, I'm bleeding, but I'm still fighting.