Here we go, back to work officially today (although I never really stopped over the holidays), the kids go back to school this Wednesday, ( seems like they’ve been off for months) and it’s only 362 days to 2012. Life sure goes fast!
We had the sewer man out yesterday morning, thanks to grandma who has a connection in the sewer biz, (both grandma’s should have big blue capes with a giant S on the back!), and thought our problems were over after he snaked the pipes under the kitchen sink. Had a free ticket to the movies so scrounged up some loose change, stuffed some snacks in Mom’s purse (kind of dangerous sneaking food into the movies, living on the edge!) an took the kids to Yogi Bear, (I used to watch that all the time when I was a kid), and upon returning home we decided to try to keep ahead of the game and continue to clean the basement. With each step down the stairs we were hit with a stench that was unimaginable. We have a wine cellar / storage room that was built when we moved into our home 10 years ago. The only problem was that the ceiling was lowered to provide additional insulation and some pipes we’re now covered up. Well upon further investigation we found water had been seeping out from under the wall onto the concrete floor into the room. This could only mean a burst pipe or leak above that worked its way down the drywall and up and under the gap below the baseboards. After feeling sick for a few minutes we decided (as we always do) to cowboy up and tackle the problem head on! For the next few hours (actually the remainder of the day), we proceeded to move out hundreds of pounds of things we had kept here for safe keeping. We still have a long way to go (as we do have some wine, probably a few hundred bottles) to clean the room totally out. Then I’ll have to call the insurance company as it appears the wall (or whole room) has to come down to get to the leak. (Normally we try not to call the insurance company unless it looks like it’s going to cost a lot of $ as they always jack your rates up for the next 3 years or so) Before we can get to tearing the room apart we must now clean the room that you walk through to get to this room! This process will actually require the overhaul of the whole house! I guess this is the bright side!
But enough of our problems, let’s get back to getting healthy and getting out of debt. Thankfully we’re doing pretty good with our new attitude as the episode above could have sunk a lesser family 2 days into the new year, so we just decided to stop wallowing in self pity (which never really accomplishes anything), and get busy. In fact I think about 90% of how you do in life comes down to attitude, everyone faces challenges, the difference is how you choose to handle them. Now to the bright side, we did get some real good exercise, (cleaning and moving all our prized treasures out of the flood zone like 20 year old tax returns, ski clothes we wore when we were kids, pictures of our ex’s, unfinished projects from high school,) Â was really a workout. Now of course we get to go through all these priceless items and categorize them into neat little piles to move to another part of the house. (we know that someday those old ski clothes are going to be worth millions on Ebay!) The kids ate pretty healthy (my wife is a really good cook, you should see how many different things she can do with pasta and bologna) as we continue to work through the hoard of leftovers in the fridge. (I hate throwing out food, it’s so expensive). FYI, the boys go through a gallon of milk, on average, every 32 hours (yes I timed it!) which runs anywhere from $5 to $6 per gallon! Add that up on a monthly basis!
As far as getting out of debt, that’ll have to wait. Our little flood is sure to cost us hundreds of dollars somehow, just our share of the insurance costs alone are going to be over $1000. It’s going to be a tough month, hopefully we’ll find a way to get through it. Remember you can’t fail unless you stop trying! Good news is it’ll make February seem easy. (have to have a good attitude here but are so tired of just getting by day after day, thankfully we own part of a small company that really has a chance to be something special!) My wife is also looking for a job! It’s difficult as I travel periodically and babysitters are getting $10 per hour! I told her to just start charging the kids.
Could be worse, we could live in New York where they haven’t picked up trash in 10 days??? People need to become more self reliant. You have to take care of yourself, it’s clear the government can’t/isn’t going to/won’t do it. And oh yeah, their Aunt Blondie (my brother’s wife, his name isn’t Dagwood but he does eat some big sandwiches), showed up yesterday with the coveted Snuggie for each of the boys. Thank god it was a Snuggie as when the boys came running into the house I thought they said Aunt Blondie got them a Snookie! (if you don’t know what a Snuggie or a Snookie is, you’re very lucky!) The kids are really lucky as they have the best aunt and uncle living right down the street.
Tip for the day, I’m replacing milk in my coffee with cinnamon. It’s really good and supposed to be good for you.
Until tomorrow, God Bless