February 1, 2004
I've started
this column several different times, but only
ended up boring myself, so I knew it would be
rough for you folks. Eric has been
wonderful about keeping my apron strings
untied this week, doing a lot of the cleaning
and giving me plenty of nap time. This
week, we are starting a major undertaking with
the house. The walls desperately need to
be painted, so we're going to get some heavy
duty latex and cover all of the candle smoke
stains, handprints and ball point pin marks
(Nathan's earlier days). Once that's
done (I'm thinking a day of painting for the
two of us), the really big job starts, which
is to rip up the carpeting in the living room,
dining room and hallway. One of our
neighbors mentioned to Eric that the
contractor who built these houses in the
1950's went bankrupt on the project because
they insisted on using the finest hardwood
flooring. If their home is any
indication, it's true. So I got curious
and pulled up a corner (not as easy as it
sounds) of our really, really crappy carpeting
and wow! The floor did not disappoint!
It's a really lovely, rich flooring that I
fully intend to exploit. It's going to
take some work, not just in moving furniture
and pulling up (not to mention finding a place
to PUT the old carpet after), but also in
prying up the wooden slats around the
perimeter of the room that tack the carpet
into place, not to mention scraping up all of
the carpet padding that will have adhered to
the wood surface. We'll likely have to
roughen the wood and gym coat it, but that can
come later. ANYthing will look better
than this horrible carpet. I detest
carpet in a major way and this is the
cheapest, shittiest stuff you can buy.
It sucks up every stain (we've lived here for
3 years) and keeps it as its own, no matter
how much blotting and vinegaring you do.
To me, carpet, is the epitome of the unclean,
no matter who you are. It sucks up every
fart, burp, shoe scum, dog smell, cat barf,
insect, mold, mildew and other nastiness known
to man. Rugs I can handle (toss them
into the washer), but carpets are the sources
of all that is stinky and evil.
Two years ago,
we had a major flood under our house.
Gallons and gallons of water were pumped out
and flooded down the street into a huge lake.
This year, last month, in fact, a pipe broke
in the wall of our kitchen and flooded under
the house again, although not as bad.
All of this water has left the carpet a little
mildewy as well. I very much look
forward to getting rid of the carpet because
regardless of what I find underneath and the
amount of time and energy it takes to restore
it, it's got to be better than this carpet.
I've walked the floor carefully and there is
only one place, near the table, where the wood
flooring his popped up a bit. Wish me
luck, folks. Unless Eric gets some
incredibly job offer this week, he's not
working much this week, so I'll have plenty of
help. By the end of the week, I should
have a whole new house, for better or worse,
with very little monetary investment on my
part. Change is good, especially at this
time of year. I'm ready to have my outer
environment herald in the changes I've felt
inside and want to make manifest in my world
in the coming year.
Two goals have
come starkly into focus for my year and I'm
wholly dedicated to bringing them into
fruition by October 31st (end of the harvest).
One is my weight loss. I'm ten pounds
down in a month and have about 80-90 to go.
It's going to be a hell of a trek, but I'm
completely invested in (finally) doing it.
The first month has been easy overall and I
have succeeded despite eating all out what I
wanted a few times and not exercising anything
even close to what I should have. To me,
that's a complete Universal endorsement of
what I'm doing, so I'm going to stick to it.
Allowing for plateaus (like this week), I
expect to be down about 50 pounds or more by
Halloween. More would be great.
Finished would be better.
The other goal
is financial security and prosperity.
The field in which my husband is trained (all
forms of telecommunication) is very unstable
and it seems as if as soon as he gets a job,
he gets laid off a few months later and we're
back in the danger waters again. The
companies are going under faster than he can
get hired by them. This year, he changed
his focus a bit and rather than his usual job
of setting up cell phone relay stations,
working on telephone network circuitry and
installing satellite tracking equipment, he
and two of his friends, who are trained in the
same field as he is, have been working to
start their own company installing systems
into buildings under construction (fire
systems, security systems, voice and data -
phone, computer, cable - systems, home theater
systems). They haven't had much luck so
far, but this week, they will be going in to
sign their first major contract. It's
for a housing development and will provide
steady work for them for a few months, during
which time, they hope to secure another
contract or two. They won't start work
until the end of March and won't get paid for
the first time until the end of April (in
construction, you work for 30 days, invoice
the contractor, then get paid 30 days later).
That seems forever away, but at least we know
there's an end in sight. We just have to
get past the next two months and we should be
safe again. He'll be getting paid a
little bit less than he was making at his last
job, but that's considerably more than we're
making now and we've gotten accustomed to
living on less, so it will feel like a lot
more. The biggest challenge will be
getting caught up on the bills and out of the
hole.
He has received
his last Unemployment check, so it really is
in God's hands now. I did our taxes
yesterday and found out that we will get
enough of a return to make March's rent, so
that's definitely a good thing. Since he
had drawn so much unemployment, I was afraid
we might actually owe. That was quite a
relief. A man Eric and his friend, Mike,
have done some work for owes them about $2500,
but is making all kinds of excuses for why he
can't pay them, so when he comes through with
that (hopefully without the guys having to
bring even more pressure to bear), we can
likely fill in the blanks. My point is
(and there's a point to this), that there are
a lot of inroads to miracles and I plan to
pave each and everyone in my off duty time.
:) When I look back, I can't believe
we've made it as far as we have. THAT is
nothing short of a miracle, so based on
results, (Dr Phil moment) I have no reason to
believe otherwise for the future.
Tomorrow, I
register Nathan for preschool that is starting
March 1st. He is going to love it.
I am going to love it. It's a good
thing.
It's a very,
very good thing.
Other than the
pending ripping apart of my house and
continued faith walk, there's very little
going on. I am backed up on book reviews
(I review books for publishers and get to keep
the book in return, another of the miracles
the Universe sent my way since I have a real
weakness for books) and have about 50 or so to
do. I've already included over 90 on
The
Diva Digest (a few done by others) and I
want to lay about 15 or so to rest this week.
I really enjoy doing it and love getting the
new books. Some day, I want to go
through and count up all of the free books,
calendars, tarot decks and date books I've
gotten. :) It's like counting my
golden coins. In lieu of that, books,
etc will do nicely.
I also want to
update The Diva Digest's other bits this week
since its been forever. Eye on Soaps
takes so much daily work that DD tends to turn
into the forgotten child, even though it's one
of my favorite efforts. It will be fun
to spend some time with her this week.
For now, I leave
you with some funnies, compliments of my son,
David. Click on them to enlarges:
Pirate Keyboard
Cheers, All,
K
