 
 February
4, 2004
Watching the waves, bracing
into the wind and not letting it take me down. Faith is the rock on which
I sit my ample ass. Eric's faith is that much smaller rock to the back and
right. You'll notice he's not sitting on it. >:<
Did our state and federal taxes
and all was good news. We should get ours right about the time we're
totally freaking dying from not getting Eric's unemployment checks, just in time
for rent for March. The rest will take good care of itself.
Wait. There's more to
tell. I'm getting ahead of myself here. I forgot how long it has
been since I wrote. The week had been a blur. Eric has been sick for
the past couple of days and I haven't gotten much sleep in the interim. I
got well rested over the weekend, but then we did a lot of physical labor on
Monday and the didn't sleep well that night or last. I'm pretty well
phased out right now. :) Normally, if Eric is around and I've had a
tough night, I can catch a nap in the day. Not so lately. I did get
some OTC sleep stuff to try out and maybe get in a full night tonight.
On Monday, Eric and his partner
signed the contract for the housing project, so they are fairly excited about
that. As I mentioned before, they won't get their first check for their
work on the project until around April and will have to front money for
materials, but they also have a couple of people who are interested in investing
in their company, which will help them to get the materials they need. If
they can get enough investments, they can start drawing salaries in advance
instead of waiting until April. (we can hope, you know?)
While they were signing that
contract, the company asked them if they were interested in another contract
that actually begins sooner than the original one (in theory). It doesn't
involve nearly the work and money of the other one, but it's at least a start.
The biggest problem is that these things never start on schedule and sometimes
are booted out by weeks. It's a tricky proposition to have our future
riding on their schedule, especially without his unemployment checks to hold us
over, but at least with the contracts signed, we know that he will eventually be
working for months at a time and that there's a light at the end of the tunnel,
even if it sometimes moves back a notch or ten from where it was.
Eventually.
The guy who owes them around
$2500 still hasn't paid anything and it looks like they're going to have to sue
him for it. It's a shame they have to go through all of that to get the
money they worked hard for and even extended to advance him materials.
It's been a couple of months now and he's dodging their calls. If that
comes through, they will both (Mike and Eric) be in better shape.
There are several in roads
where plenty of miracles can manifest and the one calla lily that came back from
the dead is still tall and proud and fresh and going strong. That's almost
a month that it's been in bloom, which I think is a new record. I
interpreted it as a miracle that comes from something we thought was dead
and gone. The guys had long since written off the company who suddenly
called them for the bid, so it was appropriate.
Enough about the specifics.
As the events are actually transpiring to bring this about, such as the contract
signing, the securing of the insurance and the design meetings, Eric has gotten
progressively antsy. He doesn't sleep well, which means *I* don't sleep
well. His emotions are on a roller coaster and it's hard to predict how
he's going to be one day or one hour to the next. For a Virgo who likes
predictability, it's maddening.
The kids are pinging from the
weird energy and pretty much like the monkeys on Jumanji. I'm the lump in
the middle of everything that's still while the whole world is in fast forward.
We did get the wood floor
projected started. On Monday, before Eric got sick, we got the hallway
painted and the carpet pulled. It was more of a pain in the ass than I
expected. In the office, when I pulled up the carpet there was one run of
slats around the perimeter with little nails jutting up to hold down the carpet.
In the hall, it was doubled all the way around. After a lot of prying and
pulling and soaking and scraping, there is a decent wood floor showing with some
water damage that can be covered with a rug easily. I'm quite happy with
the results, especially coupled with the paint.
We were going to do the front
of the house yesterday, but Eric was sick all day. Today, we were going to
give it a go, but he ended up sleeping in, then having errands to run and it
slipped away. We intend to paint tomorrow afternoon and do carpet on
Friday. I look forward to it being done. I've learned in this
process something I pretty much knew already, which was that I don't detest
housework. The very act of mopping or washing dishes doesn't bother me.
It's wasted motion and energy that appalls me. It's doing the same crap
jobs day after day after day with no real reward other than getting up the next
day and doing them all over again. I clean my house and it lasts an hour
at most. When you mow the grass, you at least get a week or so of
reprieve. This work, even though it's much more strenuous than I'm used
to, I love. When it's finished, I have a great product and it lasts for a
good long time. I don't have to repaint or re-pull carpet every day for
the rest of my life. I'd make a great house refurbisher if I had any sense
of design and style whatsoever. So by Saturday, our work should be
finished. When we're working, I feel like I hit the "play" button on a
bitch tape because there's a nonstop litany of swearing and fussing from Eric as
he works. It's almost humorous. Almost. But he's much better
at the work than I am, probably getting his areas done about twice as fast as
mine with the quality of work also about twice as good. Maybe I should try
bitching nonstop while I work.
Nathan was one of the first
kids to enroll for the new preschool and Eric said there was quite a line
forming behind him. He's in as of March 1st (yayyy!) I know he's
going to love it. Eric has suggested that he be the one to take him to
school the first few days so that his separation anxiety is less. I'm so
excited for for all of us. It really could not have come at a better time.
In two weeks. we have a parent
meeting for a charter school for Delena next year. From what I've heard,
it's a much better school than the regular Jr High she would be attending, so
I'm eager to check it out. They have a limited number of openings and
those are chosen by lottery. We are quite hopeful that she'll get in.
Everything is flying around me
in motion, but not much is settling, so there's not much to tell yet. I
hope that with more sleep, I'll be utterly inspired and come up with some
amazing journal words for you soon. Right now, everything seems to start
with Zzzzz.
:)
Take care all,
Katrina
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