Life Is Good (or Perception Is Everything)

Wish hard enough for something and you'll get it!

It looks like Brian is not going to be going back out on the road with his current employer. I have been encouraging him to find alternative employment for a very long time due to continued problems, most regarding pay, and some having to do with the social environment he was exposed to. Of course he, being the trusting soul that he is, was always sure that the current problem-of-the-day would be resolved and everything would be fine thereafter. WRONG. The employer M--- runs a small family owned and operated construction/restoration company. His daughter handles all of the financial business, including payroll and all of the hassles that go along with that responsibility. In fairness, she does this without pay in her spare time, after taking care of her family, her full time job, and (oh yeah) she's third trimester pregnant. Anyway, there have been multiple issues of Brian's pay being jerked around in one way or another since the beginning. Most recently, there has been some sort of miscommunication resulting in the child support garnishment funds that have been deducted from his pay not being sent to the proper agency for payment. Now he has been called back to court for contempt due to non payment, which was no fault of his. There will be a simple and prompt resolution to this one, but the point is that some new problem arises every few weeks. Ya just don't f**k with a family's money, man! He does still have to go to a DUI court hearing next week in the Illinois town he was working, and still thinks that he should stay and work for a few days for M--- while he's there so that it's not such a wasted trip (8 hour drive each way). I just dunno.

Ironically, M---'s brother C---- also runs his own similar business, although on a slightly larger scale (and all appearances indicate that it is much more professionally managed). Brian worked for a few days on "loan" for C---- a few weeks ago, and in addition to being very well financially compensated for his time, C---- also offered Brian a job. C----'s crews work much closer to home. C----'s accountant pays the bills and handles payroll. I think we have a winner here!

For the moment, Brian is spending a week or so doing a job for my family, re-roofing a large portion of my gram's house. Dad asked Brian to check out a new leak near the back of her house, and what he found was major/massive water damage (rot) under the existing shingles as a result of a poor roofing job several years ago. Yesterday he spent the day tearing off the old roofing, and hopefully the rain will hold off today long enough for him to get started on the repair work. The whole job should take 4 or 5 days, if the weather cooperates.

Gram has taken a turn for the worse, and the expectation is that she will likely not live long. She turned 100 in September, and there have been many times in the past 6 years that we thought we were going to 'lose her'. This time feels different, though. She is TOTALLY READY to go, and finally it seems that her family (primarily my mother, her daughter) is ready for her to go as well. We (family) have been staying in shifts with her in her home 24 hours a day since her first heart attack in 2002. It has been a long process for everyone. She's lived longer than she wanted to, and she looks forward to the restfulness that she believes crossing over will bring her. Mom and dad live next door to her, and own both houses. Their plan is to sell both houses after Gram passes, and buy something small and low maintainence to live in for their remaining years (both are in their late 70's). Before Gram became incapacitated, dad kept both properties immaculate, with perfectly manicured lawns and impeccably maintained homes. Since then, there has been some unavoidable neglect, and they want Brian to do quite a lot of work getting the houses spiffed back up to sell. Work work work.

The bank account is looking better. Although the wolves are at the door, it looks like if we can just hang in there through the rest of this month we'll be back on solid ground. We fortutiously got some unexpected help with our gas and electric bills, which took some pressure off the scraping-the-bottom-of-the-barrel budget this month. Maybe even allowing enough wiggle room to get our car and truck tags/taxes paid before they are due the last day of the month!

Finally I've found a constructive way to spend some of this completely boring and wasted time at my full time job (with no customers and nothing to do). I think I'll be blogging a LOT. Oh, and speaking of the nowhere-job... a couple of maybe/possibly/keep-my-fingers-crossed options have crossed my path this week opening up other opportunities. Maybe they will lead to a better job, or maybe they'll just be networking contacts for future endeavors. Positive momentum, none the less.

Life is good. At least for this very moment it is.