Hoop Jumping and the Lion’s Den

         It’s been just over a year that I had made the decision to cut expenses and find less costly alternatives to the essentials and just do without wasn’t necessary.  Pulling the plug on the entertainment system did not set well with Richard who decided he would find another job.  Everybody seems to be screaming for employees and yet finding a job has been rather challenging. Thus we have been living on Richard's social security for a year plus equity (that was his alternative) and when school let out he decided he would go back to work as a substitute teacher. 

        He jumped so many hoops to get there.  When we went out of town during Labor Day weekend it was still unclear if he’d be working.  But every weekday we were gone Richards phone went off with job offers (or at least one job offer) within the surrounding school districts which he was unable to accept until this morning.  Though the message said to report at the school at 7:30, the message was not received until 7:40.  I told him not to worry about the time.  If he showed up even two hours late, the school would be happy to have him that they would not hold it against him.

        This morning he left for his first assignment in a neighboring district – about a 20 minute drive.  I personally preferred accepting assignments over Frontier and please don’t bother me with the phone.  But of course Richard and I are opposite and he prefers the phone and has no idea how to get into Frontline (at least that’s what it was prior to the pandemic; I don’t know if the districts still use Frontline?)  He will be subbing for a 5^th grade class. 

        And I am at home left alone with my thoughts and two rooms that need attention.  A sink full of dishes and a bunch of other projects that I should probably be doing rather than creating a post.  But it has been over a week. And I do have many posts inside of me, but thus far don’t seem willing to come out.  I haven’t felt well and have been so tired.  Perhaps now that the weather seems to be cooling down (at least currently in my neck of the woods) that will change and I will wake up refreshed and ready to go.

          I hope Richard encounters a positive experience today.

Good-bye Family, Hello Back Room

         As I had mentioned in prior posts we had wanted to redo our flooring and add a back room to the house.  Roland had taken time off work the last week of April as we believed that when the floors would be done.  That was the initial plan.  However the product we ordered had to be shipped – which added nearly another month before the floors were started.

Unfortunately it hasn’t been finished.  I don’t know if the error was with shipping product or inaccurate measuring so the correct amount of product had not been ordered to begin with or what exactly happened.  But we are still waiting for flooring.  The kitchen isn’t finished and the bathrooms have not been started.  The bathrooms were what I had been concerned about the most – particularly the master bathroom which I know has water damage.

We had hired someone local out of Winston.  I was impressed with him and do like his work.  Roland seems to want to sue as he is in breach of contract that Roland was insistent that be drawn up. True, the floor hasn’t been completed but we have not paid the full amount of cost so what exactly are we suing for?  So this guy will return to complete the job and may not be friendly toward us because we took him to court?  I don’t want to take him to court.

We’ve prayed and will continue praying about our decisions.  Meanwhile we have been told that he will be back in July to finish our floors at no additional cost for the material.  And now that Randy and his clan have gone back to their house in Utah, another individual has shown up to start on our back room which we could have used last week while the family was here so that they would have a bit more room and Jenna would have been able to use her room.

I felt bad that we were not able to give them their own room as they had for us when we had gone to New York.  We all had more space to move around in.  But then again their entire house was at least 3 to 5 times bigger than ours.  I don’t know what the size of their current house is.  I do know Randy wants us to visit.  But I suspect it will be a while.  We spent quite a bit during their stay and now the back room.  I really don’t like borrowing money but at the same time have wanted new flooring and a back room since we moved in over five years ago.

So that’s today’s post.  Worth the wait, right?