Saturday, November 12, 2011

Two paychecks from being homeless

It has been a while since I posted anything. There were a couple of things I wanted to write about that turned out to be very long projects, and somehow, I just never got around to writing them. And then I missed blogging about a couple of trips I took (and a few trips that I wanted to go on but missed). And then there were a few more things that I meant to write but somehow didn't.

I guess this just isn't my routine anymore. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and actually have something to do. Or, sometimes, I manage to get back to sleep for another hour or so. Or, maybe, I wake up early and watch whatever it was that I missed on TV the night before.

Mostly, not being obsessed with the blog is a good thing. Last month I actually had time to both get the house clean before the bug guy came and put up about half of the Halloween stuff. And I wasn't even home all of the time, having gone on a trip to middle of nowhere Texas and attempted to go to the Texas Renaissance Festival.

Still, I have forgotten to blog about a few things, and I regret that. It's good that right now I don't feel the need to bitch about every little thing that happens to me, but I like to look back and see what I did the year before and other things that I would like to look up, but I can't do that now, cause I didn't bother to write anything down.

Okay, so the big thing that I have to write down now is not our little trip to Houston, but I will talk about that for a bit. Earlier there was a planned trip to Houston, which was scheduled and then unscheduled and then rescheduled, but I got sick and didn't get to go. I really wanted to go. We had paid for a room in Webster, a bit south of Houston, about half an hours drive from Galveston, and if I had gone there would have been many trips to the beach and probably long soaks in a hot tub. But I didn't get to go then, and this trip didn't seem to be as good, being on the north side of Houston and much to far away for morning trips to the beach. But we could at least spend Sunday afternoon in Galveston, and I always have this thought that I shouldn't turn down any trips to places I like, no matter how dull I expect most of the trip to be, it might be my last chance to go for a while.

And I think maybe this is it, no more trips, even mostly boring ones.

The big news this week is that the company my husband works for was bought by another company. The second company is one that my husband has worked for before, two or three times, so we already know what to expect. More work, less pay, and no insurance.

The holiday season is already a tough time for us, not only because of the extra expenses that most people have, but also because of the expected two or three weeks off with no pay. But most years we have thought that if we didn't do anything too stupid that it would all be okay again by February. This year we don't think that it will all be okay again, and that if he even still has a job it will be with a much smaller paycheck.

So half of the time my husband talks of gloom and doom, and half the time he acts as if things are really good, and we go out and spend too much on lunch. I rather think that we should start getting used to peanut butter sandwiches, but I don't argue with him, and we go out and eat seafood or barbecue instead.

The new company is saying that no one should worry, and that there will be no major changes until 2012.

Like we can't all look at the calendar and figure out how soon 2012 will be here.

So I don't know what we are going to do. It will be a while before we learn anything useful.

A few weeks ago I was happy that we had been able to pay off one of the cars a few months early. And then we had to pay for some car repairs. And now this.

3 comments:

silly rabbit said...

First off, it's great to read here again! I've missed your posts. But I understand that people have lives and I see nothing wrong with not posting unless you are into it. I am glad you were busy and happy.

Ugh. New/old company buying out his job. I'm very sorry to hear that news. When Randy was laid off last year and I was not working, we were pitched into lean times and no insurance too.

On the one hand, its good to get out and do something nice for yourself but I understand your hesitation on spending money. You just don't know with changes like this. Its scary. Do you think its your husbands way of reassuring himself and you that things will be fine? That's such a roller coaster for both of you.
Randy has only been working again for about a month and a half now. We're still living out of the freezer and on PB&J and will be for awhile yet. We used up most of our savings and aren't sure if this is temporary or not.
I can sympathize. Good luck. I'll keep positive thoughts for you.
Glad to have you back here again.

dmarks said...

And it's great that you have one of the cars paid off, and the other repaired so hopefully it will keep running for a while and not give trouble.

John Myste said...

I was reprimanded a few for saying that I thought my company was planning to close my branch. I was told that there are no such plans and I am rabble rousing. A few months later the announcement was made. The company I worked for before that, also assured us it had no plans of closing, mere months before the announcement was made.

Good luck.