Ugh

There is so much going on in addition to the sewage line. We are trying to organize that. It supposedly has been handed off to a company who has agreed to do the excavation for $6000. According to the city guy, the permits were being applied for. The city is also demanding the tenant has to move out, which she has flatly refused to do. We've offered her a hotel room. We've offered to allow her to come stay at our house. She and her little dog Shirley could be upstairs, and have their own bath. We are two blocks from her house, so she could run in and out between the two places, tending to her cats and her plants and whatever. She wants to stay right where she is at.

We have no time line and no firm commitments. 

I've received a response to an angle that I've been pursuing on my own, which is encouraging. 

In the meantime, a furnace went out in another unit. Tim hauled a ventless heater down to her, unhooked her dryer and set her up with heat for the night. That's fixed and back on line, and we can thank our lucky stars that it did not happen during the expected cold snap. Tim went back down and unhooked the heater, and hooked her dryer back up. 

Tim went down to work on his tractor. It won't start. Dead battery. Or maybe it was a starter. Who knew. But he got it started and buried some lines he's been worried about. 

On the way home, the rear brake caliper froze up on my car. He had that all ripped apart, the new part bought and put on in fairly short order. He got it before the rotor was damaged, thank goodness, because his car has been having transmission problems, and is parked right now while he decides whether it's worth fixing. 

My vote is no. 

 He doesn't disagree, but he wants to replace it. 

Again, my vote is no.

He has two pick up trucks (not to mention his dump truck). He counters that they use too much gas. I say he drives one of his trucks for short distances and if he has to go further, he drives my car. I'm putting my foot down on this one, because quite honestly, what is the point of having trucks and paying insurance if you are not going to drive them? 

Yesterday, I cashed out one of my 401k accounts to pay for all of this. We're hemorrhaging money at the moment and in the middle of a new build. We have lived debt free for over a decade, At our age, it's important to keep it that way, in my opinion, and while he agrees with this philosophy in principle, he has some strange ideas about cars. And trucks. And tractors. 

And I feel guilty about telling him he can't. I mean, let's face it, he's been working hard, and he's come through a hard time, and...and...

It's a bit overwhelming, and when it is overwhelming, I tend to be cranky. I'm trying to keep it to myself, and not doing a very good job of it at all. 

So.

Make me laugh. 

Jokes. 

Humor.

Go.