Statistics

Nationwide, foreclosures were up nearly 80% last year. That's scary. In my state, one out of every 314 households had a foreclosure filing. In E's parents' subdivision more than 20 houses were in foreclosure last year.

The housing market has stagnated. You can't drive down a residential street in this city without seeing at least a few houses for sale. The prices keep dropping, but the houses still don't sell. And yet builders are still building new homes. They offer massive incentives to get buyers to buy their new properties, rather than older homes (Older is relative, in some cases the houses are less than a year old). But even new home sales have seriously slowed.

And now the government is talking about helping out. Of course, this being the government, they'll talk the subject to death, while people continue to lose their homes. Too little, too late.

My mortgage payment was almost twice what I'm now paying in rent. So why the hell would I buy again? Not here, anyway. We are talking about moving back east of the Mississippi, where the cost of living is lower and strangely enough, the wages are still comparable! What would it be like I wonder, to be paid the same amount I make now, and have a lot less in bills??

My kiddo asked if she could take gymnastics lessons. I had to say no (you know, that out of a job at the end of March thing). I want to be able to say yes someday....

Moving

Bear with me. I need to spend my spare time packing, rather than playing.

Catch y'all on the flip side.

Dammit

The Rat Bastards have done it again. Just after Christmas we were told that we'd find out more about how our unused vacation time would be dealt with before the end of the year. So on Tuesday since we'd heard nothing, (Surprise. Not. Typical company crap, blowing off people they think don't matter) I emailed the head of HR about it. All I asked was whether the days had been rolled over, or if I was going to be paid for them, soon.

My answer (which surprised the hell out of me given this woman's track record...) consisted of, "All non-exempt employees will be paid for time owed on this paycheck."

Ok. What's a non-exempt employee? Apparently not me, since after checking my bank this AM, I see that my check is for the 81 hours I worked this last pay period and not a penny more. If they had really paid me what I was owed, this check would have been double.

So today we shall try round two. Because quite frankly, I don't give a rat's arse about non-exempt employees. I made damned sure that the one part time employee I had that had paid time off coming to her got it before the end of the year. She's fine. But I want my fucking money or my vacation time.

We have to move by February 25th. That money would be most of our first month's rent. Or an anniversary gift, lol.

So like I said, Round Two begins today. This time I am emailing my former regional manager, the head of HR and the damned VP who is supposed to be acting as our Regional now. And I may get a bit snippy, lol.

It's over!

Yay! My last retail inventory! And they can all bite my arse from now on, lol.

We still have people trying to return non-returnable items. And I must say, I am incredibly tired of, "Are you closing?" "Where's the store moving to?" "When are you closing?" And my personal favourite, "What are you going to do now?" One of these days the answer to that question is just going to have to be, "Mind my own business..." I find a nice glass of wine at home in the evening works wonder for my outlook. Mostly.

The stupid vacuum at work clogged and we couldn't get it unclogged. Enter the Superman of vacs, my hubby. "Honey, will you come out and fix my vacuum tonight?"

"What's wrong with it?"

"It spits everything back out."

"You guys are morons. Yeah, I'll come fix it." Grumble, grumble.

But he did. Yay, Hubby! And we both decided since we were there, and neither of wanted to cook, that we needed to hit Carino's for dinner. Yum. Two entrees, all the soup, salad and bread you could want, plus a dessert to share, all for $19.95. Brilliant!

Hey! Guess what? I actually knit the other day!!! I knit on the way to Moab, I knit whilst stuck on I-70 on the way back from Moab. And tonight, I may just knit as well! I re-vamped the pattern for the D.D.'s scarf. Revamped for travel through beautiful scenery and a short attention span, lol. I'm going to knit for about 5 inches, then go to the heart pattern. Then knit until I get close to the end, throw another row of hearts in there, and knit for 5 more inches. By then I should have a decent scarf, lol. D.D. doesn't care, she just wants a pick scarf, lol.

I've decided I need to buy a cable needle and teach myself cables. I'm bored, y'all. Bored, but not ready to commit to my lace shawl. Lol. Cables are new. Cables open and entire new world to me ;) Some day, I may even get up the courage to knit the Rogue sweater that has been calling my name for years...

Anyway, off to eat chocolate cannoli. Ciao!

My faith in humanity

was sorely shaken today. Driving along I-70 just beyond Vail the roads got really crappy. Traffic slowed to a crawl. Eventually, traffic stopped and we lost all momentum. We spun and pushed our way to the side of the road and sat there, pretty shaky.

After trying several times we finally gave up and called for a tow. We needed to get to the pass, and we were never going to make it on our own. Meanwhile traffic was still crawling by us. No one even offered us a phone or asked if we were ok.

The screwy tow company went looking on the wrong side of the pass, so they never found us, but they sure managed to charge us $50 to look. Meanwhile, they closed the pass. Another tow company pulled up in front of us. By then a plow had been by and the road had been sanded. They got us back out in the best lane and sent us on our way.

For a while we did fine until we caught back up with traffic and it stopped. At that point we were slowly spinning and making a little headway. That's when a pick up truck pulled alongside us and told us to stop where we were. He pulled in in front of us and offered us a tow. CSP finally stopped around that point and the trooper was all for the tow as long as we got out of the road.

This wonderful man restored my faith in people. He towed us to the top of the pass, even stopping in a rest area so our daughter and I could use the facilities. From there we unhooked, since the worst was over. The roads were snow packed instead of pure ice. We had a few more moments on the way down, but we'd still be on I-70 now if it hadn't been for one very nice Fed Ex driver out to save a foolish family.

So if you happen to know a Fed Ex driver named Ray who was just heading home to his family in Denver over I-70 one snowy Saturday afternoon, pat him on the back and thank him for us. The family in the white Honda will be forever grateful.

Happy New Year

May it be a better year for all.

"JUST FOR TODAY: I will live through this day only. I will not brood about yesterday or obsess about tomorrow. I will not set far-reaching goals or try to overcome all of my problems at once.

I know that I can do something for 24 hours that would overwhelm me if I had to keep it up for a lifetime.

JUST FOR TODAY: I will be happy. I will not dwell on thoughts that depress me. If my mind fills with clouds, I will chase them away and fill it with sunshine.

JUST FOR TODAY: I will accept what is. I will face reality. I will correct those things I can correct and accept those I cannot." --Pauline Phillips, adapted from Al-Anon