Feast or Famine
Seems it's always this way, that we run into a few money woes which then get followed by even more money woes. My pay at work dropped substantially right at the time we needed to start making some big payments to various government entities. We looked at the budget and decided we could do it - it would be tight, but we could do it. Then my pay dropped even more and unfortunately that's left no room for extras like Rob's needed visit to a dentist next week. Then tonight, the brakes on my car started making a noise that makes any former high-school street racer mechanic like me cringe. No way I'm driving that thing an inch further until I can take a look at it. Rob and I will have to do some sort of half-carpool this week since I'm on one of the wackier schedules this go 'round. Tomorrow I work 8 to 5 so I can take him to work, but he'll have to find a way home. Then on Tuesday & Wednesday, I work 3 pm to midnight. So the plan is that he'll drive to work and then later in the day I'll catch a bus to where ever he is working (lets hope it's on the bus line) so I can take the car to work and get home again after midnight - once again, he'll have to find a way home himself. Taking the bus isn't an option with my schedule. It's not because the closest bus stop to work is a mile away - I would walk that if I had to, even in the pouring rain (inside joke - our employees that ride the bus or bike to work are notorious for calling in that they can't make it to work because it's raining.) Rather, it's that the buses don't run on a schedule that can get me to work on time if I'm working a 7 am to 4 pm shift and they don't run late enough to get me home if I'm working 1 pm to 9 pm or 3 pm to midnight. And cab fare both ways would cost me more than I earn in a day. It's a dilemma, but one that I'm hoping can be solved by me sitting in my driveway with a few tools and a bit of luck on my next day off. I haven't done a brake job in 20 years and certainly not on a newer model car (yes, I consider 1991 to be a "newer" model car) so there's no telling. But perhaps the fact that the heater under my desk which has been broken since last November just NOW magically started working when I bumped the switch a minute ago... well, maybe that's a good sign.