First day of winter.
I wrote an ad on Craigslist to get some help on the east side of my house - thought maybe someone could use earning a few bucks and I want to get it done.
The funny thing is the people that are "begging" for money on there that say they will do just about "anything" to raise some finances - you reply to THEM and they won't do ANYTHING. I got 2 whole replies on that ad. 1 from a person that doesn't speak English and another from a 14 year old kid.
Well, I opted for the kid. Sometimes they are hard workers - sometimes they aren't. I'm just not a big fan of people who live in the U.S. and don't bother to learn the language of the land which is why I did not opt for that other person. You would think Spanish is the language of the land around these parts. _____________________________________________________________
Scored. Got a worker, not some lazy @$$. Kid worked his butt off for 5-1/2 hours and then he wanted to go home. No problem and wasn't unhappy at all with paying him. He hauled a LOT of rock from one side of the house to the other while I was laying out the plastic and spreading the rock. Still a bit left to do, but he wants to come back tomorrow so I stopped with it. I don't really want to haul the rock anymore today, anyway, lol.
Took a nap.
Left. On the road. Christmas present bonanza. Gotta git -er done. I didn't want to be rushing around tomorrow trying to find stuff, do that today in case there are any problems. Got everything but the chair for Caleb. I did get his computer desk, though. I am not going to buy a new one and if I don't have it before Saturday, he isn't going to have a cow about it, I am waiting for "the deal". One guy wanted $95 for his used one - probably a $300 chair but I decided against it. $50 and no more.
This has been a LONG day. If I didn't have these days off work/vacation, I would be screwed. Well, this place wouldn't be anything like I want it to look, really. The hard work outside is beginning to pay off. It's starting to look really nice out there. I still have stuff to do in here, but Mark has been cranking away for days now. Cleaning the runner for the sliding glass door, scrubbing door framing and windows and all kinds of stuff.
I let one of those pond filters go WAY too long! I spent an hour or more cleaning it out this morning. There was so much fish waste in it, it was amazing. Makes nice plant fertilizer. But it's done and the other one was done yesterday so they are both pumping out high volumes of water. When they start to get clogged up, the water output goes down - and down - lol.
Well, I am off to finish the bathroom. Caleb waited until 3:00 pm to call me and tell me we need to go to the college today to make the payment. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. I was out and about, far from the college. I told him to go into my room, get my checkbook. So he did. But then I remembered that my dad sent him a letter that arrived today, I was hoping it was the check for school. Sure enough. So, I told Caleb to go cash the check if he could, but take my checkbook in case they wouldn't cash it.
So, he goes to the bank and deposits the check. Gag. Meaning, it won't show anything until after midnight. So he calls me up from the college and tells me the card had been declined. Lol. Yes, son, because you deposited the check, you didn't try to cash it. Oh well. I'm getting a lot of phone calls from him at this point. Finally, I get a call and they are now telling him the grant had already gone through, the money is available and the he doesn't have to pay ANYTHING. It's a Pell grant. It is paying for the entire school year plus his books.
But I made him do this alone. Yes, I got the phone calls, but I made him go in there and deal with this himself. He's 18, it's time to learn how to deal with life. This went on for a couple of hours, he called me after it was done. I asked him if it felt good that he was able to, basically, do this himself without either of his parents having to be there? Yes, indeed. So, he has dad's money if he needs it and he is getting a "refund" from the grant. Apparently they give you more money than you need to help pay personal expenses while going to school. Nice of them, I guess, but you know who is paying for all of that.
Later.
ben
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