Contemplating/Thinking/Gears Turning

First off, Bobby's suggestion was excellent. I hadn't thought of it and I'm not sure I would have. Thank you, Bobby! I don't know how much more I will get on my paychecks for lessor taxes being taken out, but at this point, every penny is going to count.

Now then, the options.
A lot of this is ugly.
1. Move out of my master bedroom, rent it out at $500 per month. I would be living in Caleb's room - who would have to decide whether he would still want to come over or not.
2. Bankruptcy. Last case scenario. Only way I would do that is if creditors were garnishing my wages. I will fight and claw to keep away from doing that - it's a LONG time before that stuff goes away. In fact, April (last month) is the 10-year mark for the first and hopefully only bankruptcy I have gone through.
3. Lose the car. $223 per month payment. I don't think that's a great idea. They take the car, sell it at auction and then come after you for the difference.
4. Part time job. I tried for a while a few months ago to find something, never panned out. Might try again anyway.
5. New full-time job. Good luck. Obviously the market is over-saturated with millions of qualified workers (nation-wide of course) - all looking for work.
6. Begging. My mother wouldn't help me if it meant my life, my dad, however, is a very giving man. I can't really think about taking advantage of him, so I won't. He sends me a $100 per month check to help out - I'll take that and be very happy with it.
7. Cut expenses at the house. Yes, I can still do more of that around here. Computers shut off when not in use. Ceiling fans the same. Until 10 minutes ago, I was leaving the AC fan on 24 hours a day. It's just a fan, but - it's costing electricity. I already tried to find a T at Lowe's for drying laundry today, no-go there. The man suggested Ace Hardware, be giving them a call in a little bit. Finish the trellis project - it will save on cooling by keeping the sun off the house on the southern side. Amazingly, Mary actually suggested asking each tenant for an extra $20-$25 per month for summer month electicity - as long as it is across the board. I think the newest tenant might consent, I don't know about Ken. His finances are already screwed.
8. Ride a bike to work. I'm not sure I can deal with that, either. I don't have a bike, first off and then - it's 13 miles each way. Going to work would be okay, coming home in the hot sun - not very much fun. It would save, obviously, on fuel expenses.
9. Another 401k loan. I'm $138 away from being able to secure another 401k loan. I was hoping to stay away from it, though, and have the bi-weekly payment money available for use. It's a total of $54 a month that I'm paying on that loan. Obviously, I WILL do it if I have to. I could get around a 2k loan when this loan is paid off. The amount is actually going up as the stock market has been rebounding and my 401k account has rebounded right along with it.
10. Get rid of the dogs. In a pig's eye. When freakin' hell freezes over. Stuff like that. I don't CARE what anyone thinks, losing my dogs to me would be like losing a part of my family. Coco would end up in a pound and would end up dead - she was handed around to fully FOUR families before I got her. The Danes - might be able to find a place for them. The Rat Terrier - eats so little food that if he were the only dog here, I would just feed him table scraps and that would be enough. I'll be getting kicked out of my house in foreclosure before I get rid of my dogs, that's how much they mean to me. For the naysayers - keep it to yourself, I don't even want to hear about it - I really DON'T. There are some things in life that a person must and should take a stand for. Dogs - are not life and death material, of course, but I am facing a huge void of nothingness in my life. I already do very little in terms of entertainment that costs anything. My house is my life - so to speak - at this point in time, though I don't want to confuse that with the Lord - who really IS my life - always has been and always will be. I could go on about the dogs, but I feel no need to "defend myself" about my desire to keep them, so I won't.
11. Get rid of DirecTV and Internet. Tenants are my lifeline, certainly now. Make tenants unhappy, they go away. 2 tenants use the internet to the extreme. 2 tenants watch DirecTV to the extreme - 3 tenants, 2 mixes. Turning it off would mean their departure, I'm sure of it. In fact, I'm positive of it. I wouldn't be able to attract anyone here for the money I'm asking, it's just out of the question. For the sake of the argument, I watch very little TV so it would barely affect me to get rid of DirectTV - I do spend ample amounts of time on the internet, but I could get used to dial-up again for $10 per month and be done with it. That's my case for those that would think I want to keep it for myself. I am floating around the idea of decreasing DirecTV service, though, to fewer channels, I am going to ask everyone what channels they are watching and see if a decrease would affect each person or not.


I could come up with more, maybe. Maybe not. Attacking the electric consumption around here will definitely be worth the effort in savings.


I am concerned about my current financial status as has been handed to me today. Yes, I am.
To be quite honest, I would definitely rent out my bedroom to save my house. To lose this house would mean losing any opportunity to have my own home for a long, long time. Throw money away to rent every month. Living in apartments with people making noises and complaining and whining about everything. No dogs or a very limited list of dogs you can have. No diss on anyone that reads this journal - but apartment living is a total NUISANCE. I HATE it.

Umm, well that's enough for now.

I must do something at this point to take my mind off of all of this.

ben

Bad News

My company - at our AZ branches anyways - just made a major announcement that is going affect me severely: "Reduced Schedules". Starting today, I am facing another $460 per month loss in wages.
They are taking away 5 hours per week from all hourly associates.

I have no idea how I am going to jump over this hurdle and land on my feet.

My mind, after reading this email sent out to everyone, immediately went into survival mode.

I have no clue.

I have cut most things out of my life that can be cut.

Lose the car?
Go bankrupt?
I'll do anything to save my house. Everything else can go to the pot.

I even had this idea from a few months ago of renting out my master bedroom and moving in with my son in his rather small bedroom.

He would hate it. I wouldn't much care for it either, but - again - when it comes to survival, I am willing to do things that many people are not. My son - could stay at his mother's if he didn't like it. I suppose he could just sleep out on the couch in the living room as well - he likes doing that anyway.

I have very few options at this point. Having 3 tenants from this point forth is a given. Until this thing clears up, anyway.

I am not defeated, gloomy or depressed. Survival mode doesn't do that to me, it makes me much more sharper focused, actually. This kind of news DOES have it's effects on me, there is no doubt. Give me a few days or a week or so and I will adjust to it, today? I'm just going to be in automatic mode.

There are no jobs out there to be had - in thinking of getting a second, part-time job, a thing I already tried to acquire a while back and got nothing but a bite from the Phoenix Zoo for a $7.25 per hour job. I'm thinking I could do pizza delivery for awhile - if even that stuff is doing anything right now.

I have a lot to think about.

Hope you all have a great day - I'm not sure how mine's going to go after this.
ben

The Zoo

Edited:
The photos are not showing up right on my blog. If there is a photo of interest to you, simply click on the photo itself and the full photo will show. Not sure how to fix that problem - maybe try using a lessor setting on the camera.

I really haven't been around a 6 year old for quite a while - at least not in terms of spending any time with a kid that age, so - the trip to the zoo was actually a pleasant experience. Mostly because it's not my kid, lol. I don't have to deal with the issues, just be around for entertainment purposes and that's that.

Mimi - the newest tenant - has her 6 year old grandson over here on the weekends frequently. Pretty well-behaved boy so no issues there, I was invited to go with them to the zoo. Since I hadn't been in ages, I decided to go. I did, of course, take pics. The zoo has not changed remarkably for the decade plus since I've been there, but - it is fun to go see the pythons, exotic birds, lions/tiger/jaguars/cheetahs/elephants and everything else.

Oh, the pics. Well, I haven't posted any in a long time, so - here goes, sorry for the inconvenience, lol.



That's Damien doing the camel ride. He's the grandson of my newest tenant. The ride? $5 for about - 2 minutes.



Giraffes are our friends.



Yup, that's a sheep thing up there on top of that rock. I would have loved to see HOW it got up there.


Easily viewable is the lion laying in the shade. No so easily seen is the male lion behind the log, just on the other side of the female. He's visible, barely.



An otter lazing in the shade. I was amazed at the up-close view of the fur - looks very soft and elegant. 2 other otters were going crazy in the pool playing with each other.



I'm sorry, but that is one UGLY creature right there. Still interesting to watch all of them. Oh, it's a warthog for those that don't know.



Baboon. The dominant male? Next photo.........



This guy was clearly the dominate male of this "troop". Very fascinating to watch these creatures for some length of time in how they interacted with each other.


This was the best shot of these 2, of which you can only see one in the photo. Cheetas. We must have caught a bad part of the day - most of these animules were laying around. I had thoughts though, that they had the better idea, as I did the same thing these 2 were doing when I got home - took a nice nap : )



Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, unfortunately for me, I found these birds to be about as ugly as vultures. Lol.





The bears had a huge exhibit, which took quite some time to get around. There were 2 of them and they were both hiding. We had been looking a good 20 minutes for these peoples before this one appeared. This was all the way around and at the end of their "cage". I have run into these bears numerous times in the wild - tend to give bears, even smaller ones - wide berth.



Damien again on top of an - obviously fake frog.

Okay, well it was cool and it was the right time to go - in a month that place is going to be hell. They have evaporative coolers set up in most of those exhibits for the animals to keep cool in, plus pools of cool water for those that need it such as the elephants. Hmmmmm, what happened to my elephant photos? OH, no photo, a video! Which I have not uploaded to YouTube yet, so I can't do that right now.

As for the rest of it? I took a video today of the trailer trash next door with all their weeds and grass that grows, uncurtailed and comes to my yard. Showed the garbage laying around along with extensive outdoor storage.

Prince sliced one of his paws on something, slice it good. We figured out what he probably sliced it on and took care of that situation. I have him on antibiotics because it is a pretty good gash. It isn't bleeding, but I am taking no chances with that.

Duke apparently antagonized Prince yet again, which mostly has died down in recent months, but his ear was bitten pretty good. I am not fan of my dogs fighting each other, but Prince finally got Duke back. I hope that Duke will somehow remember this in his rather empty skull and not start crap with him again. Anyway, the ear started smelling like rotten cheese - a clear sign of infection, so I started him on antibiotics as well today, and went ahead and ordered more of the stuff online because between the 2 of them, the bottle I have will be gone in about 8 days. They put Prince on the stuff for 2 weeks last time I had him on antibiotics when he got his tail caught in the fence and ripped it open, so I am going to keep them on the stuff for that length of time.

Ummmm, make that 7 days. The new bottle should be here in 3 days, so no problem there.

This weekend is history. I have to be at a jobsite by 6:30 am tomorrow. I won't have to get up any earlier than I usually do - I loaded the truck Friday and strapped it, it's ready to go. I get to work about 25 minutes early before I even sign in. I will get there at my normal time tomorrow and sign in upon arrival, get my paperwork ready, and be ready to leave by 6:00 am. Meaning the boss has to be there by 6:00 am for my departure. That's upon his desire to have the store opened at it's normal time, even though it's been quite a while since anyone has come in that early.

The jobsite is not even a 30 minute drive from the shop, so I will be good as long as the boss shows up on-time - which I have no doubts he will.

Anyway, it was a nice day and I spent it with quality people.
Hope yours was good as well.
ben