Yeah, It's Still a Money Pit

Ugh. This is turning into a diary of sorts. And that's exactly what I wanted to avoid. Oh well. There's some funny parts here and the details are fresh. May as well go with it. Sigh.

Wednesday
Shawn showered in the morning after I'd left for work. There was no hot water. I showered immediately after getting home. There was no hot water. Shawn came home a little early from his job and fixed the water heater.

Thursday
It was our 5th wedding anniversary. I was sorting clothes in the back to get them ready to put into the dry cleaning machine when I go paged, "Misty to the front please; you have a phone call."

Uh oh. No one ever calls me at work unless something's wrong. This can't be good, I tell myself. I go up front and I'm it's Shawn. "Uh oh," I say out loud. The truck won't start, someone's in the ER, something's broken...?

Shawn said that there was no hot water this morning. He checked the breaker box to make sure a breaker hadn't been tripped. The entire box was totally hot to the touch and making a crackling noise. 2 breakers had been tripped and the rest were hot to the touch. He shut off the power to the house and called work to say he had to fix it or the house would burn down. He said he'd be up to my work in a few minuets to get some money.

I gave him all the money I had in my purse and wrote him a check to cash in case he needed it. After Shawn left, I realized I had given him all my grocery money. I had forty dollars left in my checking account. I had to get gas at $2.52 a gallon, cigarettes, and a week's worth of groceries.

A coworker, Mike, asked me if me and Shawn were going to the festival this weekend. (there's a huge festival celebrating the city's 125 years. It's taking up several blocks down town)

I thought about it. I just gave Shawn all my grocery money, so um... No.

I got $60 out of savings and spent $58.66 on groceries. I was quite proud of myself and the tiny calculator I carried around the store!

Shawn rewired everything going into the box, into a new box with brand new breakers. He said it was so messed up in there that he just ripped it all out and started fresh. I figured that someone at sometime was trying to save money by not hiring an electrician and doing it themselves. Apparently, this person didn't know what he was doing. There's a lot of that around the house and we discover more and more each year.

I told Shawn That the person who did the breaker box was probably the same that built his mother's house. A cabinet maker built the house that me mother-in-law bought years ago when Frank (Shawn's dad) was still alive and Shawn was still young. He was a very good cabinet maker. But he ain't no house builder. That's pretty evident from the faulty foundation up through the roof.

Satisfied with his work, Shawn and I sat down to watch Survivor. It's a rare moment that we spend every week watching the hour long show and spending some quality time together. The weather man actually interrupted the show to tell us, "Well, it's raining over here, and over there, but we might get some rain..."

Hey! Here's a News Flash for ya! Sometimes it RAINS! I know this is Texas and we all sort of freak out when that wet stuff starts falling from the sky, but come on, it's Survivor!!

The sky did look a bit erie and I commented to Shawn, "You know, it would figure that we saved the house from burning down and a tornado comes and blows it over!"

Of course, earlier that morning I was figuring maybe that be best anyway. Grab the dog and the bird and a few sentimental items and just let it burn down. Maybe the insurance company would build us a new house with no problems built in.

It actually wasn't too bad. Shawn spent about $100 and still needs to spend another $25 so he can hook up his welder in the garage. He even won a $10 gift card at Lowe's. It should be here in 6 to 8 weeks. He's not welding anytime so anyway.

Well, happy anniversary to us.