I want my house back

My oldest son who will be 57 on Christmas day has been living with me since June of 2014. He was having a difficult time in Colorado and I offered to give him a place to live. He finally had no choice but to accept my offer. It was a temporary offer that I did not mean to be for the rest of his life! Apparently I didn't make that clear because he is sill here and is having trouble remembering that this is my house not his, although he and my youngest grandson will inherit it someday.

He moved in with a truck load of stuff that was important to him. He took over my 20' by 20' addition, my guest bedroom and the guest bathroom. He also has his extras stored wall to wall in my large shed, making it useless to me and my needs. For all this space he is only giving me $300 month. I dare him to find a deal like that anywhere else.

In addition to the space he also has free use of my washer and dryer and enjoys dinner every night when he comes home from work, before he vanishes into his large computer room. A meaningful conversation consisting of more than a few words from him would be totally out of character.

Although he has had several raises at work he does not offer an increase in what he is giving me. When I mentioned that fact his response was, "do you work there?"

I have reminded him that all of my utilities have gone up since he moved in. And even though he does buy and cook some things over the weekends, so has my grocery bill. In his favor he does do some yard work etc.when the mood strikes him. 

Last night he mentioned that the faucet in his bathtub had been dripping for a few days. I asked why he hadn't told me sooner. His response was, "Then you would have had a bill for the plumber". He said he was planning to take care of it today. Hold on because the end of this one sided story is coming up!

When I checked things out I saw it wasn't a drip, the water was coming out in a steady stream. To make a long story short he went to the store to get some tools, attempted to fix the problem, made it worse and finally admitted it was beyond his ability. Really?! The end of that story is I have a call into my faithful plumber who always comes to my rescue, but since it is Sunday that won't be until Monday at least, which leaves us with no water for the rest of the day.

I woke up this morning already having a silent conversation with God and his angels about my situation. I don't want to make my son angry; after all he is the only one of my three adult children who even knows I exist. If the powers that be would find him a great job, let's say in Albuquerque, and he moved himself and all his belongings there wow I could get my house back.

Ethics

My biggest pet peeve is not keeping your word. If you say you are going to do something- do it! Most of the last week has been spent waiting for a repairman to come and finish a job he started. I don't have a problem with his work but his ethics stink. If he ever finishes the job I have already paid him to do I'm not sure I will ever call him again. It isn't worth the stress of waiting and waiting and his excuses. The man also gets paid in cash because he claims to not have a bank account. I have yet to get a receipt for any supplies I have paid for. Could be more than ethics going on here!! Perhaps the State would like to know that Joe Eylicio works under the table.

Years ago a woman who doesn't even like me gave me the biggest compliment I have ever had. It pretty much sums up my life. She said, "You can always be counted on to keep your word. Even if later you change your mind, you always do what you said you would do."

Apparently age doesn't have anything to do with keeping your word. At the moment I am also very disappointed with a young man who promised to do some yard work for me. I intended to pay him, but so far he hasn't even bothered to contact me. It isn't the first time this has happened so apparently he has been brought up to believe keeping his word doesn't matter. It's a shame because he is a really good kid.

So this is what has occupied my time for the last week or two. I've been busy dealing with the ethics of other people. Yuck!

Charity or simply begging?

In the last few months Go Fund Me has become very popular on Facebook. I know it was originally set up to help people with such things as medical expenses they could not handle. I have donated to accounts for friends in such circumstances. Living on social security I know that sometimes overwhelming things happen. I do not have a problem with the basic reason this organization was started, but I believe it has reached a ridicules level and is in danger of simply amounting to begging.

A little while ago a male Facebook friend of mine announced that he had just finished and is in the process of publishing a children's book. This person is also a talented fine art artist who sells some of his creations for several hundred dollars. In addition to that income he is a life coach and a retired minister. Oh and he also has close to 5,000 FB friends. Pondering how he is going to promote/sell his book, one of his friends suggested a Go Fund Me account to help with expenses. He responded, "That's the best idea yet."

My response to his response was, "What the hell!" Until I read that I had a great deal of respect for the man. Now I am close to deleting him as a friend.  Apparently he is not who I thought he was.

Granted his book could help children of all ages deal with fear, but expecting other people to pay for it is ridicules, in my opinion. I finished my book, Journey of an Enlightened Egotist, in 2010 and I am sure it could help a great deal of people. So far it is unpublished in the normal manner due to a lack of money. There is no way that I would expect my friends to dip into their pockets to pay for publishing and promotion. I would rather give it away, which I have done many times.

My question still hangs out there, is Go Fund Me charity or simply begging?

Procrastination

Procrastination: a verb meaning to postpone or delay needlessly.

When a procrastinator is matched with a deterministic go getter the outcome is bound to cause angry vibes, which is pretty much what is going on in my house at the moment. My adult son is definitely a practiced procrastinator and it is driving me crazy.

Just for fun I googled the word and this is what I came up with. Popular synonyms are:protractis, defer, draw out, elongate, extend, prolong and I love this one, shilly shally.

When I start a project I expect to finish it in a reasonable length of time. I don't understand starting and stopping and never finishing. What's worse is not even feeling guilty.

Oh well everyone has their own road to travel and I am very happy mine is not procrastination.

 

One thing leads to another

This has been a crazy week and it's only Wednesday!

First the check engine light decided to go on in my car. Great here we go again! Monday morning I took the car to my new trusted mechanic business, not far from my house. After checking things out I was told it needed a fuel injector. This was probably the problem all the time, as it was intermittent.  I was then  told to bring the car back Tuesday morning for installation of the part, which I did. The person who owns this business has been a neighbor since 1980 and I was not aware it was his business until recently. I am extremely happy to have someone to depend on.

This person also has several houses that he refurbishes and rents. I have been in need of a repairman to take care of some problems so I asked for the name of someone who could help. As it turned out the person he recommended was standing a few feet from me. It is someone who has worked for him for fifteen years. We exchanged info and I waited for my car to be ready. It now runs great thank you very much.

Yesterday afternoon, Joe, the repairman stopped by my house to see what I needed. My most urgent need was a  roof problem which was causing a nasty problem with a small area in the guest bathroom ceiling. I hadn't expected him to do more than check it out, but he went right to work and within less than an hour the problem was no more. Good thing too because about five minutes after he finished the rain came pouring down.

Joe promised to come back when he had time and check out my roof. It has always had a problem because an addition had been put on about thirty some years ago which left a dip that collects water. This morning Joe checked things out, made a phone call to price supplies and I am now waiting for him to come back and start the job. I am so grateful to find a repairman I can depend on. He works fast, knows what he is doing and is reasonable. You can't beat that

All this good stuff happened because of a little check engine light that wouldn't stay out.

Footprints

This morning I woke up a little nervous, but ready for a once in a lifetime task. It is the day I will spit in a tube and get it ready to return to Ancestry.com for my DNA results. Next I will have to wait 6-8 weeks to hear from them. Will the test confirm what I grew up believing or will it be something completely different? Only time will tell.

I was reminded this morning of a conversation I had years ago with my now deceased daughter-in-law. We were sitting in my kitchen when she announced out of the blue that when she was a teenager she found out the people she thought were her parents were actually her aunt and uncle. She said she had been devastated with the news at the time. I can only imagine how she felt. Wow what a blow!

The memory led me to ask myself what is a parent anyway? There is legal and there is biological. I'm not so sure that either title makes a parent.

My three adult children had two different fathers. One was a womanizing jerk and the other a workaholic/alcoholic. That didn't leave much time to be a father, except on paper. Both men are now deceased and life moves on.

What will be will be and what has been is no more, although it does leave footprints on the present.

P.S. I have to put a slightly funny spin on this post that tells me the DNA test is something I was supposed to do. I just finished reading a Kindle book titled, Spit of a Minute. Remembering that made me laugh this morning.

Reading the fine print pays

Yesterday I received my current bill from my internet/phone company, which is Century Link. I noticed that I was in the 11th  month of my current promotion plan. I have learned from experience to read the entire bill. So this morning I called my provider and asked if they had a new plan to replace the one that was about to expire.

I connected with a very nice service representative by the name of Sarah who checked things out. For the last year I hadn't used my land phone to make long distance calls because there was a charge for them. I keep a trac phone up to date, partly for that purpose. It is also nice to have for emergencies when I am away from home. There were many times I would have preferred to use my land phone for business calls because I have better reception, but I didn't.

So after Sarah did some research she came up with a new three year promotion plan with no contract which comes with free unlimited long distance. Alright I'll take that as it was only 10 cents more per month than my current plan and I didn't have to mess with it for three years. Sounds good to me.

My internet service with Century Link is just fine, except for those spam emails, which aren't their fault. I could change my email address I suppose, but that would create more problems with contacts than I am willing to deal with. So every morning I tune in to see what's what and like a wizard with a magic wand I delete all of them.

I learned some time ago to read the fine print on bills because it saves me money. I like the sound of that!