My life as a Dyson (it never stops sucking)
This is going to be a long message, because there's a lot of back story involved (that's what I get for not talking to anybody: when time comes to update you it takes forever), and I can't remember how much I have told you already. At that, I have edited out some of the more useless information I was going to add.
So I'm living in this nasty townhouse complex where Paul and I were hired to be the Supers, but the tenants didn't like the way we did things, so they pulled a coup and had us fired (the loonies run the asylum here). We've been living here until we find another place to move in, and since the whole mess with getting fired over Amy, we have no money coming in to speak of. We already told the Property Manager that we would be moving out by the end of the month, so we've used up our Last Month's Rent as of the 31st.
No money equals move to the only place available, Liz's old house on Carling in Toronto. We know that the place needs work, so Paul has been going in to Toronto to fix the dozen or so burst pipes which froze over the winter when the heat was turned off (Liz was having trouble with the boiler before she moved and it had been condemned -- is that the right word? Anyway, it's not usable and needs to be replaced). When we got the water pipes fixed, we found out there is a leak in the sewer pipe too, in the wall behind the kitchen, so I don't want the boys in there until it's fixed. Luckily, Paul is experienced with plumbing and electrical work, so he can do most (if not all) of the work himself.
We had also been checking out jobs available in Toronto, so to that end Paul answered an ad in Kijiji for a driver. The guy responded that he has clients coming in to Toronto on vacation, that we would be paid in advance by Money Order (we had asked him how they deal with non-paying customers and stopped-payment cheques), that they would be sent to us by mail. So the Money orders arrived, and Paul took them to the bank, where he was told that they were not signed and not cashable. He e-mailed the guy again to ask what to do with them, and the guy responded that all he had to do was to countersign them and take them to the bank or cheque-cashing place. Paul took them to a cheque-cashing store near the house, but it was after bank hours (duh! that's why he went there, not the bank!) and the clerk couldn't confirm them with the bank, so she didn't cash them. He went to the bank the next day (Tuesday this week), and guess what: turns out they were bogus money orders. So he was taken into police custody on suspected fraud charges, and when they confirmed his ID with Immigration, they found out that his VISA application had be denied last July. We hadn't heard anything about that, or you can believe we would have put in an appeal!!!!
He was released from Police custody, but because he's an Overstay in Canada he has been in an Immigration detention centre in Rexdale, and if I surrender his passport and $4000, he can get out on bail. And (see paragraph #2) I don't have $4000. I called the cottage to tell Mom the news and ask if she could help out, and after much soul-searching and talking to Tom, she decided she was not going to give us any money. She said that her reasons were thus: if she did, Paul might get out of detention and take off, or if he was deported I might run off to Australia and she'd never see the boys again. The Immigration lawyer that I talked to said that it was much better for Paul if he wasn't in detention, that they take longer to process things for non-detainees, and it would give me more time to file applications and appeals to keep him here. Paul has absolutely no wish to and no intentions of going anywhere without me and the boys. In fact, Tuesday was the first time since he came to Canada that we have spent the night apart..
The house I bought in Cambridge is being sold, the closing date is July 31st, and I have been assured that I will have a cheque in my hand that day. I don't know for how much, but if my math and memory are right, there should be some equity for Bruce and I to split, but that may be too late, Paul may have already been deported by then.
I feel so guilty: if I had done something differently, maybe I would still be carrying Amy, we wouldn't have been fired and would have had no need of a new job, so Paul wouldn't have had those damn Money Orders to take to the bank, so he would have finished the repair work on the house and we would have been able to get the hell out of this place.
My life sucks dead donkey right now, doesn't it?